Philip Seymour Hoffman's last film was
this very strange blue collar drama set in the New York district of the
title. It's closer to being a darkly surreal comedy than a drama, though
the jokes seem to have been removed. It centres around the events,
spread over 3 days, following the death of young lowlife Leon. He is
killed by a fellow worker, an elderly black man whom Leon liked to
taunt, but his death is passed off as an accident. Nothing about the
picture seems 'realistic' except, perhaps, the milieu in which it
is set.It's certainly well played by a very good cast but it also feels inconsequential. It was in part written by the actor John Slattery, who also directed, from a novel by Peter Dexter and is just too off-the-wall to be dismissed. It's a small picture that seems to want to be bigger and when it was over it left a somewhat acrid taste in my mouth.
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