There are the grand emotional courtroom dramas that immerse you in the ethical dilemmas that stem from from the case itself, filled with quotable speeches from venerable actors; then there’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” starring Matthew McConaughey. Based on the Michael Connelly novel, the film plays more like a crime thriller set in the legal realm, one that intends to be equal parts slick and ethically challenging. Rather than an honorable protagonist who must do the right thing in the face of great adversity to combat a corrupt justice system, Mick Haller is an alcoholic with a moral compass that would make your intestines curl.

“The Lincoln Lawyer” embraces the idea that the legal system is an open air-market where deals are cut left and right “justice” is nothing more than a word that keeps it from crumbling. Mick Haller puts bad guys on the street and makes a living off the legal fees of some of the scummier creatures in Los Angeles, but he’s also seen his fair share of state prosecutors using big hammer on a tiny nail — that’s just how it goes. However, there comes a time when every person’s true moral character is tested.

Haller finds himself in a tough spot when he agrees to defend a wealthy real estate agent name Louis Roulet (Ryan Philippe) who’s been charged with assaulting and raping a prostitute. If he’s telling the truth, the case seems pretty open-and-close, but he’s hiding a few secrets that twist the case in unimaginable ways.

Although terrific talent lines this film inside and out, the acting merely helps bolster the impressiveness of the gripping story. Director Brad Furman has paced the film perfectly with the exception of the last 15 minutes; there are essentially no dull moments. Solid legal thrillers can wrap around your brain with the slightest of ease (why else would “Law & Order” still be on television?), but the true challenge lies in telling a unique story. No rival comes to mind to Haller’s ethical quandary.

McConaughey’s swagger makes him perfect for a sleazy lawyer, but the emotionally troubled alcoholic side of the character — the part that can’t sleep at night — doesn’t lie outside of his acting boundaries. Although neither the script nor the direction ever tests him for too long in this regard, he embodies the role to the point that it does add something to the film. In my experience, McConaughey’s never been better.

Actors such as William H. Macy, a still-underrated Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo and Bryan Cranston all provide excellent fits and stud out the cast, but the stars remain the thrills of the story and Furman’s superb pacing.

The film’s ethical dilemmas and insights provide for some relatively strong chewing, but but “Lincoln Lawyer” rides suspense and engaging dialogue like a Lincoln Town Car into the sunset.

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4/5 Stars

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The Lincoln Lawyer
Directed by Brad Furman
Written by John Romano, Michael Connelly (novel)
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy

This is one Spike Lee joint that I’m definitely smoking. A film that received a weak release from Disney’s Buena Vista/Touchstone Pictures and consequently made barely $13 million, “25th Hour” is a gem that many will stumble upon (such as myself) and pat themselves on the back for a good find.
David Benioff pulls off one of the better self-written-book-to-screenplay adaptations possibly ever, especially for a guy with no prior screen writing experience at the time. The scenes are elegant (with some help from director Lee) and the messages both real and potent. The story centers around Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton), who has just been busted by the DEA for dealing and wants to make the most of his final 24 hours before getting locked up.

But “25th Hour” is no “drugs ‘n thugs” drama. Monty’s drug-dealing life stays in the periphery of the film with hardly so much as a reference. Benioff and Lee are much more concerned with the concept of a man about to pay a tough price for a past mistake and how he might view the world and handle the relationships with those closest to him.

Monty chooses first to visit his father (Brian Cox) that evening. Meeting at the bar his father owns where he primarily serves cops and fire fighters (keep in mind the film was made in a barely post-9/11 NYC setting), he takes a bathroom break where a simple “fuck you” message written on the mirror sends him on a voice-over monologue tirade, uttering aforementioned curse about every single sect of the Big Apple’s population before laying it on himself. Lee, whose love for the city of New York is anything but a secret, continues his tradition of the city as a character in this way. Monty is mostly angry at himself, but he has something to get off his chest, which is that no one, not even the millions of New Yorkers not going to jail, are free of flaws. Dealing and letting it get too far was Monty’s flaw and simply he must pay for it.

