Killing Them Softly (2012)
“I Like to Make Things Easy on People.”
Remember that movie where Brad Pitt plays that hitman who targets Ray Liotta (GoodFellas)? You know…the one with James Gandolfini (Sopranos) as the other killer for hire? Come on! Sam Shepard was in it…
No?
Neither did we.
Killing Them Softly doesn’t sound like a likely candidate for a Saturday Night Drive-In review. There are - Spoiler - no cannibals, kung fu fighters, or zombies in this film. And it wasn’t directed by Tarantino. But is does have a strong independent (low budget) feel, some quirky camera work, and guns.
Don’t worry…we’ll get back to serious films like Sharknado…but for now…
KTS is a bare bones movie. Not a lot of fat on this one.
The story deals with a couple small time hoods (Scoot McNairy - War Machine, and Ben Mendelsohn - Ready Player One) knocking over a mob card game run by Liotta. Richard Jenkins, playing a corporate type, calls in hitman Jackie Cogan (Pitt) to clean up the fallout.
It’s as simple as that.
And simple is what this film is really about.
Produced on a shoestring $15 million (ok, that’s a lot to you and me, but the typical Hollywood movie costs $70-90 million these days), the film has the low budget feel of an early 70s crime/police drama and owes a great deal to that tradition.
The storyline is super lean, the shots are uncomplicated - in many of them it’s hard to tell much more than the very basics of where you are: a hotel, a bar, a car - and aside from two scenes that stand out because of how uncommon they are in the film (the intro and Pitt firing a rifle into a car), there are no fancy special effects or camera gimmicks.
What you do get is some incredibly tight acting, interesting dialogue, and a sense that every minute of screen time is important.
This is a dark, intimate, and violent film that won’t leave you singing Roberta Flack ballads, but will leave you impressed by its topline cast, their acting, and a storyline that is almost Hemmingwayesque in style.
Any complaints?
While there is a lot to like in this, the writer-director, New Zealander Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), pushes way too hard to make the movie socially “relevant” by interspersing news clips from outgoing President Bush and incoming President Obama.
He is trying to contrast the two to set up competing ideas about what America is and values. Interesting enough, but it detracts from what, left alone, would be a four star crime piece.
You can check out Killing Them Softly HERE.
Cut out the politics and four stars. Even with, a very respectable:
Three out of Five Sawed Off Shotguns.
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What’s your favorite crime-flavored Drive-In flick? Drop us a note and we’ll queue it up!
