Fast Charlie: Pierce Brosnan’s Biloxi Blues

If Charlie Swift worked in corporate America, he would be transitioning to a part-time “consulting” gig. However, as a fixer for the Biloxi mob, you are either in or out—and he is not ready to retire yet. Honestly, his aging boss needs him now more than ever. One messy job leads to a whole lot of complications, including a woman he rather likes, in Phillip Noyce’s Fast Charlie, which opens today in Brooklyn.

This hit was supposed to be a favor for “Beggar,” the brutal new school head of the New Orleans mob. Swift’s boss Stan Mullen also wanted to use it as a try-out for an eager beaver new assassin. Unfortunately, problems ensue when the kid blows apart their target’s head, which was needed as proof of completion. However, the level-headed Swift reaches out to the victim’s ex, Marcie Kramer, who helps provide a way to identify the corpse.

Swift is rather impressed by Kramer’s level-headedness. In fact, he invites her to dinner, much to his own surprise. However, he is not too distracted to foil an attempt to rub him out when Beggar launches a full-scale attack on Mullen’s organization. Seething for revenge, Swift teams up with Kramer to find her ex’s dirt on Beggar. Yet, he might be even more concerned with her safety.

Fast Charlie is a lean and mean little revenge thriller that far exceeds its VOD/token theatrical distribution expectations. Screenwriter Richard Wenk’s adaptation of Victor Gischler’s novel has a lot of Southern attitude, but not so much that it could be pigeon-holed as regional or parochial. While not exactly a twisty-turny kind of thriller, it does not travel a predictably straight line either. It has a slightly eccentric inclination that serves it well.

Out of Blue: Sort of Based on Martin Amis

As a police detective, Mike Hoolihan does not know much about Schrödinger’s Cat and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, but she has an intuitive understanding of how the act of observing holds consequences (yes, she is a she). Her investigation into the death of a popular astronomy professor will involve a piecemeal education in quantum mechanic during Carol Morley’s Out of Blue, which opens this Friday in New York.

Hoolihan has lived hard and copped hard. She is a case-closing machine, but she refuses to investigate the memory holes shrouding her own early years. The shooting of Jennifer Rockwell would just be another workaday case for her, except the deceased was the daughter of powerful city councilman Col. Tom Rockwell. Early suspects include the victim’s colleagues, Prof. Ian Strammi and Duncan Reynolds, who both keep prattling on about Schrödinger’s Cat. Of course, Hoolihan is more interested in the case’s similarities with a notorious serial killer, who terrorized New Orleans decades prior.

Out of Blue (deliberately missing the article) is probably the haziest, most narratively diffuse police procedural this side of the postmodern novels of Alain Robbe-Grillet. Unfortunately, most of the references to astronomy and quantum mechanics feel like a pompous, scientistic overlay, instead of an organic function of the narrative.

Frankly, just about every aspect of the film feels like it is trying too hard, except Patricia Clarkson, who is just effortlessly hardboiled and broken down. She could pass for the more mature version of Nicole Kidman’s Erin Bell, fifteen or so years after the events in Destroyer.

Even though the cosmic mumbo jumbo really doesn’t work, Johnathan Majors still does a nice job of selling them as Reynolds (the real fault lays with Morley, who never lays the proper foundation or establishes sufficient context). James Caan is clearly on familiar ground as Col. Rockwell, but he is still highly functional in the part, even if he never pushes himself. However, Jacki Weaver brings some impressive nuttiness (even by her past standards), as the bereaved mother, Miriam Rockwell.

Page to screen adaptations do not get much looser than Morley’s treatment of Martin Amis’s short novel Night Train, but as a one-two punch with London Fields, it should pretty much dissuade any cinematic takes on the sly writer’s work, for at least the next ten years. As of now, he is looking pretty unadaptable. However, Morley made several inexplicable choices, including replacing the title instrumental blues song with Brenda Lee’s “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which is a little too on the nose, lyrically. On the other hand, the use of The Church’s “Under the Milky Way” over the closing credits is downright inspired.

Admittedly, cosmic dimensions of Out of Blue sound cool and distinctive, but the execution doesn’t come together. Morley (best known for the massively depressing hybrid documentary, Dreams of a Life) never exhibits full command of her material, but Clarkson is right on the money, proving she is still one of the best in the business (even in flawed vehicles). It just really ought to be better. Anyone intrigued by its ambitions should wait until it pops up on free streaming platforms, which should be sometime soon after it opens this Friday (3/22) in New York, at the IFC Center.

The Good Neighbor: Invading Home and Privacy

The scariest thing about this new thriller is the ease with which two teens acquire and illegally install a comprehensive surveillance system in the house across the street. Sean, the one with the technical know-how echoes that sentiment during their shopping spree. His more popular pal Ethan has the auterist vision for their so-called “experiment.” They intend to make grouchy old Harold Grainey believe he is haunted. At least he has it coming—or does he? The more we see, the more uncomfortable we get during Kasra Farahani’s The Good Neighbor (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Old Man Grainey has his set patterns, so the lads know exactly when he will be out of the house and for how long. In addition to the cameras, they also set up various remote control switches to give the illusion of uncanny things acting up in the night. Ethan has a very definite idea of who Grainey is, but it might not be precisely true.

Regardless, their haunting effects might be working too well. As we learn from the flashbacks, the objects they chose to spook-up have particular significance for Grainey. The fact that the film periodically flashes forward to a criminal trial certainly suggests the onset of complications, but Farahani will not reveal who is being prosecuted for what until the third act.

