Three recent Netflix rentals.
The Silent Partner (1978): Nebbish bank teller Miles Cullen (seventies oddball icon Elliott Gould) doesn't have much of a life. Julie (Susannah York), the co-worker he has a crush on, is having an affair with the boss, who doesn't think much of Miles. His main interest in life seems to be tropical fish. On a piece of carbon paper, he discovers a holdup note, though no holdup has occurred. The next day, he sees the same handwriting on a sign by a mall Santa Claus, and later, just as a big client makes a daily deposit, Santa enters the bank. The holdup doesn't happen, but Miles makes plan, and when it does happen, he takes advantage. His life begins to change for good, as he becomes more confident, and bad as the robber (Christopher Plummer) comes looking for him. At cat-and-mouse game begins.
The Silent Partner is one of those cool, understated, character-driven crime movies they don't make very often anymore. It has thrills, a little sex, some devastating violence, and a basic need people can recognize, even if they wouldn't go so far -- the need for a better life. Gould gives a subtle performance. Even as he changes, you can still see the dork he used to be behind the mask of confidence -- a little like Greetings and Salutations George Costanza, only less broad. Plummer, on the other hand, has the showy role, and he digs in, playing the sadistic Harry as cunning, vile, and occasionally effeminate, and his disguise in the movie's climax is both creepy and hysterical. This all takes place in Toronto, and something about that slightly different locale gives the movie another layer of interest. I have quibbles with the ending, but The Silent Partner still made me wish for movies like this.
Brick (2005): Writer/director Rian Johnson's debut film brings the hard-boiled detective story of yore into the 21st Century via high school. That could be a gimmick, but in Brick, it works. First, everyone plays it straight, helping the audience believe in this alternate version of reality. Second, it gives the movie a distinctive locale and look. Joseph Gordon-Levitt tosses aside his years of scenery chewing on 3rd Rock From the Son to give a quietly intense performance as Brendan, an outsider looking to help his ex-girlfriend. Soon he finds himself deep in the world of his California town's drug trade, run by the mysterious Pin (a few years out of high school) and his crew of teenagers.
Brick contains the basic elements of this genre: dangerous dames, fisticuffs, a dicey relationship with a cop (in this case Richard Roundtree as a vice-principal), a dense plot. Thankfully, it has interesting characters, too, and Brendan has plenty of secrets and internal turmoil of his own. Johnson also uses highly stylized dialogue, mixing older slang with newer and invented slang to create a different version of gumshoe speak. Again, the actors make it work by playing it straight, and though it takes time to adjust to as a viewer, in the end, the language works.
So do odd bits like another ex-girlfriend and high-school actress Brendan questions a number of times. Though the movie takes place over a few days, each time he meets her at the school theater, she seems to be in an entirely different production. This doesn't faze Brendan, and that only adds to the surreality of the scenes. Brick was made on quite a modest budget, but I like the way Johnson uses those constraints to create a style. For instance, in the many fight scenes, the camera often stays still while the fighters move in and out of frame with onlookers reacting to the violence. Once, it looks cheap. Two or three times, and it becomes interesting.
The Lookout (2007): Joseph Gordon-Levitt returns in this one, once again bringing quiet and composure that only heightens the occasional outburst. In screenwriter Scott Frank's (Dead Again, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Minority Report) directorial debut, Levitt plays Chris Pratt, a former high-school hockey star whose life was transformed by a car accident, which damaged part of his brain. Now he has trouble remembering basic tasks, works as a night cleaner at a bank, and lives with Lewis (Jeff Daniels), a blind man. As he says early in the movie, he wants to be who he was before. In comes Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode), who brings encouragement, good times, and a beautiful girl named Luvlee (Isla Fisher). He also brings a plan to rob Chris' bank.
