"Small Town Crime"

"Small Town Crime" SXSW Movie Review

"Small Town Crime"

Posted on Mar. 15, 2017 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Small Town Crime SXSW Movie Review

Film is reviewed from the 2017 SXSW Film Festival screening

We see that we are in a nice neighborhood, with the exception of one house, where a muscle car is sitting on the front lawn, having crashed through a picket fence. The garbage door opens, and we see ex-cop Mike Kendall (John Hawkes) in a t-shirt and jeans. He looks at his car briefly, knowing that he was the one who crashed the car in the first place. We watch as Mike benches more and more weight, while also drinking a beer or three.

We see Mike getting ready for what we think is work, as he puts on a dress shirt and tie. He gets a phone call, and it’s bad news, it’s unlikely that they will reinstate Mike to the police force. He hangs up, and curses then heads to his car in the front yard. Mike starts up the car, and it roars to life, making a huge noise. He backs up the car, then peels down the road laying tire marks and making a lot of noise as his neighbors react angrily to the display of muscle car power.

We see Mike go to several job interviews, failing badly in all of them. There is hope at one interview, some sort of office setting. The hiring manager seems to be inclined to hire Mike, that is until Mike warns her that he isn’t much good till noon, due to the amount of daily drinking that he does. We see Mike happily picking up his unemployment check, having a present exchange with the government worker and we can tell this dance has been going on for quite a while.

Mike heads to his local watering hole, where everyone greets him by his name. The place is jumping, and Mike is right at home in this element. Later we see Mike and another man (Anthony Anderson) being thrown out of the establishment. By both the bouncers and Mike’s reaction, this is something that happens on a regular basis. Both men are drunk but Mike’s friend tries to talk Mike into riding with him with an offer for Mike to crash at his house. Mike declines the offer and takes off in his muscle car, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. We see Mike buy a six-pack and then head down the road. While driving Mike flashes back a year or so to a shooting that he was involved in, one that caused his partner to die from. We next see that it’s morning and Mike wakes up in the middle of a field, with his car have been abandoned several hundred yards from where Mike is laying. He gets up, finds his car and heads back for the road. Mike is moving down the isolation road when he suddenly notices something that is in a ditch by the side of the road. He stops and discovers a bloody and battered woman, who is barely alive. Mike drives her to the nearest hospital and waits for the detectives to show up. At that moment Mike has decided to try and find out what happened to this girl, no matter who or what gets in his way.

This is an old fashioned hard drinking murder mystery from writer/directors Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms. Small Town Crime is the kind of story that the hero isn’t above breaking a few laws to solve the case. Part dark comedy, part private eye film, it’s a look into the sleazy life of the world of dive bars, boozy patrons and prostitution with a little bit of backstabbing thrown in for fun. It’s a trip you will want to take because of John Hawkes. Hawkes is one of those rare actors that as soon as he appears on the screen, we are already rooting for his character, no matter how many flaws his character has. Hawkes is a gifted actor that can do low key comedy, then shift to high-stakes drama with ease. The hard drinking, guilt-ridden unemployed former cop Mike is the perfect sad-sack character for Hawkes to play and he seems to relish every moment on screen in this part.

The supporting cast is exceptionally strong, though I have no idea why Octavia Spencer, playing Mike’s adopted sister, is being used in almost a throwaway role. It’s as if Spencer has decided to do what Michael Caine did in the 80’s and be in every film made in this decade. Anthony Anderson is an excellent addition as the sometimes drinking partner of Mike’s that just happens to be married to Spencer’s character. Anderson is a good comedic sounding board for Hawkes’ character and their scenes together are some of the best of the film. Anytime you have a P.I. film and you can get Robert Forster in it; you know your film will just be that much better. Forster plays the grandfather of the woman that Mike finds. Forster’s character hires Mike to find who hurt his granddaughter, with the understanding that Mike should use any means necessary to make that person pay for hurting his family. Michael Vartan plays a detective that is willing to let Mike have a little leeway in the investigation, much more than most of the force that is giving Mike the evil eye. I especially enjoyed the performance of Clifton Collins, Jr. who plays a purple Impala driving pimp with the name of Mood, who decides to help Mike because it’s his girls that are being attacked. Each character is well-defined, unique and perfectly match Mike’s way of life.

This is a film that someone like old pulp fiction writer Mickey Spillane or even any character that the Coen brothers have created would be happy to be in. It’s a world of booze, dead bodies, and bad intentions; thank God we have John Hawkes to lead us through it!    My Rating: Full Price

My movie rating system from Best to Worst: 1). I Would Pay to See it Again 2). Full Price 3). Bargain Matinee 4). Cable 5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

For more of Mike’s reviews and interviews here

For more information on the SXSW Film Festival go to www.sxsw.com

"Low Down" Movie Review

My review of "Low Down" starring John Hawkes, Elle Fanning, Glenn Close.

