A real noir. Well written; it makes sense. No plot contrivances. Well, maybe a few, just to get the film rolling. But once it gets going, it grabs you with tight, tough Marlowe-esque writing ("He should drop dead, anyway.") and visuals just too beautiful to believe. There's no pretty cinema here. The director wanted to tell a hardboiled story and delivers. Dark and light lend themselves well to this story of an amnesiac hoodlum as he battles to find himself, awash in an ocean of his past misdeeds. A story of redemption told by characters who wrestle with their own demons. The film never panders. It works hard and gets the job done, like the characters who inhabit it. A treat from beginning to end.
Review of The Crooked Way
