The G

The G is an intentionally miserable revenge film that showcases some of the most despicable villains of recent memory because of how they manipulate the legal system to take everything from the elderly. When the revenge finally comes it's very satisfying and suitably unflinching but the film saves it for the very end making it a bit of a slog even at a relatively short 106 minutes. Luckily, it has the right actress to keep it going until then.

Dale Dickey is great in a central performance holding everything together. She shows hints of a darker past early on and seeing her husband get mistreated is painful to watch, making her eventual revenge all the more satisfying when she shows no mercy. Bruce Ramsay as the main villain and his generically evil henchmen are the kind of bad guys who are very easy to hate thanks to how irredeemable their scheme makes them.

Karl R. Hearne's direction is very conventional in a way that rarely draws attention to itself. It looks suitably bleak, creating a strong sense of unease and confusion at the beginning when the house eviction happens with no warning. It only escalates further when they're in the care home since there's minimal contact with the outside world and the information that's slowly revealed makes their situation more horrifying.

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.

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 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.