Blackness, greed and one step further

Those who (for one reason or another) deal with it film criticism, and in an effort to implicitly note in these criticisms something about the state of the world we live in, it was liked that in the vortex of dominance of streaming services, every now and then they clarify the presentation context as an aggravating or facilitating circumstance. In this way, somehow, they always find themselves a few steps away from the minefield of always disastrous and then questionable relativizations. Quite simply, the premiere movie offer on streaming services of various services for years has primarily given rise to new disappointments. Examples include Dexter Fletcher, once an actor and later an excellent director, whose excellent films Eddie aka Eagle i Rocketman (a biopic about Elton John) led to a commitment to the streaming service, where he managed to deliver his worst directorial work by far - Ghosted: Ambarchi/Berthling/Werliin. And it's not just the director's (author's) stumbles, streaming films in all their feigned swagger often fail to convince viewers of even the elementary reason for their existence, because there are too many such and such films in the offers of specific streaming services anyway, and in their failure and unnecessaryness they are fierce competition with each other. It is not known exactly why, things are the most disastrous even with the most profitable - on "Netflix".

photo: promo

On another occasion, we could talk about the targeted (conscious) lowering of the finesse of film image quality and color, which is an essential part of it, but this week, well, we can jump in our own mouths and turn our attention to a very valid film from the current streaming offer. To make matters more interesting, the film, judging by the author's and production momentum and accompanying ambitions, gave its soul to cinema distribution.

Play dirty. (Play Dirty) is the latest work of the once truly great film director Shane Blake Kiss Kiss Bang Bang i The Nice Guys, along with much loved and appreciated movie scripts Monster Squad, Deadly weapon, Dirty play dirty (The Last Boy Scout), A long kiss goodnight.... In the new film, he used the rich legacy of the prose of Donald E. Westlake (who, for the sake of accuracy, signed his works with the pseudonym Richard Stark), and the specific starting point was the character of the fearless and very witty criminal Parker, who was portrayed in the film by many, very diverse actors: Lee Marvin, Robert Divall, Jim Brown, Peter Coyote, Mel Gibson, Jason Statham... Blake's Parker is cumulative and, let's call it thus, an impressionistic view of what that character represents in the collective memory of more knowledgeable consumers and fans of popular culture, while - as was the case in most of the previous screen adaptations - the action was moved to the present, thanks to which we see the modern Parker (now interpreted by Mark Wahlberg) through the prism of a contemporary action hero. With all the (production, pyrotechnics and other) hubbub, Shane Blake leads his Parker from one hyperaction segment to another, carefully taking into account the darkness that must emerge from the characters themselves, as well as the circumstance that they were trapped by greed, which are key generators of drama and the basic tone of (neo)noir heritage. In addition to everything else, there is also a carefully unraveled mystery at the center of which is the multi-stage theft of a precious artifact. Blake, simply, rules the styles of strictly defined inspiration, aware of what is necessary in order for Westlake, the master of old-time atmosphere and "shit", to be translated into the year 2025, while at the same time there remains a clear link between the original foundation and what can and should be done with it now. In that aspect, this is a flawless film, a superb neon noir with a clear foothold and a precisely implemented origin, and Shane Blake sovereignly and economically rules the givens of the black film there. With all this, he shows finesse in managing the darkness that practically oozes from the pores of the conflicted and playful actors. This is followed by high-octane and extremely noisy action passages, and in the wake of the film Play dirty. enters into a certainly pleasant and commendable analogy with the masterpiece Dirty play dirty directed by Tony Scott, and written by Shane Blake himself.

A conditional fence is also needed at this place. The action segments are an attractive and extremely functional item, but they also give the impression that in that dimension this film has moved the most away from Westlake's "pattern", perhaps even a step further than was necessary. It may be due to the presence of Mark Wahlberg in the lead role (there are also Rosa Salazar, Lakit Stanfield, Tony Shaloub...), and he is the actor with the most pronounced aura of a (hyper)action hero, which, it seems, can hardly be avoided. On the other hand, it is precisely in those segments that a strong and persistent viewer impression emerges that it is Play dirty. a film of full cinematic dimensions, whose evident potentials in that field were somehow wasted for the sake of a quick and easily perishable premiere on a streaming service.