The Return of Superfly

I didn't realize how few movies I'd seen this year until the Golden
Globe nominations came out, and I'd only seen Michael Clayton and The
Simpsons Movie. I thought I should start rectifying that situation, so
I went to see Ridley Scott's American Gangster. Based on past
experience I don't htink you can go too far wrong having Chiwetel
Ejiofor follow Denzel Washington around in a movie with a white co-star
who's cooler than a polar bear, and American Gangster doesn't go too far
wrong.

As a true crime story, it completely held my attention for the better
part of three hours, capturing a time and place in an almost tactile
way. Crowe and Washington are captivating running around in the setting
Ridley Scott creates for them, and Frank Lucas is an interesting figure
in the history of America, in a story that raises a lot of questions
about what might have been if his empire hadn't crumbled, NYPD
corruption had never been exposed, and a black man's organization raised
efficiency in the distribution of heroin and organized crime.

However I was surprised at how exposition-heavy the film is,
particularly Russell Crowe's side of the film, where long speeches
explain the essential nature of their characters. When Carla Gugino
makes a profound courtroom speech to Crowe explaining everything about
their marriage and the failure of his personal life, it's hard not to
wish Ridley Scott had chosen to show that onscreen, and not make a
historical film that's a slave to what happened next.

I did love the last shot of the film, perfectly executed without a
spoken word. It refers back to the opening of the film and and
completes an entire theme using only two elements: Denzel Washington's
eyes, and the music of Public Enemy, and those are two things that go
surprisingly well together on film. The whole movie is in the
expression of Frank Lucas, looking out on a street he no longer
recognizes, with jarringly loud music that pins the scene so clearly to
one particular time, and not the one Frank Lucas belonged to. The film
opens with the passing of Bumpy the gentleman, and closes with the sense
that the time of Frank Lucas the businessman is gone as well, just like
Russell Crowe's Richie Robbins had his path set a long time ago, and
can't stop being the guy who turned down a million dollars.

While I wasn't blown away, I certainly thought it was a nice film. And
any excuse to reunite Denzel Washington with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Public
Enemy is good.