The rest of the night takes place predominantly at a night club run by the man Monty works for, Uncle Nikolai. He brings along his two closest friends, Frank (Barry Pepper) and Jake (Philip Seymour Hoffman) as well as his girlfriend, Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), who he believes might have ratted on him about the money stored up in his apartment that the feds found.

The film favors its ensemble heavily, providing each actor a terrific opportunity to show multiple facets to his or her character. Pepper usually fills in screen space in most films, but he complicates his investment broker character by making him flip from self-assured to emotionally confused. Hoffman works his subtlety as a high school teacher clearly not in control of his life when his student (Anna Paquin) flirts with him. Dawson plays nicely off the script’s implication that she might have secrets to hide.

Aside from the poor casting of NFL player Tony Siragusa as a key character and some odd epic fantasy battle scoring from longtime Lee collaborator Terence Blanchard, “25th Hour” is near-perfect execution of a story taking place in a short time window: no overly dramatic plot twists, but character-building and message-fueled dialog with a strong application of epiphany. All the more beautiful is how it echoes the post-9/11 message of enduring despite yourself or someone else pummeling you to the point where it appears there is nothing left.
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4.5/5 Stars

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25th Hour (2002)
Directed by Spike Lee
Written by David Benioff
Starring: Edward Norton, Rosario Dawson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper

The Prohibition-era “fight” between gangster Al Capone and G-man Eliot Ness over the streets of Chicago is the stuff of legend. For this reason, director Brian De Palma’s next big mob-themed follow-up to “Scarface” is quite a challenge. Capone is an enigma of sorts: the closest thing to a tall tale that history has to offer. Casting Robert De Niro was an excellent choice in attempt to do the character justice, but “The Untouchables,” as entertaining and suspenseful as it is, never fully captures the tone and magnitude of Capone and 1930s Chicago.

Feds and gangsters flick would be a better way to describe “The Untouchables” than organized crime drama. Anyone expecting a Godfather film or “Scarface” should lower those expectations to the level of ’30s-themed action movie. Kevin Costner stars as Ness, leading a team of feds called The Untouchables who decide to go straight after the mob. They consist of an accountant (Charles Martin Smith) a rookie who’s a good shot (Andy Garcia) and the wise veteran (Sean Connery in an Oscar-winning role).

For a mostly fictitious account of Capone’s arrest, you’d think De Palma would pull out all the stops and that his film would glamorize the heck out of the mob and juice up the story to make it as cool as possible. He does a lot of nice aerial shots like the very beginning and the whole cast has lots of fun with guns, but it’s the characters that feel a bit cold. Costner is just okay as Ness. Yes, his character is supposed to be a moral by-the-books type who eventually embraces the slightly less legal means of getting the job done because the ends justify the means, but he could us a bit more flavor. You do like him though by the end of the film at the least.

I don’t know what Connery does that well to earn an Oscar. I think the Academy was like most people with regards to Connery in the ’80s: smitten every time he shows up on screen without a license to kill in tow. Malone is an ideal part being that he’s wise, skilled and also reckless — and David Mamet also gives him the film’s best lines — but there’s nothing that suggests he’s more than a likable character mold.

The best scene in “The Untouchables” can be looked at in one of two ways: either as a fantastic modern ode to a classic war film (the silent Russian film “The Battleship Potemkin”) or as “well that was great, but it wasn’t original.” I’m somewhere in between. The train station stairs make a beautiful backdrop for the firefight that’s not unlike the final scene of “Scarface,” and De Palma’s slowing down of the action makes it all the more enjoyable, but there’s a lingering sense of wanting something truly one-of-a-kind.

