Re-watched Bryan Singer’s masterful Usual Suspects, and am still awed, who knows how long since the first viewing.
The film is as tightly packed as I remembered, the spare execution of the seemingy straight plot only adds to the utter feeling of rejection when the floor falls out from underneath.
And it’s testament to the film that the storyline is by no means obvious on a second viewing. While the MacGuffin is known, it doesn’t diminish the plot at all. The hard-edged habitual criminals are good company even when it’s known what really happened.
The acting is awesome across the board. Both Kevin Spacey and Benicio Del Toro got their big breaks from this movie and neither Kevin Pollak nor Stephen Baldwin has ever achieved these heights again. But still, it’s the duo of Chazz Palminteri and especially Gabriel Byrne that excel consistently, both alone and when sharing the screen.
Seems that I definitely have to look into the scripwriters’s other output – if it’s even halfway this good, it still demolishes pretty much everything else Hollywood provides. And I so need to watch Miller’s Crossing, the other Gabriel Byrne-vehicle, again as well.