Payback (1999)
First screened in August 2020
Director: Brian Helgeland. Cast: Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Lucy Liu, David Paymer, Bill Duke, Jack Conley, Deborah Kara Unger, William Devane, Kwame Amoaku, Freddy Rodriguez, James Coburn, John Glover, voice of Sally Kellerman. Screenplay: Brian Helgeland and Terry Hayes (based on the novel by Donald E. Westlake). Twitter Capsule:
Scummy, brutish wallow in lowlife masculinity? Or jaunty funeral for it? Answer: both! Mean and compact as a bullet casing.
VOR:③
Throws back to those Lawrence Tierney-style beat-'em-ups from the 40s, while staying in dialogue with its own era. Also throws back to more-than-casual racism.
