Miller's Crossing Details

The Coen brothers' sublime Prohibition-era gangster saga is a magnificent display of compelling acting, spellbinding storytelling and fine film-making. A dark-hued, richly operatic mood piece, with machine gun-fire dialogue and twisted meaty substance to spare, it focuses on the friendship between politician Albert Finney and Gabriel Byrne, the power behind his throne, and the bloody mob war that erupts when they fall in love with the same woman, Marcia Gay Harden, in a role Bette Davis would have killed for. The title refers to a lonely, leafy glade where somebody's murder will take place. Byrne is simply outstanding as the cool, calculating catalyst around whom the whole vivid spectacle revolves.

Like Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, this works both as a crime thriller and as an ironic commentary on that genre.... read more on Time Out