Homicide
Director: David Mamet
Year Released: 1991
Rating: 3.0
Wise and weary police officer (Joe Mantegna) gets stuck covering the murder of a Jewish store owner - which may or may not be a hate crime - while in the middle of an effort to find a cop killer (Ving Rhames!) - if it seems like he never changes his shirt, it's because he doesn't seem to need sleep. Mamet plays up the issue of Jewish identity and the importance of recognizing one's heritage entirely too much - it's fucking impossible to miss the fucking message, you fuck - and the ending is a bit too cute (even for him), though there's no denying his gift for scripting crackling dialogue (like the best dialogue writers, his world has its own cadence). What truly makes this is the cast is how Mamet hires the proper interpreters for his material (William H. Macy and Joe Mantegna are dynamic together): it's intimidating, a little sad and regretfully masculine.
