steiner-sam

It's a combination police procedural and crime drama set in Scarborough, Maine, in the 2020s. A realtor, Summer Elswick (Matilda Lutz), is murdered in a house she is showing. Summer worked for the Grady real estate agency run by Camille Grady (Frances Fisher) and her son, Will (Justin Timberlake), who is Summer's live-in boyfriend. Tom Nichols (Benicio del Toro) is the detective heading the investigation. He's newly arrived from Philadelphia, where he was involved in a scandal. Tom is married to Judy (Alicia Silverstone), who is the niece of police captain Allen (Eric Bogosian). Also part of the group that plays cards together are Chief Marty Graeber (Mike Pniewski), undercover drug detective Wally (Domenick Lombardozzi), and Tom's rookie partner, Dan Cleary (Ato Essandoh). We quickly get introduced to three prime suspects--Will Grady, Summer's ex-husband, Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman), and weird Eli Philips (Michael Carmen Pitt), a man who thinks the Gradys illegally seized his parents' farm.

"Reptile" follows an insecure and jealous Tom Nichols, who follows various clues and finds himself in violent confrontations as first one suspect and then another come to untimely ends. Then it becomes clear the deaths are masking a larger scandal.

The plot is good and moves briskly. Benicio del Toro and Alicia Silverstone are excellent. Most of the other cops are fine. Michael Carmen Pitt is good "weird." Justin Timberlake is unconvincing. I would have given "Reptile" an 8, except I hated the drumbeat of music that tried to maintain a nonstop high tension level. Which is odd, given Grant Singer's music video background. Or maybe not. Give the action and dialogue some space; don't try to maintain a fever pitch for all two hours and 15 minutes.

It's a rudimentary low-budget noir drama set in California in the late 1940s. Broke but honest mining engineer Mike Lambert (Glenn Ford) drives a brakeless truck into a small town, causing minimal damage to a vehicle owned by independent miner Jeff Cunningham (Edgar Buchanan). Mike gives almost all his money to Jeff to pay the repair bill. In a nearby bar, Mike meets waitress Paula Craig (Janis Carter). When Mike gets arrested for the accident, Paula, surprisingly, pays his fine, and when he gets drunk, she puts him up in a motel. Then we learn Paula is conspiring with bank vice-president Steve Price (Barry Sullivan), who is unhappily married to the bank president's daughter (Karen Morley). Paula and Steve are planning a scheme to cover his embezzlement of bank funds, and they need someone who looks something like Steve for their plot.

"Framed" is basic noir with a femme fatale manipulating everyone. Paula is so evil that the plot turns in on itself near the end. Glenn Ford, Barry Sullivan, and Edgar Buchanan (whose character befriends Mike) are effective. Janis Carter is too chill for small-town California in the 1940s. The story would have improved with a less moralistic ending.

It's a buddy road comedy drama about two guys in their 40s, past their prime, set from San Diego to California wine country over one week. Two college roommates, Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) and Jack Cole (Thomas Haden Church), head on a bachelor trip for a week before Jack's marriage into a wealthy Armenian family. Miles is divorced, teaching middle school English, and failing at getting a novel accepted for publication. Jack used to have a part in a TV series, but now mostly does commercial voice-overs. Miles is an oenophile who tends to overconsume wine into depression. Jack wants a last sexual fling before his marriage. Early in their trip, they meet waitress Maya Randall (Virginia Madsen) and wine pourer Stephanie (Sandra Oh). Jack knows Maya from previous trips to wine country, and Maya and Stephanie are also acquainted. This leads to a week of fun, deception, disappointment, and efforts at rectification.

I loved "Sideways," partly because I love Paul Giamatti, and often find it easy to identify with his characters. That was the case here, and you ride with his stymied efforts at emotional breakthrough and recovery of optimism for his life. Thomas Haden Church is excellent as the actor, role-playing his way out of tight spots. Virginia Madsen is wonderful in portraying empathy with a sensible self-image. Sandra Oh provides an edge in Stephanie that more than matches the duplicitous Jack. The plot moves right along, and the vocabulary one learns about wine is amazing.