Greedy People

It is probably true that any black comedy is rarely laugh out loud funny, but I suppose that depends on your sense of humour? This starts off light hearted enough before turning to the theme of its title, and exploring the darker side of peoples natures when a bag of money comes into play. So the early, light hearted smiles and chuckles, give way to a more uncomfortable feeling as the bodies begin to fall, whilst avoiding becoming too morose.

The look and sound is at the higher end of B movie standard, the script is respectably tight and coherent, the characters are believably eccentric, likeable, and interesting. There are some great comedy performances delivering tight, well structured and funny/amusing dialogue.

Maybe not a Saturday night must see, but definitely a Friday night weekend opener.

Do yourself a big favor and skip the trailer. This is a fairly dark movie but I suspect the marketing department didn't quite know how to present it. So they put the lighter/funnier moments in the trailer and turned it loose, hoping for the best.

The movie itself was quite intriguing. A wide assortment of characters, of varying moral character, end up on a slippery downward slope of their own doing.

Excellent cinematography with good acting all around. Tim Blake Nelson? What can I say? I'd watch him read the phone book and he was superb as a slimeball.

Definitely worth watching, just be aware the trailer painted something a bit lighter.

Police Officer Will Shelley (Himesh Patel) and his very pregnant wife Paige (Lily James) are new to an island community. It's Will's first day at work. He accidentally kills a housewife and finds a load of cash. His partner Officer Terry Brogan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) suggests stealing the cash and faking a robbery homicide.

I have a couple of issues with the money. First, real thieves would never leave the cash with another thief. Will should demand his share right away and hide it himself. Second and more confounding, I don't know how Paige got the cash to the hospital. Did no one ask what's in that plastic bag? It seems highly unlikely. This is nowhere Coen Brothers level, but there is still some good dark humor crime chaos.

After watching Greedy People, it feels like the kind of film that made you believe there was more in store, from its pulpy premise. The keyword here is "made you believe." Unfortunately, the promise ends at being thoroughly engaging and not much else. You already know from Act One that none of the characters are likeable, trustworthy-and that would've been totally fine if it were only meant to be a harmless comedy. The film gets darker with each passing scene, and the humour basically transitions into a standard thrill-fest. Joseph Gordon-Levitt puts in a good show, and so does Lily James (did anyone else notice how she ate from the same spoon she fed her dog with?). The rest are functional, playing their respective roles without going overboard-it was still hard to buy into Himesh Patel as a cop.

I really wanted to believe there was more to one particular angle (revealing it would be spoiler-ish) about "respecting borders." That had the potential to really up the comedy quotient, yet it's not even explored. The ending also feels rushed (i.e. For a 1h 52m flick), with a resolution that just doesn't hold a lot of weight. There are a lot of coincidental happenings in the third act, making the plot threads easier to tie up sans emotional heft. A film like this needs the deep, character-driven approach (which it tries to some extent)-where one bad decision really wears down the leads. Not a bad film by any measure, though you'd wish there was better detailing to the key characters.

This movie sneaked up on me and surprised me how much I enjoyed it. This is a tale about deception, greed and true human emotions and is very cleverly wrapped up in a Tarantino esq story which jumps back and forth in time to show the lead up to an event which is the back bone of the story. Its not so much a 'who dunnit' as its clear who has done what but the events which unravel around it keep you guessing with who and why. Not so much a comedy as it is a drama with some darkly humorous moments.

The cast is excellent. Im never a fan of casting English actors into roles which require thick American accents but Himesh Patel and Lily James do an admirable job. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the stand out performer portraying a slightly unhinged and chaotic character. Certainly a role I haven't seen him perform before.