Dirty Work

(2006) Bad City/ Dirty Work DRAMA

Made in the same tradition as "Crash", "Babel" and "Crossing Over" to name a few involving multiple characters intertwining with one another and quite well made in terms of it's dialogue, despite the movie being low budget! Movie starts with a bad cop, Manning (Lance Reddick), an African American police officer who has gambling debts with some very bad people, particularly to an oldie name Julian (Austin Pendleton), and then more characters come out on the forefront, such as the illegal immigrant maid and Frank whose trying to get land himself a better gig. All the situations are credible and quite subtle, and with a bunch of non popular actors can at times turn ones movie experience to be more credible to watch! The only downside is that it could've been longer had it had a bigger budget! A warning though, like other films similar to this they're no resolutions.

The overall acting was horrible, but it was completely worth watching because Austin Pendleton's portrayal of Julian was BRILLIANT and his performance single-handedly carried the entire project from beginning to end. I would LOVE to work with him again--more directly.

After watching it, I can't believe I never paid Mr. Pendleton much attention. It's funny the talents we overlook on their way up. After more research, I found that he's been in tons of films that I've seen and simply never noticed...It makes me want to go back and watch them all again to see what my problem was...or if he's just gotten that much better over the years.

Wow...if he had several other really great actors on this project, it would have been quite a heck of a ride! This was an AWESOME delivery of Julian for the viewers to really dig into what's left of the film....

One of the best, and most realistic of the film noir genre, in my opinion. Almost all of the major characters in the movie operate in government or in the underworld, and they are all corrupt, or at least somewhat so: look around you and you'll find that to be a reflection of today's reality. Also, there's little-to-no exposition: characterization and plot complication are the keys to understanding what's going on in this film, and I find that challenging and interesting, because it again reflects the reality of how one discerns meaning in real life. The twisty plot unfolds only as we learn who's who, and why they do what they do. The resolution is one of the most neatly drawn I've ever seen: all the disparate subplots come coherently together (a la Shakespeare!). This is a thinking person's movie, definitely not for the jejune who need to have characters tell them what's happening in a movie through usually extraneous dialog. Excellent performances: Lance Reddick, Nutsa Kukhianidze, and Austin Pendleton (one of the greatest villains I've ever seen on the screen).

There was nothing special about this movie. Dirty cops and mobsters and murdered prostitutes and crooked politicians have all be in many movies and at the same time. There just wasn't any reason for this movie to be made, especially considering that it was made so badly.

Austin Pendleton (A Beautiful Mind, The Notorious Bettie Page) was just about the most evil mobster I have ever seen. There just wasn't a good bone in his body. He seriously seemed to enjoy being evil. I have to admit he was fun to watch, but it still didn't make the movie worthwhile.

Georgian actress Nutsa Kukhianidze was also good and I fully intend to look for more of her films (The Good Thief, A Trip to Karabakh).

Tip for filmmakers: If your film is going to be crap and you are going to get an R rating, make it truly worth an R.

I rented this from Net Flix and it was named BAD CITY. I will say It could have been so much better but still worth watching. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas. 11/20/2020