The Killer Inside Me (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)Bringing pulp novelist Jim Thompson to screen has always been a tricky proposition. His dark stories are easy to push over the edge of sanity. With their undercurrent of brutality, they can walk the line of comedy and/or surrealism but still maintain a realistic punch to the jaw. Getting that tone has been hit or miss in cinema--personal favorites are the sublime "The Grifters," "Coup de Torchon" and the underrated "After Dark, My Sweet." I was stoked to hear director Michael Winterbottom had taken on "The Killer Inside Me" which had been covered poorly in an earlier production featuring Stacy Keach.
Winterbottom has assembled an impressive cast including Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Ned Beatty, and Kate Hudson for this neo-noir piece. Affleck stars as a low-keyed and likable law enforcement officer who gets involved with a local prostitute and enmeshed in a murderous scheme. But to cover his tracks, further bad deeds need to be done--and Affeck seems to relish this new evil! It's best not to go into the specifics of the plot and to let the film unfold, but Winterbottom does not shy away from some explicit and surprising violence. It's unsettling, to say the least, but helps to establish an effective "anything can happen" feel!
Ultimately the success of "The Killer Inside Me" rests on Casey Affleck's shoulders. He is not the conventional actor one would picture for this role. Small in stature, relaxed in delivery (and enunciation)--his offbeat presence actually makes "The Killer Inside Me" even more intriguing. As he is not a predictable "leading man" or a particularly menacing presence, you're never quite sure what he's going to do. I found this lack of expectation to be quite invigorating and led me to accept and appreciate the twists of the film to a greater degree. To be fair, the film does get loopier and loopier--but I was happy to follow this sordid tale through to the completely over-the-top finale! KGHarris, 8/10.

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Oscar-nominated actor Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) gives his most chilling performance yet in the controversial crime drama The Killer Inside Me. Co-starring Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four), Oscar nominee Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), Emmy nominee Simon Baker (TV s The Mentalist) and Bill Pullman (Independence Day), this modern-day film noir shows a small town sheriff up to his neck in murders: his own. When Affleck s sheriff is asked to railroad a talkative prostitute out of town before she makes trouble, he realizes it s easier to just get rid of her for good. Unfortunately, covering up that murder means eliminating more and more people as his problems and complications spiral out of control. Even worse, he s starting to enjoy committing the crimes a lot more than he ever enjoyed dishing out the punishment. Based on the pulp fiction classic by Jim Thompson (The Grifters), The Killer Inside Me is an assured, stylish film [Guardian UK] that reveals the danger when a lawman s badge is hiding a cold, cold heart.

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Secretary (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)The joy of SECRETARY lies in its characters, all of whom are quirky (to say the least). And if you leave the film thankful that you run with "normal" folks, then you probably just don't know the person in the adjacent work cube all that well.
As the film begins, Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has just been released from institutional therapy. Lee has a level of self-esteem that's abysmal to the point of involving self-mutilation with sharp objects. (She even has her own first aid kit to disinfect and treat the wounds as soon as she makes them!) And whatever therapy she got didn't stick. But, life goes on, so she takes a typing class, and subsequently lands a job as a SECRETARY for the perfectionist lawyer "Mr. Grey" (James Spader).
Mutual assessment soon reveals potential for an S&M relationship where Grey is the "S" and Lee the "M". Courting, so to speak, and foreplay involve the boss making increasingly difficult demands of Lee's job performance with the mutual understanding that the latter will fail and punishment will follow. And what's a poor girl to do when making deliberate spelling errors in legal correspondence just doesn't push Grey's lust button anymore?
Spader's Grey persona is so deliciously creepy - not sinister, just creepy - that his paralegal does her work in such an unusual hiding place that she's rarely seen, even by the audience. And the delightful Gyllenhaal's portrayal of Holloway is so otherwise girl-next-door, except for her preoccupation with cutting edges, that I'm now surreptitiously scrutinizing our office secretaries for barely-hidden scars. And Jeremy Davies is terrific as Lee's nominal boyfriend, the painfully pathetic Peter.
While SECRETARY was in the theaters, it probably wasn't a film that you would've taken your prim and proper grandmother to see for her day trip away from the assisted care facility. It has some artistically done full-frontal nudity and a couple scenes of X-rated heavy breathing. SECRETARY is a stylish and darkly humorous treatment of a delicate subject that allows the viewer to snicker without the guilty feeling of having been discovered with a dirty magazine. (Of course, if Granny finds it knee-slapping funny, you might want to rethink your assumptions about her younger years.) My only complaint was that the ending is perhaps a little too drawn out and tidy. A snappier, more edgy conclusion would have made the film a perfect gem.
Now, where did I stash those red, felt tip markers? I have to proof an associate's work.

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Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has a few strikes against her when she applies for a secretarial position at the law office of E. Edward Grey (James Spader).Although she\'s never had a job in her life Lee is hired by the mysterious lawyer Mr. Grey.At first the work seems quite normal but soon in between typing filing and making coffee Lee and Mr. Grey embark on a more personal relationship crossing lines of conduct that would give any human resource director the vapors!System Requirements:Starring: James Spader Maggie Gyllenhaal Jeremy Davies and Leslie Ann Warren.Directed By: Steven Shainberg.Running Time: 111 Min. Color.© MMII Secretary Productions LLCFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:DRAMA Rating:R UPC:658149811324 Manufacturer No:71883

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