What Mamet’s script does best other than good action fodder is provide a sense of whether or not someone is really untouchable, whether or not the law truly protects anyone. Capone lived above the law for so long and Ness loses a ton of men in his restless pursuit, having to bend the law at times in order to continue it. Capone’s arrest does suggest that we all have to answer sometime when we don’t govern ourselves by a set of principles.

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3.5/5 Stars

The Untouchables (1987)
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Written by: David Mamet (screenplay), Oscar Fraley, Eliot Ness (book)
Starring: Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Sean Connery

Few crime films seem to transcend their genre. “Silence of the Lambs” is one of them. With incredible characters and careful, thoughtful direction, it’s not a complete surprise that this film is among the many elite that call themselves Academy Award winning best pictures.

The film centers around Clarice Starling (Jodi Foster), an FBI trainee that essentially because of being young and feminine, gets assigned to work with a serial killer: the infamous Hannibal Lecter, one of the most chilling villains of all time played by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Eventually she finds herself thrust into another serial murder case involving “Buffalo Bill” and must seek the nutty Lecter’s advice in order to solve it.

Starling and her struggle to ward off the sexist world of that surrounds her in this field is the film’s centerpiece. Director Jonathan Demme does a great job focusing on Foster’s strengths: her facial expressions, her constant nervousness knowing that this will make or break the career to which she aspires. Demme also does a great job making it clear, but not too overtly so, how the men in the film eerily gravitate toward her in every situation. It’s bothering, but the fact that she is indeed the film’s hero makes it somewhat empowering.

While little attention was paid to “Buffalo Bill,” an interesting character with a powerful metaphor and comparison to Starling in Thomas Harris’ book, the focus is substituted with full attention to Lecter’s scenes and his role becomes more pivotal in the film, which is clearly worth it given Hopkins’ talent. It is then more about how he affects Starling and how they work together and form a unique relationship. It is unfortunate both could not be stronger, but there’s is no arguing with the strength of this screenplay.

“Silence of the Lambs” is not the kind of film that will move you, but it is an excellent example of how great characters can take an ordinary serial murder plot and make it something more than just a genre film.

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4/5 Stars

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Written by: Ted Tally, Thomas Harris (novel)
Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins

If Michael, Magic and Larry, etc. became the first ever “Dream Team” of basketball players in 1992, then the cast of the “Glengarry Glen Ross” should be considered the “Dream Team” of male acting. There’s Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce and Alec Baldwin. You won’t find seven better names in an opening credit sequence.

Together they make up the all-male cast of the film adaptation of David Mamet’s play and they lend it the sheer power that this exploration of human nature through the eyes of desperate salesmen might not have otherwise had.

It’s no surprise director James Foley was incredible wary of taking a story that clearly belongs on the stage and turning into into a film. “Glengarry” is dialogue-driven and there’s absolutely no physical action in the entire script, which takes place in less than 24 hours real time. It relies heavily on impassioned monologues and the morally ambiguous characters delivering them.

The film’s first major scene features an angry speech from Baldwin meant to fire up a group of slimy, foul-mouthed real-estate salesmen, explaining that whoever finishes top in sales wins a Cadillac and the loser gets fired. Firm boss Williamson (Spacey) hands the men tired leads and they complain that without the new Glengarry leads, they won’t sell a thing.

The highlight is a 66-year-old Jack Lemmon as Shelley Levene. I’m baffled at the fact that he received no Oscar nomination considering his status with the Academy. Levene is completely desperate: he works the old leads until he can’t anymore, tries to bribe Williamson for Glengarry leads and Lemmon absolutely nails the obnoxious salesman who always has some cheap maneuver in his back pocket. Instead, Pacino got the nomination as Ricky Roma, the hotshot salesman with a serious attitude. He’s excellent, but we’ve seen Pacino with that kind of command numerous times before.

