Leben und Sterben in God's Pocket

I was brought up thinking that a book had to have a story line packed full of memorable incidents, poems had to rhyme, and films were supposed to be full of action to be appreciated. I'm glad to say that I grew out of that 'please me quick' attitude. Yes if I'm in the mood for a dose of that I can gladly take it, but these days you are likely to overdose on that. I tend to seek films like this these days and I'm not at all disappointed. God's Pocket has been explained a few times already so I won't bother to do that. I'm just here to try and encourage others to enjoy this film for what it is, a great little offbeat film with tremendous characters, an everyday story of working people that takes a few twists and turns here and there, with a lovely dark streak running right through it. I for one loved it.

Like a Bukowski poem set to music and sung by Tom Waits, a rancid, deep dark comedy of errors in an urban hell. An amazing ensemble of great actors. Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, Richard Jenkins, Eddie Marsan and many more of some of the finest drunks and lowlifes you'll see on film. Christina Hendricks, unfortunately, is out of place and out-skilled. The script walks with a limp and probably has a disease.

It's a sad world we live in. A world where such a sad and beautiful story, full of acting genius and human feeling gets a 6.1 by an ever-action-craving audience... If you love the art of cinema, please watch this one.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's stepson's dead body is used, not in the best possible taste, as a comic prop, and Eddy Marsan does a funny turn as the undertaker who won't extend Mickey any credit. Turturro's wife runs a flower-shop and proves to be handy with a hand-gun. The comedy is mixed with rough sex scenes and more than one savage beating. As in Nicolas Cage's JOE, GOD'S POCKET delivers visceral violence in a beautifully shot movie with fine performances from its ensemble cast.

Despite the moments of comedy and the pleasingly upbeat coda, the overwhelming mood is grimness and grunge. But this is how people live in today's city slums (1980s Phildelphia looks pretty much the same in 2014), scratching a living, fighting off creditors, killing each other.

very very watchable movie probably best described as a black comedy drama which happens to be Hoffmans last role in a movie.

boy! let me start off by saying that i'm a Chinese American that grew up in a middle class neighborhood just like this...an Italian neighborhood pre-dominantly. underneath this middle class surface there was so much dirt around that it wasn't funny. everybody knew somebody that was crooked, backstabbing, lying, cheating and doing shady things was the norm.

i remembered when i was a young teen...one day a African American boy walked his Italian girlfriend home to her neighborhood and the neighborhood boys threw him off the top of a building and killed him. these motherf**kers thought they were invincible and doing wrong was doing right.

this movie got it just right, the neighborhood and the grit and grime. the only good guy was the construction company owner...everybody else was a scumbag including and especially the young man who died at the construction yard at the start of the movie. that's the funny thing about life in my neighborhood...you know inside that your child is a scum*g, but he's still a saint in the parents eyes...LOL!

all i'm saying is that i grew up in a neighborhood like this and the movie hits home. these motherf**kers were a biased and racist bunch of bullies. i mean how hard is it for a mob to beat up one man? then they feel good about it.

anybody that lived in a neighborhood like this would get what the movie is about. a totally depressing movie brought to life by a great ensemble cast. it didn't hurt that there were some deliciously funny black and comedic moments in it.

all in all...i totally recommend this movie, i mean even if you don't like the subject matter, there were some great actors and actresses in it, close or at the top of their game.