Having bailed multiple times on UNCUT GEMS/’20 (Adam Sandler allergy*), we swing to the previous Josh & Benny Safdie Brothers’ feature. Wound tight as a drum, it’s a tale of two brothers (who’da thunk?); low-life Queens boys who twist their way thru the unpredictable consequences of a bank robbery gone predictably wrong. Robert Pattinson, the smart, feral whippet, leads brother Benny Safdie, large, lumpen, slow thinking in a sort of Hip-Hop George & Lenny inner-city picaresque OF MICE AND MEN. Or does until a clever pivot midway thru pulls the rug out from under us and resets all the relationships. For a while, the robbery, the prison scenes & hospital escape are enough to distract from plausibility issues, but the boxes within boxes within boxers structure nests the story beats in a form that drains comic suspense. Did the Safdie boys ever stick their heads out the window growing up and look around, or spend all their time mainlining ‘80s DVDs from Scorsese, Demme & Spike Lee, with Guy Ritchie coming in with the ‘90s? Watchable, but best turn off the left side of your brain.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Sidney Lumet’s last film, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD/’07, brings a different level to this kind of thing. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/08/before-devil-knows-youre-dead-2007.html OR: To get back to the Safdie sources, Jonathan Demme’s SOMETHING WILD/’86, made before he turned earnest, and Martin Scorsese’s hopelessly square try at Downtown Hip in AFTER HOURS/’85.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Allergic reaction to Adam Sandler no metaphor; actual hives. Same for Jennifer Jason Leigh who frighteningly shows up here! Just not enough screen time to develop hives.
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