It is nice to see an old cat like James Caan can still surprise us. Grainey’s suburban ranch house gone to seed is worlds removed from the Playboy Mansion grotto, but he truly looks like he belongs there. Yet, he slowly but steadily upends all our assumptions in a quietly powerful performance. As Sean, Keir Gichrest (It Follows, Dark Summer) continues to be the go to guy for socially awkward teens caught up in sinister business. However, Logan Miller’s Ethan is so abrasively obnoxious, it undermines Farahani’s carefully calibrated tonal shifts. It is also frustrating that fan favorite Tamlyn Tomita is not featured more as the prosecutor.

As one would expect from a film directed by an art director-concept artist, Neighbor’s sets and trappings are totally spot on. Production designer Margret Box’s attention to detail makes Grainey’s home look sad by daylight and ominous at night. At the risk of being spoilery, Mark Binculli & Jeff Richard’s screenplay provides a sharp corrective to Don’t Breathe. Frankly, Can’s standout performance makes Neighbor the better film. Recommended for fans of the Misery actor and dark thrillers, The Good Neighbor opens this Friday (9/16), at the Cinema Village.

The Outsider: Craig Fairbrass Gets His Close-Up

By now, there is little the L.A. coroner’s office can do to shock Americans with their incompetence. Yet, a British military contractor is still rather aghast when they misidentify a corpse as his estranged daughter. (Still, that sort of counts as good news.) He will be getting to the bottom of it all in Brian A. Miller’s The Outsider (trailer here), which releases this Friday in select theaters and on VOD.

Lex Walker was never much of a father, but when his receives news of Samantha’s presumed demise, he goes AWOL to tend to his grim paternal duties. However, the body might be a twentysomething blonde, but it is not her. Somewhat agitated, Walker heads straight to her last place of employment, a dodgy financial services conglomerate, where Schuster, the sleazy CEO does everything possible to announce himself as the bad guy short of standing on his head and spitting nickels.

When Walker takes good-and-hard exception to some of some of Schuster’s muscle on the way out, he naturally gets arrested, thereby putting him on the radar of Det. Klein, the cop in charge of Samantha Walker’s case. Of course, they do not get along either. Walker’s investigation only starts to get traction when he bribes a lead out of Margo, a reluctant cocktail waitress, who quickly becomes part of the mess, regardless of her intentions.

So when you see Shannon Elizabeth and James Caan lined up behind a film, you know you are in serious b-movie territory. Jason Patric still ought to have some major studio cred, but it is not exactly shocking to see him here as well. As it happens, they are all largely enlisted to support British character actor Craig Fairbrass’s coming out as an action star. Craggy and hardnosed, he has at least enough old school presence to carry a light weight film like The Outsider.

As Klein, the reliable Patric helps to anchor the film—and between him, Caan, and Fairbrass there is certainly no lack of manliness. Naturally, Caan plays the villainous Schuster, hamming it up at every opportunity, because viewers would be disappointed if he didn’t.  In contrast, the character of Margo is so under-written, Shannon Elizabeth mostly just stands around looking for something to do.

Considering most Americans will be most familiar with Fairbrass as one of the Call of Duty voice-actors, a straight up military film would have be a more logical vehicle for his premiere turn in the solo spotlight, but it probably would have been much more expense than a riff on the Taken franchise. The Eastenders and Prime Suspect alumnus has appealing working class badassness, but The Outsider is just too workaday to get very excited about.  It may herald the arrival of the next middle-aged action star, but The Outsider is best saved for Saturday morning hangover streaming.  For diehard fans of Fairbrass and Caan, it opens this Friday (2/7) in New York at the AMC Empire and also releases on itunes.

The Chekhov Caper: Henry’s Crime

The very notion of certain actors playing Chekhov is criminal. Henry Torne is one of them. However, the play is most definitely the thing for this ex-con’s prospective bank job in Malcolm Venville’s Henry’s Crime (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Henry Torne was an ambitionless loser with no future. Then he went to prison. Suckered into driving his dodgy friends to their ill-conceived bank hold-up, Torne did the time for the crime he had no intention of committing. It hardly mattered though. His work as a toll collector was not exactly rewarding and his marriage was slowing dying, thanks to his own neglect. Paroled and divorced, Torne is at loose ends. Wondering to the scene of his non-crime, Torne gets an inspiration: that fateful bank. He also has a somewhat painful “meet-cute” with Julie Ivanova, an aspiring actress rehearsing Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard across the street.

There is something refreshing about Crime’s quiet, understated vibe. Set in Buffalo, it has a legitimate Upstate feel that recalls the small town scenes from Robert Wise’s classic noir Odds Against Tomorrow. Indeed, though they are not actually across the street from one another, the Tarrytown Music Hall and the bank are quite cinematic, giving the film a real sense of place. While Venville’s pacing occasionally flags, the funky R&B soundtrack, culled from the Daptone Records catalog, periodically gives the film a groovy lift.

Frankly, it makes a lot of sense to cast Keanu Reeves as an emotionally frozen prole. If not exactly a picture of chemistry, he and Vera Farmiga make a passable on-screen couple. However, the real charm of the film comes from James Caan and Bill Duke as Saltzman and Frank, the old cats with character.

Unusual among contemporary indie crime dramas, Venville’s film clearly has affection both for the city of Buffalo and Chekhov’s plays. A handsomely produced little caper movie with heart, Crime earns a surprisingly enthusiastic recommendation when it opens this Friday (4/8) in New York at the Landmark Sunshine.