The Lookout is exactly the kind of movie I wished they made more of after watching The Silent Partner. First, it has an engaging and unique character in Chris, and though it has all the trappings of a crime/heist/noir film, Chris stays at the center of the movie. As an audience, we can see him getting trapped, but we again also understand his basic but heightened desire -- to be more than he is. Though the movie moves at a deliberate pace, a sense of doom hangs over it because we know this kind of movie and because we care about Chris. As in Brick, Gordon-Levitt does the superb work he has to for the movie to work -- in both cases, he's in every scene.
In addition to Gordon-Levitt, Daniels and Goode give powerful performances. In the wrong hands, Lewis, who's kind of obnoxious, could have been a hammy character, but Daniels plays him with subtlety and a certain weariness that makes him believable. I especially enjoyed an early and crucial scene where Lewis eases Chris through remembering his day by looking at it as a story and looking at it backwards. Goode, who I only knew as the cuckold and prat in Match Point and didn't recognize at all, embodies Gary and his contradictions. He is at once charismatic, intelligent, philosophical, and completely amoral. He delivers long monologues as he seduces Chris, poking at his vulnerability, his wounded ego. The audience can see he's bad news, but we believe Chris can't, and we can understand that without the distance viewing provides we might be seduced by Gary, too.
Brick contains the basic elements of this genre: dangerous dames, fisticuffs, a dicey relationship with a cop (in this case Richard Roundtree as a vice-principal), a dense plot. Thankfully, it has interesting characters, too, and Brendan has plenty of secrets and internal turmoil of his own. Johnson also uses highly stylized dialogue, mixing older slang with newer and invented slang to create a different version of gumshoe speak. Again, the actors make it work by playing it straight, and though it takes time to adjust to as a viewer, in the end, the language works.
So do odd bits like another ex-girlfriend and high-school actress Brendan questions a number of times. Though the movie takes place over a few days, each time he meets her at the school theater, she seems to be in an entirely different production. This doesn't faze Brendan, and that only adds to the surreality of the scenes. Brick was made on quite a modest budget, but I like the way Johnson uses those constraints to create a style. For instance, in the many fight scenes, the camera often stays still while the fighters move in and out of frame with onlookers reacting to the violence. Once, it looks cheap. Two or three times, and it becomes interesting.
The Lookout (2007): Joseph Gordon-Levitt returns in this one, once again bringing quiet and composure that only heightens the occasional outburst. In screenwriter Scott Frank's (Dead Again, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Minority Report) directorial debut, Levitt plays Chris Pratt, a former high-school hockey star whose life was transformed by a car accident, which damaged part of his brain. Now he has trouble remembering basic tasks, works as a night cleaner at a bank, and lives with Lewis (Jeff Daniels), a blind man. As he says early in the movie, he wants to be who he was before. In comes Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode), who brings encouragement, good times, and a beautiful girl named Luvlee (Isla Fisher). He also brings a plan to rob Chris' bank.
The Lookout is exactly the kind of movie I wished they made more of after watching The Silent Partner. First, it has an engaging and unique character in Chris, and though it has all the trappings of a crime/heist/noir film, Chris stays at the center of the movie. As an audience, we can see him getting trapped, but we again also understand his basic but heightened desire -- to be more than he is. Though the movie moves at a deliberate pace, a sense of doom hangs over it because we know this kind of movie and because we care about Chris. As in Brick, Gordon-Levitt does the superb work he has to for the movie to work -- in both cases, he's in every scene.
In addition to Gordon-Levitt, Daniels and Goode give powerful performances. In the wrong hands, Lewis, who's kind of obnoxious, could have been a hammy character, but Daniels plays him with subtlety and a certain weariness that makes him believable. I especially enjoyed an early and crucial scene where Lewis eases Chris through remembering his day by looking at it as a story and looking at it backwards. Goode, who I only knew as the cuckold and prat in Match Point and didn't recognize at all, embodies Gary and his contradictions. He is at once charismatic, intelligent, philosophical, and completely amoral. He delivers long monologues as he seduces Chris, poking at his vulnerability, his wounded ego. The audience can see he's bad news, but we believe Chris can't, and we can understand that without the distance viewing provides we might be seduced by Gary, too.
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