Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

THE DEPARTED (R)

MOVIE BIASES: Even before Richard Roeper declared this his movie of the year, I was pre-bleepin' sold.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator), Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting), Jack Nicholson (Chinatown), Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights), and director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas)

Scorsese and gangsters seem to go together like Republicans and scandal, Anna Nicole and inappropriate, Hugh Hefner and cool. Back to his always-fertile ground of mobsterism - this time via a remake of Hong Kong instant classic "Infernal Affairs" - Scorsese reminds us just how gangster he is with his cool.

Relative street urchin Colin Sullivan (Damon) grew up waist deep inside Frank Costello's (Nicholson) Irish mob. Street and book smart William Costigan, Jr. (DiCaprio) also was raised by the streets of South Boston, the nephew of one of Costello's now deceased foot soldiers. What do these men have in common? They're both undercover: Colin works for Frank while climbing the ranks of the Massachusetts State Police at the same time Billy infiltrates Costello's organization, maintaining loyalty to a clandestine unit within said State Police. Neither knows the identity of the other, but they feverishly begin to hunt the other down as their superiors complain about "a rat in their midst." Oh yeah - Billy and Colin are both involved with the same woman, Colin's live-in girlfriend/police
psychiatrist Madelyn (Vera Farmiga).

Destined to stand among his finest, most intriguing pictures, "The Departed" is a master class in all things Scorsese (re: all things GREAT). Like a new breed "Goodfellas" head butting "Donnie Brasco" to the second power, Scorsese's "The Departed" boast all of those features of our universally loved yet un(Oscar-rewarded directors. Everyone has a radioactive, tough guy chip on his shoulder, thanks to
the brilliant adaptation by William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven). Deliciously "Bah-stan" with overflowing pots of hardboiled humor, Monahan's dialogue is so richly poetic in its alpha male's alpha male-ness, the script itself is a virtual work of literature as worthy of adulation as any Elmore Leonard novel.

Fully earning the right to film such a steely-eyed script, Scorsese directs just about everyone involved into nomination-worthy performances. Adroitly acerbic Wahlberg, as a dour, perpetually pissed off "Statie" sergeant, is so comically hostile towards his own, he may net a Golden Globe Award for a new category: Best Unbridled Rage. Vera Farmiga does a very competent job as the woman caught between two men she knows are wrong for her. And yes, you heard it here first: let the Alec Baldwin Best Supporting Oscar drumbeat begin! He's so goofy, pedestrian, and gleefully oblivious - matted down in sweated-through dress shirts and a who-gives-a-____ Boston accent thicker than a Christmas ham - that he out-Alec Baldwins his own Alec Baldwin.

What about the Big Three, you ask? I have no problem with the inevitability of Nicholson's Oscar nomination, despite his sporadic Nor'easter accent - I mean, he's Jack Freakin' Nicholson. It's a Jamba Juicy role of a bad guy who's so evil that his one redeeming value is that he has NO redeeming values: racist, misogynistic, violent, disloyal to everyone but himself, Francis Costello is NOT a good guy.
Leaving no piece of scenery without molar marks, Nicholson's presence alone (largely ad-libbed, I've been told) is so big, he's more the third lead, not a Best Supporting Actor candidate, which is floating about the critical zeitgeist. Taking a slight thematic backseat to Leo's good guy doing bad things, Matt Damon is uniformly excellent in his hometown atmosphere as a bad guy doing very baaaad things. Full of cocky brio that makes him repulsively attractive from his bulletproof
confidence, Damon maintains a dangerous, shifty watchability throughout. A shame he may not be nominated for anything because of...

Leo, Leo, Leo. THIS is the type of movie that reminds you why Leonardo DiCaprio is a star, why he's so ridiculously talented. As he sinks deeper into the clutches of Costello's mob, DiCaprio onion peels the layers away bit by bit, wonderfully disintegrating in front of our very eyes into a paranoid, pill-popping junkie on the brink of a meltdown from the immense energy it takes just to keep his equilibrium. Unlike "Donnie Brasco," Leo's Billy never loses sight of who he is, but his struggle to keep it - and himself - alive in a treacherous world/job devoid of trust - all on his own, no less (even Donnie had a wife; Billy's got no one he can trust, save a shrink
who's cheating on her boyfriend - grrrrreat) - is what exacts the greatest cost on his soul. INK DiCaprio in next to Forest Whitaker for the next sure-fire Best Actor nomination come Oscar time.

All of this is possible due to the timeless talents of Martin Scorsese. These fine performances are a testament to Scorsese's artful direction. From an incredibly tense scene of cat and rat in Chinatown to an anxious but silent phone call of the two moles contacting each other anonymously, through a harrowing third act that examines the nature of, the value of, and the price we pay for identity, Scorsese's
"The Departed" is a complete entertainment, a stridently American film despite its Chinese roots. "The Departed" is entertaining through every single, Scorsese-soaked frame. I love this movie. So will you.

"I don't want to be a product of my environment," declares Costello in voiceover at the outset. "I want my environment to be a product of me." As any movie lover would attest to this living film icon's indelible imprint on the mob flick genre, mission accomplished, Mr. Scorsese. Mission accomplished. I'm in love with a gangster.

