Miller's Crossing

This script is almost too smart. Fifteen minutes in and you don't know who they're talking about anymore. (But that could be because Steve Buscemi can truly talk a mile a minute.) Halfway in, you should be having no problems. Essentially, this is a basic mob plot with Gabriel Byrne as the not-so-perfect guy stuck in the middle -- not quite a gangster, not a cop, just someone very smart who's losing what grip he had on life. As in all Coen Brothers films it is filled with scenes only there to be beautiful and/or funny and/or poignant. Those huge open rooms, which just scream "watch out!" The scene in which Albert Finney's character shoots the gangster from behind while "Danny Boy" is playing (actually, this entire scene rivals those from Scorsese or Coppola films). The hat motif, of course. Heck, the famous forest scene. It's worth it to watch the brothers (and Barry Sonnenfeld, he's no slouch either as DP) if only for how they can create a story we care about with characters we care about and still have time to be poets with the camera. I loved Raising Arizona, I loved Fargo, I really liked Blood Simple and I really liked Barton Fink (forget that I didn't care much for The Man Who Wasn't There or O Brother, Where Art Thou?). This film is on par with the first two. And I'll never forget John Turturro's DVD interview in which he compares acting to plumbing: "What if you go into a house and you can't find the leak? That's the challenge."

year: 1990
length: 115 min.
rating: 4.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100150/combined