movie review - Brown's Requiem
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-eight years and a million words
Sydney, 2000.07.07
This is a detective story, featuring a washed up drunk and a bunch of demented low-lifes. It's got a plot that unwinds with a gritty, unapologetic pace.
It's set in L.A., but only the parts of that city that are inhabited by the lowest rungs of society: homeless nuts, pathetic drunks, a grab bag of thugs, and dirty cops. Rooker, who is more familiar in supporting roles, is fantastic as the anti-hero: he beats information out of a pro baseball player in one scene that makes it quite clear just how lacking are most plots that feature a hero 'with nothing left to lose'.
Recommended.