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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.

rand()m quote

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

—Bertrand Russell