"Low Down"

Posted on Dec. 5, 2014  on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of Oscilloscope Pictures

“Low Down” (2014)

You know it’s going to be a long, hard ride when a film starts with a teenage daughter watching her father being arrested on the street from their seedy Hollywood apartment window. The relationship between the father, a noted jazz bebop pianist Joe Albany (John Hawkes) and his daughter, Amy-Jo (Elle Fanning) is complicated and maddening. Amy-Jo would rather be the adoring daughter but too often she has to play the adult in the relationship, especially when Joe has relapsed back into the world of heroin addiction.

Joe is a world-famous musician who has played with Charlie Parker and Lester Young. Joe has talent but is cursed by the times (it’s the early 70s, a time that jazz has lost most of its popularity) and by his addiction, despite numerous attempts to stay clean. Amy-Jo’s world is complicated by a mother, played by Lena Headey, who isn’t around most of the time, and when she is around, she is drunk. Amy-Jo and her father live in a one-room apartment that she must leave when her father wants to shoot up or have sex with his wife. She spends a great deal of her time in the hallway or the lobby, sometimes accompanied by the next-door neighbor kid, whose mother is a prostitute and a fellow addict. The only stability that Amy-Jo knows is her grandmother (Glen Close), who gives her a place to stay and a shoulder to cry on the times that her father is in jail, rehab or on tour. Joe is surrounded by friends who are fellow addicts. It’s a life filled with musicians, singers and actors, whom are all on their way down. Their neighbors  are people looking for their next score and willing to do just about anything to get it.

“Low Down” is a depressing, slow descent of addiction that is based on the memoir of Amy-Jo Albany, brought to the screen by director and co-writer Jeff Preiss. Preiss along with co-writer Topper Lilien, bring us into a world of desperation and depression, one that we only have the slightest hope that Amy-Jo can escape. Unfortunately, the script isn’t the tearjerker that you want it to be, with transitions abruptly cutting from scene to scene, making the whole film seeming disconnected. There are several emotional scenes in the film, but are just not enough. One especially moving scene is between Amy-Jo and her mother where they bare their souls. Unfortunately, the movie never quite gets up a head of steam, and it becomes frustrating to see the characters only react to their circumstances. We rarely see the reason behind their actions, leaving us with very little insight into the people that make up this downtrodden world. The film does have the feel of the 70’s Hollywood underworld, with cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt lighting the film with a hazy, almost orange glow that seems to continually have dust particles dancing across the screen. Costumer Jennifer Johnson and production designer Elliott Hostetter perfectly capture the depressing 70’s California scene with grubby apartments, dark bars and clubs that have seen better times.

The love of music seems to keep Amy-Jo and Joe close and the soundtrack, produced by Ohad Talmor, is a fantastic mix of jazz classics by Albany himself, along with Coleman Hawkins, Max Roach and Thelonious Monk with some newer recordings by Russ Johnson and Jacob Sacks.

The heart of this film and the reason to see it, is the cast’s performance. It starts with John Hawkes, who is his usual brilliant self. Hawkes makes us root for a character that is flawed and doomed to disappoint. Hawkes shows us a man who loves his daughter very much, but will never be able to be the man and father whom she needs. We see the joy in his face when he interacts with Amy-Jo, and we see the pain when he lets her down, time after time. Hawkes doesn’t just play his part; he inhabits them and makes you believe that he is a great jazz pianist and a man who is horribly addicted to a drug that will ruin him. Equally brilliant is Glen Close, playing the resilient mother of Joe, who knows that no matter what she says or does, he will continue to make mistakes based on his need for drugs. The love for her son and granddaughter is what drives her, and Close makes sure that we know it. Elle Fanning gives the greatest performance of her life. The film works best when we see what is happening through her eyes. She plays Amy-Jo with the naiveté of a teenager that continually hopes her father has turned the page with his addiction, only to be disappointed to the brink of despair. The supporting cast is filled out with a small role by Peter Dinklage as a neighbor who is an actor and a incredibly moving performance by Flea, as a musician who is in awe of Joe’s talent and happens to be an addict himself.

“Low Down” is a film filled with great performances, but is let down by a script that is long and never lets us fully relate to its characters. It’s a film that I just wish has listened to its own soundtrack and let the film flow instead of stopping and starting too many times.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee

My movie rating system from Best to Worst: 1). I Would Pay to See it Again 2). Full Price 3). Bargain Matinee 4). Cable 5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

“Low Down” Website

Playing exclusively in Atlanta at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema