Pete Smalls Is Dead

With a cast like this that alone should make for a pretty interesting movie, but unfortunately that is not the case and it is a rather forgettable tale.

So forgettable in fact that I forgot I had already seen it a couple years back and didn't realise until when I (re)watched it today 30 minutes in when Steve Buscemi shows up in an awful blonde afro wig that I had indeed seen it before.

It's supposed to be a comedy, but it's just not particularly funny. And in the end when the "mystery" is solved (I say that lightly because it's pretty obvious and it's not a mystery movie as such) in retrospect the script is rather stupid as well.

I made sure to write a review and rate it this time around so I don't have the misfortune of possibly watching it again in a couple of years when I very possibly would have forgotten about it all over again.

A very weak 4/10 from me, it would have been less if not for Peter Dinklage and Theresa Wayman.

This film was certainly not what I expected it to be. Luckily, it was much more than that.

I stumbled across the title while searching for a film with Peter Dinklage, whose style I really do enjoy. Here he plays a hapless laundromat owner, who needs to find ten thousand dollars to recover his near-blind dog from a loan shark who had him taken as collateral on unpaid debts.

This is what starts a dark comedy written with pacing, style and tropes taken from old film noirs. An original idea, that does deliver the goods. Helping the success are the characters, very human with their many flaws and thus also very practical comedy vehicles.

As the film ends, the style has been enjoyable, the cheerfulness despite of all the sad smudge has been constant, and the open-minded viewer will be happy that they spent their time on this unfortunately forgotten piece of film.

This movie kept me involved and entertained from beginning to end. Most of its conventions are drawn from film noir, albeit it might better be describes as a comedy of the absurd. With better distribution, it could become a cult classic.

Peter Dinklage is the hapless hero, struggling through the depths of Hollywood sleaze to get the $10,000 he needs to ransom his elderly dog. His buddy, played by Mark Boone Junior, has greater ambitions; but despite life and alcohol induced craziness, genuinely is a true friend.

Dinklage, as usual, is extraordinary, and his role is written so that his dwarfism is not even among the top five traits shaping his fully-formed character. If you are tired of the usual pap and want something to stimulate your brain as well as your senses, find this film.

You couldn't really call Pete Smalls noir, it's far too daylight for that, but certainly the story follows noir ideas. The beauty of the film is the succession of well known and highly capable actors all turning their roles into charm. It's a brilliant piece of casting. Peter Dinklage is the star and brings some of that cynicism he does so well in Game of Thrones to the fore in this as well. Mark Boone carries most of the acting burden and is perfect as the well-intentioned mate. You'll see Steve Buscemi and Lena Headey in utterly unfamiliar roles. Ritchie Coster as the bad guy plays a role that lovers of Happy! (2017) will find further admiration. Tim Roth plays a role he is far more suited to than the character he plays as the never-wrong Lie To Me guy or the tougher-than-everyone-else Tin Star guy. The most classic roles are those of Theresa Wayman as the quintessential French mystery woman, and Seymour Cassel as the Mexican grandfather figure. All enjoy a great script and many good original lines. It's a movie about friendship, and in that it succeeds with bells on.

I watched it because I'm a fan of Peter Dinklage's work. He was fine in this film. I loved the voice over storytelling. But I'm not a fan of Hollywood films about Hollywood. At least not fiction films about making films in Hollywood.

If this sounds convoluted, well yeah, it is and so is this film. I really can't fault any of the actors; I think for their part they were all believable in their roles. The story was just boring.

It's listed as a comedy that is dark, quirky and cynical. Well they certainly got the cynical part right but cynicism without humor is an exercise in tedium. I guess the quirky part is Steve Buscemi, another actor I enjoy, in a beige/blond curly clown wig looking like he'd been smoking 40 packs of cigarettes a day. Steve is usually great with the wry humor and quirky character portrayal; sadly, his character was pathetic. In fact all the characters were sad and pathetic.

I found myself skipping ahead every few minutes and then watching a few minutes and then skipping ahead. I didn't miss anything. You know it's like watching a soap opera every single day for three months and then missing the soap opera for a couple months; when you start watching again you realize Joan is still in the coma, Frank is still having the affair, and Cassandra is still making trouble for all of them.

This was 94 minutes of watching Peter Dinklage's character, KC Munk, trying to drum up 10k to get his much beloved dog back from the loan shark that took it to cover the debt. Munk spends the entire film riding on the back of a moped while his friend "Shemp" peddles him from place to place trying to either secure the 10k or get his stolen script back so he can sell it to get his 10k so he can get his dog back. I just couldn't care about the characters even though they spoke in soft and meaningful tones, it just didn't get me there.

I hated the story and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. For IMDb I always double whatever I rate on Netflix; so my IMDb rating is FOUR stars ~ PhaedraBlue 03/10/14 ~