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At-A-Glance Film Reviews

Miller's Crossing (1990)

Rating

[4.0]

Reviews and Comments

Gangsters are the subject of this quirky Coen brothers film starring Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Jon Polito, and Albert Finney. As is custom with the Coens' surreal dramatic thrillers, there's a thin humorous undercurrent beneath the madness (an exaggerated machine gun shootout inexplicably serves well as both a dramatic plot point and hilarity). But on the whole, this is one of the Coens' more serious films. Their trademarks -- cigar smoking fat men behind desks, long hallways, eerily dripping blood, ruthless monologues, pleading monologues, creepy plot twists, and an omnipresent sense of place and time -- are all here in their splendor, and they work together to form a remarkable story with a lot of dramatic impact.

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