MOVIE REVIEW - Killing Them Softly

Brad Pitt is back again this fall, and this time it's the new mob-related, economically-charged Killing Them Softly.  If there is something called an "artsy," gangster flick this might be it.

KLS is the story of a very scary Mafia hit man named Jackie (Pitt) and his unorthodox, yet in the end classic ways of killing enemies to the Mafia run businesses, namely card games.   It also is makes very loud social statements about the economics of the world, including the money blood-letting that can exist in any capitalistic society.   But this movie is set in America.

Someone is robbing the mob...in mob-run card and poker games.  The higher ranks of the mob bring in Jackie to put an end to this by taking out the principles doing the robbing and those responsible for setting it up.  Jackie is not their normal hit man, but the usual hit man has met his own end.  Jackie has different methods of doing contract killing.   He kills you emotionally first, then literally kills you after you are basically ready to be killed for your deeds.   There are some very scary and compelling moments in this movie when Jackie is killing you softly first. The actual killing is almost anti-climactic.  A scene between Jackie and one of his victims in a dive-bar over a beer as Jackie is wearing him down mentally is absolutely incredible.  Scary stuff without a shred of violence.  Every great performance has a signature scene that separates that performance from the field.  The bar scene is Pitts.

This movie is very much off the beaten path in many regards.   It has a very strange and eclectic musical soundtrack that correlates directly to what is happening on screen at that moment.   It also weaves in a narrative background of news footage from former President Bush as he leaves office, and President Obama as he is taking office in his election night speech from 2008.  Their narratives in effect narrate parts of this movie indirectly.  This movie starts out seemingly very disjointed, and is a bit hard to stick with, but as time rolls on, it pulls it all together nicely.

Pitt is extraordinary again.   He is perfectly cast as the scary Jackie. And man, does he look like an undesirable sort you would hate to have gunning for you.   Pitt will more than likely be bandied around again this year at Oscar time as best actor.  He will more than likely get a nomination for this.  He is backed up by a great supporting cast with James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, and Richard Jenkins.   This movie is molded together very skillfully with a nice mixture of heavy duty gangster flick, psychological thriller, some Alfred Hitchcock, and a bit of art to it.  Very well done,  very raw at times and very adult.  But also very good.  Also KLS does something you really don't expect, it ends suddenly and that was a surprise to me, as it had the feel of being a much longer movie.  It's only about 95 minutes and that was a great decision.
Brad Pitt is terrific, and so is Killing Them Softly.