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movie review - Brown's Requiem

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one 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.

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