Wednesday Morning Movie Review

This morning's movie review is of The Killing, Stanley Kubrick's 1956 Film Noir classic. I actually watched this on Saturday night, but I am inveterately lazy. Johnny Clay, an ex-con, devises an intricate plan to rob a racetrack with the help of a diverse cast of characters, including two racetrack employees who need money for different reasons and a corrupt cop. It's Noir, so I probably don't need to tell you that all does not go as planned and that it ends in grief for everybody. If you want the details of the many disasters, watch it yourself.

The last Kubrick movie that I watched was Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's final film starring pre-breakup Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. It was awful: boring, pretentious, and frustrating (because it promised action but delivered practically none, at least none that was interesting). But anyone can make a mistake, and I am helpless to resist Netflix recommendations. I'm not a very sophisticated viewer of movies, but I enjoyed this one. Even though I knew from the opening credits that the whole thing would end in tragedy, the plot was clever, and it's various twists and turns kept my interest. I especially liked Elisha Cook, who played George Peatty, a mousy husband who married a beautiful, money-grubbing woman and who needs the money from the robbery to keep her. A psychologist would probably have a field day with this, but I felt great sympathy for his character, and I thought he played him very well. Anyway, it was a good movie, and I recommend it.