Movie Details
| Title: | Killing Them Softly | |
| Director: | Andrew Dominik | |
| Year: | 2012 | |
| Genre: | Gangster | |
| Times Seen: | 2 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.11.21 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.11.21 | Netflix | 1) Some random guy on YouTube said this was a much better watch the second time around. 2) I was in a mood to watch a solid movie and not fall asleep like when I tried to watch Next of Kin and Lincoln. 3) I know I saw this around when it came out but I have no memory of it other than a general feeling of being underwhelmed. All that said, I probably liked this more than last time? It helps that I now know more of the cast like Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn, and now that Jim Gandolfini's been gone a while it's nice to see him pop up in one of these character roles he took after Sopranos. I think this movie shares a certain vibe that I appreciate and I've been thinking about what that is and I think it's that it doesn't cater to idiots. If there's a whiff of dropping into a world rather than having it presented to you or relying on you remembering a character's name even if you don't see him again then those are signs of this vibe I'm talking about. I feel like it manifests a lot in crime or noir movies where there are a lot of characters and a lot of plot happening but I guess it could happen anywhere. Anyway, while this movie doesn't have much of a climax, it does have that vibe which I appreciate, and now knowing it's based on a book by the dude who wrote Friends of Eddie Coyle, I can definitely see some similarities. I'll have to read my old note again to see what I thought 9 years ago, but for tonight I liked it pretty well. There's some interesting sound design work going on in a few scenes, one scene in particular with Ray Liotta in slow motion looks great, and there's a lot of character packed in to each performance. I'm still not sure I love the constant undercurrent of 2008 economic crisis stuff and Obama speeches all throughout but I guess it drives some message home... late stage capitalism or some such... with organized crime running like a corporation and nothing but skid row poverty and crime in the background. Watching it post-trump I'm kind of burned out on that pessimism and it's funny how long ago 2008 feels... I bet in 2012 when the movie came out it was a different zeitgeist for sure. Now it's mostly just a solid-but-not-fantastic crime movie. |
| 09.06.13 | Netflix | I heard this was a bit disappointing. It's true, I was a bit disappointed. But that's just because... I don't really know why. The movie's really well made and the characters seem authentic and nuanced and I love all the actors and all of that... maybe it's the election coverage overkill or the anticlimax of the final scene or what but I just wanted this movie to be... MORE. Who knows. |
