Set in 2008 New Orleans during the GFC and presidential elections, Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is a mob enforcer sent in to investigate when some low-level crims, Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) under the instructions of Johnny (Vincent Curatola) rob a mob-protected high-stakes poker game run by Markie (Ray Liotta).
Using the pot-luck that is the *sneak preview* (you get a watch a movie that has yet to be released - but you don't know what you'll be seeing), Ele, Ruben, and I ended up seeing Killing them Softly, the new movie by Andrew Dominik (of Chopper fame). After a slow and somewhat confusing start - seriously, I had a degree of *Who are these people? Why are they doing this?* going through my head - KTS really kicks in once Brad Pitt hits the screen.
And I'm not a huge Pitt fan but his acting in this film is great because while he is a hitman, much of the film and it's tension is derived from him in conversation with associates and the people he's after, as he goes about trying to solve who was responsible for the robbery and his feelings about the task in general. I was also impressed with his closing soliloquy about the nature of living in the States. We often hear Americans wax lyrical about the US being the land of opportunity while ignoring the degree of social inequality (we're talking about a country where some people consider universal healthcare *Communist*), so drawing the parallel between what Cogan does, Obama's speech upon winning the election, and the nature of capitalist societies was interesting.
I do have a number of criticisms other than the slow start. Firstly, the entire movie is shot beautifully but the scenes of violence, while not of a particularly high frequency given the nature of the movie, sometimes felt overextended and glorifying in watching someone's face mangled by a bullet or fist. Secondly, James Gandolfini's character as a hitman associate of Cogan's seems purely to have them converse about sex and to introduce the sole female person in the film (a hooker). A completely useless character and waste of time.
Interesting, good build up after a slow start. Not sure I'd see it if I didn't have the sneak preview though.
6-7/10
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