Movie Review: We Own The Night

We Own The Night
Directed by James Gray
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Duvall
Rated R

We Own The Night: Brooklyn Darkness

What are you doing? Nice college boy. Doesn't wanna get mixed up in the family business. You think this is a battle field where you shoot someone a mile away? No, you get a 45' shoot them up close and bada bing blood all over your nice ivy league suit. You're taking this awfully personal. Tom this is business and this kid's taking this very personal. -- Sonny Corleone, The Godfather

James Gray has made only three films in thirteen years. Like John Dahl, he has a mastery and firm understanding of the crime drama. We Own The Night may not be in the same league as Little Odessa or The Yards, but give it time to sink in. I was not blown away by We Own The Night. Seven years ago, I felt the same way about The Yards, but it grew on me over the years. I have a feeling the same will be true with We Own The Night. The first thing that stands out in this film is the cinematography. If I didn't know any better, I would have sworn this film was shot by Gordon Willis, the veteran cinematographer of the Godfather films, The Parallax View, All The President’s Men, and many other classics. The film’s cinematographer, Joaquin Baca-Asay, creates a vivid world of varying degrees of darkness -- one cannot help but think of certain scenes from The Godfather. The film may take place in the Brooklyn of the late Eighties, but it has a definite Seventies-style darkness to it. It is very refreshing. Wojcech Kilar’s haunting and brooding score only heightens the dark moods. His music works very well here as it did in Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate and Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula...continue reading this review at Geeks of Doom!