Tagarchief: Gangster Films

Dungeon Classics #41: L.A. Confidential

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

L.A. Confidential (1997, USA)

Director: Curtis Hanson
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger
Running Time: 138 mins.

Three L.A. cops in the 1950s – three different personalities – each dealing with corruption in their own way. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is a celebrity cop, something like the influencer of his day, working closely with tabloid journalist Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) and frequently appearing on the TV cop show Badge of Honor. Bud White (Russell Crowe) is an explosive sledgehammer with a particular hatred for abusive men. He’s not afraid to bend the rules to punish the guilty. Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) is the son of a legendary cop who wants to advance his career strictly by the book, which is hard to do in a city with a massively corrupt police force. When organized crime boss Mickey Cohen goes to prison, he leaves a wide gap for new players to move in, and the three leads soon find themselves in the middle of the heat. L.A. Confidential is a true masterpiece: a fantastic recreation of 1950s Los Angeles and an exceptional character study. The three leads, young and fairly unknown at the time, are truly stellar in their roles. There’s also an excellent supporting cast, with Kim Basinger especially stealing the spotlight as high-class prostitute Lynn Bracken. A great movie from start to finish – on the QT and very hush-hush.

Dungeon Classics #40: Killing Zoe

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Killing Zoe (1993, USA, France)

Director: Roger Avary
Cast: Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hugues Anglade
Running Time: 96 mins.

Before Tarantino and co-writer Roger Avary struck gold with Pulp Fiction in 1994, both had written and directed a feature. Tarantino made Reservoir Dogs in 1992. While searching for locations for that film, its producer Lawrence Bender found a great bank in downtown Los Angeles which, although not suitable for Reservoir Dogs, seemed perfect for a movie set in a bank. Bender called every screenwriter he knew, asking if they had a script set in a bank. Roger Avary lied and said he did, then furiously wrote the first draft in under two weeks. Although the film is supposed to be set in Paris, it was shot almost entirely in L.A., with only the opening and closing road sequences filmed in the actual city. The story follows a criminal named Zed (Eric Stoltz) – two links to Pulp Fiction right there – who joins his old friend Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and his gang to pull off a robbery during Bastille Day. Beforehand, he orders a prostitute named Zoe (Julie Delpy), and the two immediately click. The night before the robbery, the crew goes out on a binge fueled by booze and heroin. This stretch of the movie drags, but once the robbery begins, the film shifts into the right gear. The heist goes spectacularly wrong, leading to a series of twisted and disturbing turns. Avary, whose filmmaking career never really went very far, proves himself a quite capable director here. Is this on the level of Tarantino? No, it’s too flawed for that, but this is still a memorable, exploitation movie known for its nihilistic tone and merciless violence.

Dungeon Classics #39: True Romance

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

True Romance (1993, USA, France)

Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper
Running Time: 119 mins.

In the early nineties, Tarantino wrote a couple of screenplays, including True Romance and Reservoir Dogs. He chose Reservoir Dogs for his directorial debut and was willing to sell True Romance. In 1993, after his debut was released, he took a date to the perfect date movie: True Romance, the film he had written. And boy, did it turn out to be a good movie; great fucking movie. Just looking at the cast members rolling by in the opening credits is astonishing; seeing so many (future) stars in one ensemble cast is rare. Director Tony Scott couldn’t deal with the screenplay’s non-chronological structure, so he changed it to a linear one. But aside from that, it’s a real Tarantino movie: the sharp dialogue, the great characters, the humor, the sudden bursts of violence; it’s all there. And then there’s an amazing sequence, one of the best he ever wrote: the famous Sicilian scene with Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken. Oh man, that is legendary. Also memorable is the brutal confrontation between Alabama and the sadistic Virgil, played by James Gandolfini. The whole movie is basically a rollercoaster in which the two main characters – Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) – fall in love, get married, kill Alabama’s pimp, take off with his coke, and head to Hollywood to sell it, stumbling into one crazy situation after another while always keeping the film’s romantic core intact. True Romance is Scott’s best film and by far the best Tarantino movie not directed by Tarantino. In other words: it’s a must-see.

Sugar Hill (1993)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘He wanted power. He wanted revenge. Now he just wants out.’

Directed by:
Leon Ichaso

Written by:
Barry Michael Cooper

Cast:
Wesley Snipes (Roemello Skuggs), Michael Wright (Raynathan Skuggs), Theresa Randle (Melissa), Abe Vigoda (Gus Molino), Ernie Hudson (Lolly Jonas), Leslie Uggams (Doris Holly), Larry Joshua (Harry Molino), Sam Bottoms (Oliver Thompson), Joe Dallesandro (Tony Adamo), Steve J. Harris (Ricky Goggles)

Sugar Hill feels like Wesley Snipes revisiting his New Jack City character, but through a more somber, tragic lens. The story follows two brothers, Roemello and Raynathan, whose childhoods were shattered by heroin addiction. Now adults, they control the Harlem heroin trade; a seeming success that’s revealed from the outset to be a slow-motion catastrophe.

The film’s message is unmistakable: drugs destroy everything they touch. The narrative begins and ends on a bleak note, anchored by the trauma that set the brothers’ trajectory. Raynathan (Michael Wright), who accidentally killed their mother with a ‘hot shot’, is emotionally broken, unstable, and haunted. Roemello (Snipes), meanwhile, built a drug empire in uneasy partnership with the Italian mob, led by Gus Molino (Abe Vigoda – yes, Tessio from The Godfather).

Although Roemello was once a hardened kingpin in the mold of Nicky Barnes or Frank Lucas, by the time the film begins he’s already looking for an exit. He’s grown weary of the life, and the movie focuses more on his yearning for redemption than on gangster swagger. This shift in emphasis makes Sugar Hill more of a tragedy than a straight crime thriller.

Roemello’s relationship with Melissa (Theresa Randle) gives him hope for a way out, but Raynathan’s instability threatens to pull him back in. On top of that, a new rival – backed by the Italians – escalates tensions and violence.

Visually, the film is impressive, and the cast is stacked with talent. However, Michael Wright’s perpetually tormented performance becomes overwhelming; his intensity, effective in Oz, feels exhausting here. On the other hand, Ernie Hudson (also from Oz) shines as Lolly, the ambitious newcomer.

In the end, Sugar Hill is a flawed but intriguing companion piece to New Jack City. Strong performances and striking cinematography work in its favor, but its relentlessly grim tone and absence of humor make the viewing experience heavy and, at times, draining.

Rating:

Quote:
ROEMELLO: “C’mon Lolly. Look at Harlem, seems like someone is always dying before their time.”

Trivia:
Also known as Harlem.