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The Gentlemen
The last film I saw directed by Guy Richie was the live action version of Disney's Aladdin, but the director has returned to his comfort zone with 2019's The Gentlemen, a stylish and bloody crime drama that works thanks to a surprisingly clever double-layered story and the endlessly imaginative directorial eye of the director.
The story initially revolves around Mickey Pearson, an American drug dealer who owns a marijuana growing empire located in London, who is now trying to sell the business, which triggers various blackmail, bribery, and extortion plots. Wrapped around this story as its initial hook, is an aspiring reporter and filmmaker named Fletcher, who has been following Pearson's business dealings for years and has fashioned what he knows into a screenplay that he is trying to sell to Raymond, Pearson's # 2 man, for a hefty sum, even though he doesn't have the whole story.
Richie, of course, put himself on the map with films like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, two films I have never seen but watching this film definitely motivated my going back and checking out these earlier works. This film is one of those deliciously intricate crime dramas that not only unfolds in flashback, but unfolds in starts and stops, implying that what we're witnessing may or may not have happened exactly as we're seeing, but more importantly, that we don't have the whole story and that complete attention is required.
Other classic film dramas did flash through my head as I watched this bloody acid trip of a crime adventure. This central character, Mickey Pearson comes off as a bone-chilling cross between Tony Montana in Scarface and Kaiser Sose in The Usual Suspects. With each scene that Pearson appears in, the size of his power grows as does the length of his reach. A frightening meeting with a heroine dealer who he has already poisoned before sitting down with him brings this point home.
Those more familiar with Richie's work will not be surprised by the stylish, almost theatrical approach to presenting this story, and Richie never allows us to forget that it is a story, constructing his own 4th wall for us through proven cinematic trickery. The film employs endlessly inventive camerawork, with a sterling assist from film editors James Herbert and Paul Machliss. The cast effectively serves Richie's work with standout work from Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey in an icy star turn as Mickey Pearson. Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell, and especially Hugh Grant also make every moment they have onscreen count. Fans of Richie will find a lot of gold here and newcomers to the directors' work but fans of the genre should find treasure here too.
The last film I saw directed by Guy Richie was the live action version of Disney's Aladdin, but the director has returned to his comfort zone with 2019's The Gentlemen, a stylish and bloody crime drama that works thanks to a surprisingly clever double-layered story and the endlessly imaginative directorial eye of the director.
The story initially revolves around Mickey Pearson, an American drug dealer who owns a marijuana growing empire located in London, who is now trying to sell the business, which triggers various blackmail, bribery, and extortion plots. Wrapped around this story as its initial hook, is an aspiring reporter and filmmaker named Fletcher, who has been following Pearson's business dealings for years and has fashioned what he knows into a screenplay that he is trying to sell to Raymond, Pearson's # 2 man, for a hefty sum, even though he doesn't have the whole story.
Richie, of course, put himself on the map with films like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, two films I have never seen but watching this film definitely motivated my going back and checking out these earlier works. This film is one of those deliciously intricate crime dramas that not only unfolds in flashback, but unfolds in starts and stops, implying that what we're witnessing may or may not have happened exactly as we're seeing, but more importantly, that we don't have the whole story and that complete attention is required.
Other classic film dramas did flash through my head as I watched this bloody acid trip of a crime adventure. This central character, Mickey Pearson comes off as a bone-chilling cross between Tony Montana in Scarface and Kaiser Sose in The Usual Suspects. With each scene that Pearson appears in, the size of his power grows as does the length of his reach. A frightening meeting with a heroine dealer who he has already poisoned before sitting down with him brings this point home.
Those more familiar with Richie's work will not be surprised by the stylish, almost theatrical approach to presenting this story, and Richie never allows us to forget that it is a story, constructing his own 4th wall for us through proven cinematic trickery. The film employs endlessly inventive camerawork, with a sterling assist from film editors James Herbert and Paul Machliss. The cast effectively serves Richie's work with standout work from Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey in an icy star turn as Mickey Pearson. Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell, and especially Hugh Grant also make every moment they have onscreen count. Fans of Richie will find a lot of gold here and newcomers to the directors' work but fans of the genre should find treasure here too.