New Brad Pitt film tackles relevant social issues, packs strong performances
It’s 2008 in post-Katrina New Orleans. America has entered the backdrop of its economic collapse, and the presidential election is soon drawing to a close. President Barack Obama voices his message on “the American promise” and how America is a community on a television screen in a bar, but mafia hit man Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) believes the contrary.
“Don’t make me laugh,” he says. “I’m living in America, and in America, you’re on your own.”
The latest collaboration between Pitt and director Andrew Dominik, “Killing Them Softly,” attacks America on one of its most relevant issues, the recession, in a not-so-subtle fashion. Based on late crime novelist George V. Higgins’s 1974 novel “Cogan’s Trade,” the movie boasts a darkly comic script grounded with real-world dialogue and strong performances all around, especially from Pitt.
Introduced via Johnny Cash’s song “The Man Comes Around,” Cogan’s called in to sort out a situation involving two amateur miscreants Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), who take up a job knocking over an illegal, mob-protected poker game run by well-respected Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta). The trick about this heist: Trattman will mostly be suspected since he’s already robbed his mob associates before during a previous poker game.
From the moment this plot point is introduced, Dominik pounds on America with an iron hammer, as he did in his film “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” The mobsters in the card game flippantly playing with each other’s money serves as a metaphor of how the Wall Street suits fell as the financial industry collapsed.
But earlier in the film, Dominik establishes the film’s mind-set toward crazy capitalism through a series of television and radio warbling about the economy crashing, without losing focus on the actual story.
Cogan constantly meets with a clean-collared mob lawyer (Richard Jenkins) to discuss how his every move to fix the situation has to be approved by the corporate suits running the mafia. But that doesn’t suit Cogan too well, so he brings along fellow assassin Mickey (James Gandolfini), a decision that proves to be ill-advised.
Gandolfini’s presence in “Killing Me Softly” is reminiscent of his role in the HBO series “The Sopranos” (though the movie hardly compares), but that’s not his character in every scene. No longer at the top of his game, Mickey now spends his days drowning himself in alcohol-related self-pity and spending time with prostitutes.
While most viewers may think the scenes where Cogan and Mickey exchange words move the story along at an excruciatingly slow pace, there is a point to them, and it’s mostly to help characterize Cogan. Cogan is disgusted with everything he sees around him: the economic situation and how everyone seems to take it. He’s keeping a level head as he’s stuck cleaning up the mess and displays his cynical nature by blasting Obama’s talk of unity and change as being empty and worthless.
“Killing Them Softly” is about as pessimistic as it gets toward American capitalism, and that level of cynicism is equally met with great filmmaking and acting.
The brilliant cinematography makes killing look like a form of art, so the film is not for the squeamish. On a technical level, it works similarly to “Dredd 3D” in using extreme slow-motion shots, with bullets entering and exiting human skin as well shattered glass with artistic effect.
Dominik also demonstrates his knack for developing brilliant atmosphere and attitude to set a scene. The decaying, rundown New Orleans atmosphere easily compliments the dark, visceral feel of the entire film.
While all of the cast members own their camera time, Pitt is the star of the movie, demonstrating his fearlessness in taking uncomfortable roles. Pitt’s performance gives the enigmatic Jackie Cogan such an amiable and charismatic, yet also callous, persona, one that rivals Ryan Gosling in “Drive.” In the movie, it’s Cogan professionalism against everyone else’s lack thereof, but he’s still just another man like the rest of them stuck in society’s underbelly, taking a minimal fee for his work during the recession.
The film probably could have taken a lesson from its title and expressed its bitter tongue toward the state of the nation with more subtlety. It may also not impress the usual fans of gritty crime dramas. But “Killing Them Softly” isn’t looking for audience approval.