“Glengarry” is a tough film, but Foley and this amazing cast sell you on it the best they can. The story leans on its characters, the talent playing them and the illustrative and attention- seizing monologues they deliver and it can lean away considering those aspects are like impervious steel. There’s no way the film could be handled any better. Foley gives maximum effort to provide the most compelling angles for the dialogue, shots that will reveal as much character as possible and stimulate audience thinking. Its very open-ended themes will connect with only a chunk of its viewers, but you have to admire the absolute power that this amassing of talent commands on the screen.

4/5 Stars

“Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992)
Directed by: James Foley
Written by: David Mamet
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey

Anyone who has to direct another movie after his first feature film won him a Best Director Oscar, has to be scared out of his mind. How do you top that? Seriously. Although “Road to Perdition” is an impassioned story (based on a graphic novel) of an Irish mobster and his son trying to stay alive, its screenplay is not the opus that “American Beauty” was. So, how do you approach your next directorial project when the bar is absurdly high? Whatever Sam Mendes did, it worked, because “Perdition” is just as beautiful and poetic.

The posthumous Oscar for cinematographer Conrad L. Hall is much deserved. “Perdition” is a story that takes death rather lightly with a very high body count and as seen in “American Beauty,” Mendes will settle for nothing but the most visually memorable and poetic of tragic climaxes and deaths. These two make quite a team, inflating what’s just a good but not great script into a rich and striking film. They milk everything they can out of the film’s most poignant moments and convince you of that feeling that you’re watching incredible, meaningful cinema when it’s just a very good/interesting story at best.

Taking place in 1930s Illinois and Chicago, “Perdition” is about Michael Sullivan, a hit man (Hanks) with two young boys working for an Irish mob boss John Rooney (Newman) — loosely based on real gangster John Looney — who gave him everything he’s ever had. When a curious Michael Jr. wants to know what his father does, he accidentally witnesses a hit gone wrong, which puts Sullivan in bad standing with his mob family. Rooney then has his son, Connor (Daniel Craig), off Sullivan’s family. Sullivan and Michael Jr. manage to survive and flee to Chicago, where they are still wanted dead. Soon, father and son must be honest with each other in order to survive and Sullivan will do anything to get his revenge yet still keep his son away from it all.

The cast is great, but an actor with Tom Hanks’ versatile talent has no business playing a hit man of few words. Perhaps the notion of a audiences thinking it’s “just another mob film” scared Mendes and other producers into getting a marquee name, but all you have to do is say Paul New– and the old people start flocking. Newman gets a supporting Oscar nod for nothing but the respect he commands of the camera and on the screen. A mob boss is such an intriguing role for a then mostly retired famous actor and it definitely gives “Perdition” something give it that instant classic feel.

“Perdition” avoids telling us all the mob stuff we already know from watching “The Godfather” and “Goodfellas” in terms of organized crime life being about loyalty, respect and family, etc. It jumps right into the fresh angle it’s taking: the relationship between a hit man and his son. It’s a story of guarding innocence in the face of harsh, immoral reality.

Most of the film is just a thriller with Sullivan finding ways to get his revenge while avoiding the man hired to whack him (Jude Law). There’s a lot of killing and the general rule has always been the more killing, the less meaningful death becomes and the more silly and less serious a film is (theoretically why action movies don’t get taken seriously). But Mendes and Hall take exception, making sure these deaths will give you enough chills to forget that you’re tired of seeing people get shot. Lots of films have you guessing who will die — “Perdition” has you guessing what order.

The script is good, just a little deliberate. It’s not shy about letting you know what it’s about and what its themes are, which is always good for some viewers and souring for others. But in the end its the thoughtful and artistic eye of Mendes that wins out as the film closes with a thrilling, beautiful and near-perfect climax. Mob movies might have gotten old for some people already, but it would be inadvisable to skip out on such great film-making for that reason.

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4.5/5 Stars

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Road to Perdition (2002)
Directed by Sam Mendes
Written by David Self, Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner (graphic novel)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Daniel Craig, Paul Newman, Jude Law