Pun Salad

This 1991 David Mamet movie was recently given the "Criterion Collection" DVD treatment, and I realized that I'd never gotten around to seeing it. And Netflix sent the Criterion DVD, all the better. (They don't always do that—they're expensive.)

Joe Mantegna plays Bobby Gold, a detective on the homicide squad of a decaying city. (Unnamed, but it was filmed in Baltimore.) He and his co-workers are asked to pick up the pieces of a botched FBI drug raid during which a bunch of people were killed and the targeted drug dealer escaped.

Bobby and his partner (William H. Macy) are off on their dragnet when, by sheerest coincidence, Bobby gets roped into investigating the murder of an elderly Jewish woman, shot while defending her variety store in the middle of a nasty ghetto, full of antisemitism. Was it a simple robbery gone wrong, or was the victim the target of a neo-Nazi conspiracy, due to her militant Zionist past? Bobby initially resists the temptations of Jewish solidarity, but eventually succumbs. This works out poorly for everyone.

It's a Mamet movie, so nearly everyone is colorfully foulmouthed and non-PC, spouting intricately-constructed dialog you'd never hear in real life. Mantegna gives (probably) the acting performance of his life (so far).

The DVD looks great. Extras: modern-day interviews with a few cast members, including Mantegna, and a gag reel. There was also a commentary from Mamet and Macy, which I didn't listen to.