The G

From the look of the posters, this ought to be a film about a Polish gangster! Instead, it's about the curmudgeonly, vodka-swilling, "Ann" (Dale Dickey). It's really only her grand-daughter "Emma" (Romane Denis) who takes any interest in her as she goes through life with her incapacitated husband "Chip". Asleep one night, their home is invaded by people armed with a court order that puts them into a legally binding guardianship arrangement. This basically says that they are incapable of managing their own affairs and have to have someone else take control. Nobody asked anyone to do this, nor did the couple know of the court proceedings supporting it. It was all down to a dodgy doctor on the payroll of "Rivera" (Bruce Ramsay) who had his eye on their condo and their savings. Now locked inside their new apartment, she is determined to get out - especially as their new hosts can prove quite violent when it comes to making sure that they have squeezed out every penny the couple have. What "Rivera" doesn't count on, though, is that "G" has a bit of an history when it comes to looking after herself. What follows next is all a bit procedural and though Dickey is clearly having some bad-ass fun, the main thrust of the story is really the outrageous scenario that it represents: that some states in the US allow people to be summarily removed from their homes, and from control of their assets, by anonymous third parties fuelled by greed and palm-greasing. It's worth a watch, but the television will do fine.

The best part of this movie is Dale Dickey as "The G" because honestly, if you removed her from this movie it wouldn't be very good at all. Her performance elevates a not so great script and a kind of confusing story with a few too many twists and turns. While the other actors are all OK, no one stands out, leaving Dickey to shoulder the entire film and considering what a great actress she is, she handles it to perfection. The story is an interesting one, there is character development and she has some great lines, but at times I was just left confused. It didn't help that casting made the mistake of using two shaved head actors with beards to play parts that had me wondering what was going on until I realized it was 2 different actors in different roles. If you are a fan of Dale's this is worth watching, just don't expect anything worthy of her talent.

The scores tell you there's a normal distribution around 6 or 7 but then an anomaly of 10s for those discerning viewers. It's in a genre of amateur mobster but there are so many real characters and unpredictable twists and turns that set it apart from the masses. The supporting characters are complex in their combinations of attributes, not one dimensional or just incompetent or untrustworthy. The story has intertwining and overlapping paths that confuse and confound all the participants. The backstory is of a typical American modern reality of gangster capitalism backed up by the law and the courts, we can expect a growth in this type of industry with the second Trump presidency, which might at least as a byproduct produce some more angry films like this.

Was hooked by the first scene... and then the film continued to defy expectations, zigging when I thought it would zag. There are moments of humour- including a skinny-dipping scene- that you don't see coming (could say the same, in a different way, for a certain sex scene...) and overall the film has a thoughtfulness and humanity that you're not expecting to find in a dark thriller. Overall a really unique film that defies easy genre pigeon-holing. I wouldn't say it's perfect- there are some meandering plotlines so I would say if you are fixated on plot, you may find that a bit less satisfying, while if you are interested in seeing something original, with interesting characters and an incredible lead performance... then I highly recommend this.

The G is a well made film and much better than most low budget revenge flicks. Dale Dickey is great and perfectly cast. The injustice she and her husband go through sets the story up nicely. There are some pacing issues. A few sections feel padded out to stretch the run time to 100 minutes when really 90 minutes would have been more than enough. The action sequences are well handled. I would have given this film an 8 or a 9 but the final showdown was a little rushed. I was waiting for the G to pull the rug out from under the main villain's feet, but then something major happened off screen that was explained with a quick throwaway line. I felt like I'd been cheated out of a really tense final showdown that the film had been building up to.

This film is definitely worth a watch though, especially if you are a fan of revenge movies.