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Sunday, January 31, 2021

Cindy Prascik's Review of The Little Things























My dear reader(s), this weekend the streaming services offered up a gift to the the homebound and weary: The Little Things, starring Academy Award (tm) winner Denzel Washington, Academy Award (tm) winner Rami Malek, and Academy Award (tm) winner Jared Leto. 

Spoiler level here will be...uh...mild, I guess. If you saw a trailer, there's not likely anything here you didn't see or guess from there. 

Two cops risk everything in the hunt down a serial killer. 

So, you got that the Little Things stars some ACADEMY AWARD (tm) winners, right?? All that hardware is the film's chief selling point, and, for my money, anything that has Denzel Washington's name at the top of the list is worth a look. I don't think the Little Things strains Denzel's exceptional skillset, but, as usual, he carries the picture with ease. I've fallen out of love with Rami Malek since his Oscar win, so if he's any better than serviceable here, it's lost on me. Jared Leto is laughably bad in a poorly-crafted role. I actively despised every minute he was onscreen, and I'm not normally a Leto-hater. I even liked his Joker. (Don't @ me.)

Outside of its acting heavyweights, the Little Things is a creepy but predictable procedural. The cops rough up persons of interest and deliver tone-deaf dialogue as reliably as if it were an old Starsky & Hutch episode. Everybody makes bad choices. You get a bad choice! You get a bad choice! And YOU get a bad choice! Where those choices lead may surprise you...or not...depending on how much of this sort of thing you watch. The Little Things looks, sounds, and feels suitably bleak, with muted colors and a grim score by Thomas Newman. Outside of Leto, it's a pretty well-crafted work that suffers only for feeling like it should be more, somehow. Maybe not worth subscribing to HBO Max, but if you're already a subscriber, definitely worth a look. 

The Little Things runs 127 minutes and is rated R for "violent/disturbing images, language, and full nudity." The Little Things is a passable yarn that features some nice work by Denzel Washington. In Covid times, we can't ask for much more...apparently. Of a possible nine Weasleys, the Little Things gets six and a half. 

The Little Things is now streaming on HBO Max. 

Until next time...









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