{"id":4474,"date":"2013-01-11T06:22:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T14:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=4474"},"modified":"2013-01-11T06:22:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-11T14:22:10","slug":"gangster-squad-not-the-noir-you-are-looking-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=4474","title":{"rendered":"GANGSTER SQUAD Not the Noir you are Looking For"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nAbout midway through \u201cGangster Squad\u201d I began humoring the notion that the film might actually be striving for comedy. On the surface the project looks like it wants to be another \u201cL.A. Confidential\u201d with a weighty Noir feel but it definitely is not. And it isn\u2019t as though the plot or characters are particularly funny. But the shoot\u2019em up violence is so outlandish and the internal logic so silly that it must be a joke. If not, then the only other option is that \u201cGangster Squad\u201d is just a misguided attempt at a modern mobster flick that frequently borders on stupidity. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The All-Star cast should be ready for something meaty. You have Sean Penn slathered in prosthetics as the depraved Mickey Cohen taking chunks out of the scenery and bellowing like a young(er) Al Pacino. There\u2019s the ever-dapper Ryan Gosling, sleeping with the dames with a constant cigarette dangling from his lip. Josh Brolin grounds the movie with a heavy performance that has him carrying over some of his Tommy Lee Jones impersonation from last year\u2019s \u201cMen In Black 3\u201d. These are serious men that are easily taken seriously but there is a serious disconnect between material and presentation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

People are pulled apart. Cops walk up to groups of mobsters and begin spraying bullets, very few of which hit any mark. Hands are cut off during harrowing fights in elevators. There is a scene where two characters stand about 15 feet apart and unleash hundreds of bullets at each other (in slow motion, no less) while not one pierces any flesh. My favorite example of \u201cWhat the F@ck?\u201d logic: Gosling is conversing at Brolin\u2019s house, formulating their next move. Emma Stone, who has never been to Brolin\u2019s house and would have no reason to know it\u2019s whereabouts, pulls up in a cab, jumps out and says \u201cI\u2019ve been looking all over for you\u201d. Did Miss Stone comb the streets of Los Angeles, driving down every road until she happened upon him? You have got to be joking.<\/strong>
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\n Regardless of tonal intent, \u201cGangster Squad\u201d is \u201cinspired\u201d by a true story that is very interesting. Cohen was a real-life criminal who ruled the streets of L.A. in the late Forties. Corruption ran deeper than the Los Angeles River so the clean cops were practically powerless. Police Chief Parker (Nick Nolte who can now barely get a word pushed through his shredded vocal cords) decides to put together a secret group of officers to end Cohen\u2019s reign. They leave their badges behind. They are no longer police officers, they are soldiers and this is war. Dun-dun-duuuun!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now I have to do some more research, but I\u2019m pretty sure that the reason \u201cGangster Squad\u201d is \u201cInspired\u201d by a true story is because Cohen was a real man, 1949 is an actual year and Los Angeles is really a city. Most of the rest must be fabrication.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The confusing tone of \u201cGangster Squad\u201d could probably be blamed on the film\u2019s director Ruben Fleisher. The man has quickly established himself as a mash-up director who smashes genres together with varying success. \u201cZombieland\u201d was a brilliant Horror-Comedy while his follow up \u201c30 Minutes or Less\u201d suffered from the same disconnect as \u201cSquad\u201d does, blending comedy and balls-out action while not succeeding at either very well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The design of the film is impressive and gives us pretty glimpses of a Hollywoodland long gone. Stone has the look of a Golden Age Starlet while all of her co-stars are game. Visually the film shifts gears as well as there are inexplicable moments when the camera whirls and spins around in an ultra-modern fashion while the rest of the film is staged rather pedestrianly. Pick a style and stick with it!! You are no Tarantino, Mr. Fleisher, and your ADD sensibility is distracting more than entertaining.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About midway through \u201cGangster Squad\u201d I began humoring the notion that the film might actually be striving for comedy. On the surface the project looks like it wants to be another \u201cL.A. Confidential\u201d with a weighty Noir feel but it definitely is not. And it isn\u2019t as though the plot or characters are particularly funny. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6942,8101,11045,17409,17474,17867],"class_list":["post-4474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-emma-stone","tag-gangster-squad","tag-josh-brolin","tag-ruben-fleisher","tag-ryan-gosling","tag-sean-penn"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}