@@@@ REELS
(FOUR REELS)
An urban legend/instant classic.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare THE DEPARTED (R) MOVIE BIASES: Even before Richard Roeper declared this his movie of the year, I was pre-bleepin' sold. MAJOR PLAYERS: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator), Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting), Jack Nicholson (Chinatown), Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights), and director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas) Scorsese and gangsters seem to go together like Republicans and scandal, Anna Nicole and inappropriate, Hugh Hefner and cool. Back to his always-fertile ground of mobsterism - this time via a remake of Hong Kong instant classic "Infernal Affairs" - Scorsese reminds us just how gangster he is with his cool. Relative street urchin Colin Sullivan (Damon) grew up waist deep inside Frank Costello's (Nicholson) Irish mob. Street and book smart William Costigan, Jr. (DiCaprio) also was raised by the streets of South Boston, the nephew of one of Costello's now deceased foot soldiers. What do these men have in common? They're both undercover: Colin works for Frank while climbing the ranks of the Massachusetts State Police at the same time Billy infiltrates Costello's organization, maintaining loyalty to a clandestine unit within said State Police. Neither knows the identity of the other, but they feverishly begin to hunt the other down as their superiors complain about "a rat in their midst." Oh yeah - Billy and Colin are both involved with the same woman, Colin's live-in girlfriend/police psychiatrist Madelyn (Vera Farmiga). Destined to stand among his finest, most intriguing pictures, "The Departed" is a master class in all things Scorsese (re: all things GREAT). Like a new breed "Goodfellas" head butting "Donnie Brasco" to the second power, Scorsese's "The Departed" boast all of those features of our universally loved yet un(Oscar-rewarded directors. Everyone has a radioactive, tough guy chip on his shoulder, thanks to the brilliant adaptation by William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven). Deliciously "Bah-stan" with overflowing pots of hardboiled humor, Monahan's dialogue is so richly poetic in its alpha male's alpha male-ness, the script itself is a virtual work of literature as worthy of adulation as any Elmore Leonard novel. Fully earning the right to film such a steely-eyed script, Scorsese directs just about everyone involved into nomination-worthy performances. Adroitly acerbic Wahlberg, as a dour, perpetually pissed off "Statie" sergeant, is so comically hostile towards his own, he may net a Golden Globe Award for a new category: Best Unbridled Rage. Vera Farmiga does a very competent job as the woman caught between two men she knows are wrong for her. And yes, you heard it here first: let the Alec Baldwin Best Supporting Oscar drumbeat begin! He's so goofy, pedestrian, and gleefully oblivious - matted down in sweated-through dress shirts and a who-gives-a-____ Boston accent thicker than a Christmas ham - that he out-Alec Baldwins his own Alec Baldwin. What about the Big Three, you ask? I have no problem with the inevitability of Nicholson's Oscar nomination, despite his sporadic Nor'easter accent - I mean, he's Jack Freakin' Nicholson. It's a Jamba Juicy role of a bad guy who's so evil that his one redeeming value is that he has NO redeeming values: racist, misogynistic, violent, disloyal to everyone but himself, Francis Costello is NOT a good guy. Leaving no piece of scenery without molar marks, Nicholson's presence alone (largely ad-libbed, I've been told) is so big, he's more the third lead, not a Best Supporting Actor candidate, which is floating about the critical zeitgeist. Taking a slight thematic backseat to Leo's good guy doing bad things, Matt Damon is uniformly excellent in his hometown atmosphere as a bad guy doing very baaaad things. Full of cocky brio that makes him repulsively attractive from his bulletproof confidence, Damon maintains a dangerous, shifty watchability throughout. A shame he may not be nominated for anything because of... Leo, Leo, Leo. THIS is the type of movie that reminds you why Leonardo DiCaprio is a star, why he's so ridiculously talented. As he sinks deeper into the clutches of Costello's mob, DiCaprio onion peels the layers away bit by bit, wonderfully disintegrating in front of our very eyes into a paranoid, pill-popping junkie on the brink of a meltdown from the immense energy it takes just to keep his equilibrium. Unlike "Donnie Brasco," Leo's Billy never loses sight of who he is, but his struggle to keep it - and himself - alive in a treacherous world/job devoid of trust - all on his own, no less (even Donnie had a wife; Billy's got no one he can trust, save a shrink who's cheating on her boyfriend - grrrrreat) - is what exacts the greatest cost on his soul. INK DiCaprio in next to Forest Whitaker for the next sure-fire Best Actor nomination come Oscar time. All of this is possible due to the timeless talents of Martin Scorsese. These fine performances are a testament to Scorsese's artful direction. From an incredibly tense scene of cat and rat in Chinatown to an anxious but silent phone call of the two moles contacting each other anonymously, through a harrowing third act that examines the nature of, the value of, and the price we pay for identity, Scorsese's "The Departed" is a complete entertainment, a stridently American film despite its Chinese roots. "The Departed" is entertaining through every single, Scorsese-soaked frame. I love this movie. So will you. "I don't want to be a product of my environment," declares Costello in voiceover at the outset. "I want my environment to be a product of me." As any movie lover would attest to this living film icon's indelible imprint on the mob flick genre, mission accomplished, Mr. Scorsese. Mission accomplished. I'm in love with a gangster. @@@@ REELS (FOUR REELS) An urban legend/instant classic. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com © 2004, Edwardo Jackson