Killing Them Softly is headed for a $7 million debut, according to Weinstein, which is Brad Pitt's worst wide opening since Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas back in 2003, and worst live action wide release since 1994's The Favor. Rocking a retro leather jacket and tinted sunglasses la Fight Club and driving around in a classic American car la Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Pitt is in pretty boy cool mode here. 2,449, This story has been shared 1,851 times. Killing Them Softly (2012) is available on Netflix United States. Via voices on radio and faces on TV, Dominik juxtaposes a world where everyone has skin in the game with a world where everyone clearly doesnt. 870, This story has been shared 787 times. Stream It Or Skip It: 'Lupe' On HBO Max, A Drama That Explores Themes Of Immigration & Transgender Identity, Stream It Or Skip It: 'So My Grandma's A Lesbian!' Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly has a strong and well made feel that makes the overall experience quite enjoyable. What Time Will 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' Episode 5 Come Out on Disney+? If youre one of those people who, in times of turmoil, craves art equal in gravity to the moment, consider adding it to your Netflix list. Metacritics rating: Check out How to Easily Change your Netflix Country for information and step-by-step instructions and videos. Netflix Netflix. Significantly, Markie is also held responsible. The movie Killing Them Softly tells a gritty story about crime and consequences, and ends with a snarling commentary on the so-called "American Dream." 6.2 The movie plays better today, I feel like, precisely because such a message no longer seems as radical as it did during the Yes, we can era. This was a made for TV movie and the direction and cinematography reflect that. And, suspiciously, only a few years later, Geithner received a highly paid position in the finance industry. Pitts contemptuous monologue in response which I wont spoil because its worth seeing how the film sticks the landing yourself functions as both cinematic denouement and cynical appraisal of the entire American project. 9,922, This story has been shared 4,764 times. Most of us are like the characters in the film in the sense that we, too, have very little slack. Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse. 4,764, This story has been shared 2,644 times. 73.0%. Killing Them Softly shuns the superficial optimism of the Obama years for an unsparring message: the United States is a country where ordinary people suffer consequences for their actions, but elites in particular, bankers and politicians often dont. If you inflict risk on others, and they are harmed, you need to pay some price for it. When a couple low-level crooks rob a Mob-protected poker game, a slick enforcer is hired to track down the offenders and take care of business. Keep in mind, too, that Brad Pitt was a huge star during this period. 389, This story has been shared 378 times. Whether the ending leaves you saying F yeah! or WTF?, its indisputable that the film is pretty bleak, leavened only by sporadic bits of dark humor. Like Markie, the vast majority of people in the U.S. pay for their perceived wrongdoings. Taleb, who popularized the idea of black swans around the same time Killing Them Softly is set, and who Josh Hochschild calls our most important contemporary theorist of chance, luck, and the vagaries of life, expounds on this idea in his 2018 book of the same name.