The Usual Suspects (1995)
Directed by Bryan Singer
Written by Christopher McQuarrie

As the film that arguably reinvented the modern thriller, it's hard to watch The Usual Suspects without noting the telltale signs, planted expertly throughout, of exactly who is Keyser Soze. And yet, even on this viewing, the makers had this reviewer nearly convinced that it was not who I knew it was, and in fact someone else.

It's an obvious testament to the filmmakers' manipulatory skills.

The "shocking twist"—that revelatory final-scene moment in which one small piece of information is disclosed that causes the viewer to re-think the entire film—is by no means new, but The Usual Suspects infused the twist with enough of a jolt of fresh vinegar that nearly ten years later, it's not only conventional, but expected and anticipated.

By now, face it, if you see a movie that purports to be surprising or twisty, you are by default in for two hours of sitting in the theater thinking, "Okay, what's the twist? Is that the twist? Was that a clue?" along with the muted pride when (and these days, it's not "if" you figure it out, it's "when") you figure it out. If you are not contemplating the twist, chances are you are watching another type of movie altogether, and we'd highly recommend putting your thing away before the vice cops burst in.

Keep in mind too that The Usual Suspects was released shortly after Pulp Fiction, and between the two of them inspired a generation of screenwriters who, themselves antisocial nerds, crafted thousands of screenplays about impossible heists and hipster thieves who spout self-conscious dialogue and take a distant backseat to clever plotting.

But that's not the fault of the movies in question. And The Usual Suspects remains a treasure, worth dipping back into when you're sick of super-smart high-tech criminals with elaborate, highly confusing but brilliant plans.

The characters in Usual Suspects are actually pleasantly stupid, not even that great at thievery, though they are all experts in their specialized field. Fuck, they cast Stephen Baldwin, and these are some smart filmmakers, so you know they knew what they were going for.

The seams in this prom dress of a movie do show a bit with age. The acting is sometimes spotty, for example. Gabriel Byrne is mysterious and handsome indeed, but he's incapable of giving his character the depths of darkness and sadness that would make us both love and fear him, as is required by the snaky logic of the story. Kevin Pollack is serviceable in his role, though no great shakes, and actually upstaged by the aforementioned Stephen Baldwin.

And I'd argue to my grave that the centerpiece performance, the performance that made Kevin Spacey a household name, is very theatrical and surfacey. I know it's a shocking betrayal, but this reviewer has some serious reservations about Kevin Spacey's reported amazingness.

No question he's a really good actor, but like DeNiro (don't get me started on him), he's more mimic than artiste. Spacey feigns emotion brilliantly, but I have yet to see a performance in which he's fully there, inhabiting his character like a second skin. This applies to all of The Usual Suspects, most of American Beauty, and a majority of his other roles as well (including his achingly unpleasant performance as Jar-Jar Binks' clumsy father in the never-aired The Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace Christmas Special, in which Jar-Jar visits all the planets in the galaxy in search of "real Gungadee spirit" (Gungadee being the thinly-veiled Gungan Christmas) and ends up singing local holiday songs with celebrities such as Hector Elizondo, Betty White and Nathan Lane).

Watch Spacey's eyes in any of his films: like the shark in Jaws, Kevin Spacey's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes.

Then watch About Schmidt or As Good As It Gets to see Nicholson, who has yet to truly get the recognition he deserves as one of the greatest, deepest, realest actors ever.

That said, there's no question Spacey makes the part his own, and it's hard to imagine another actor having the impact that he, unknown at the time, did in this movie. It's even arguable that his terminal blankness works perfectly for the role of Verbal, who as we all know, turns out to actually be Chazz Palminteri's mother.

Speaking of Chazz, yes the mere mention of his name is somewhat comical by now, but he gives one of the best performances in the film. So too does Pete Postlethwaite as Kobayashi, the mysteriously international lawyer who runs Keyser Soze's errands. Both Palminteri and Postlethwaite had a real good run in the 90s, and haven't seen much screen time lately. Seeing their work here reminds one of why they had a good run, and causes one to hope they will find their place yet again among the pantheon of consistently-working character actors. Though on second thought, we could probably sacrifice Palminteri's questionable career in favor of saving Postlethwaite.

Also, Benicio Del Toro at the time was criticized for his unintelligible mumbling, but I've always felt – and have now officially confirmed - that it was a hysterical, pitch-perfect addition to the lineup.

Above and beyond the plot mechanics and acting, The Usual Suspects offered something that's hard to get right: atmosphere. There's a nifty Old-World feel to the shadier characters, especially Keyser Soze. The name alone conjures ancient Eastern European villages, tribal feuds and marauding draculas. Half the battle regarding atmosphere is the fact that they nailed pretty much all the character names, which is more difficult than you, grasshopper, realize.

But primarily it's the consistent development of the invisible puppetmaster Keyser Soze and his horrific backstory that lend the film a sense of history and dread, all of which builds into a truly exciting and tense action sequence, punctuated by that one terrified Hungarian dude screaming, "It's KEYSER SOZE!!!!"

So after all the copycats, returning to the source material only reminds the viewer how cool and surprising The Usual Suspects was. Now, what would be really cool and surprising would be a romantic-comedy sequel, The Usual Suspects 2: Love on the Run in which Keyser falls for a plucky Hispanic waitress while on the run from Chazz Palminteri.

Review by Crimedog