‎Killing Them Softly (2012) directed by Andrew Dominik • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Killing Them Softly

2012 Directed by Andrew Dominik

In America you're on your own.

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.

Brad Pitt Scoot McNairy Ben Mendelsohn James Gandolfini Ray Liotta Richard Jenkins Vincent Curatola Sam Shepard Slaine Max Casella Trevor Long Linara Washington Ross Brodar Wade Allen Christopher Berry Kenneth Brown Jr. Mustafa Harris John McConnell Dared Wright Joe Chrest

97 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by DirkH ★★½ 34

Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.99

So this is a film about (WE'RE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS!!) a couple of low life criminals that (WE'RE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS!!) rob a poker game and get their come uppance. It´s also about (WE'RE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS!!) the guy going after the two low life (WE'RE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS!!) criminals that robbed the poker game. It's also about a guy with glasses (WE'RE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS!!) who screws hookers and drinks a lot and serves (WE'RE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS!!) no other purpose. It's also about another guy with glasses who (WE'RE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS!!) sits in a car most of the time.

Beautifully shot, sometimes funny, sometimes very violent film that keeps screaming in my face that it has a message instead of making that message relevant.

(WE'RE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS!!)
Review by Mary Conti ★★★★ 8

The December Project: Film #2

How this film plays with people will depend on whether or not you like your films subtle or not. Killing Them Softly isn't interested in letting its message sink in slowly. No, it's out to punch you. In the gut. Because you're fucking scum. And you deserve it, you worthless piece of shit.

Yes, Killing Them Softly is currently underperforming at the box office, and it also has a CinemaScore of F. But I'm not surprised. Killing Them Softly is an angry film. It's angry about politicians shoving bullshit down your throat. It's angry about how the economy sucks. It's a pissed off wild dog and it's about to shove its rabies down your throat…
Review by Adam Cook ★★½ 23

Director, Andrew Dominik’s last film - Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - was one of the finest movies of the last decade which makes his latest effort all the more disappointing. Brad Pitt plays an enforcer who is hired to sort out a problem when two opportunistic wasters rob a protected card game. The thought of Dominik tackling a contemporary and socially relevant crime film sounded like a potent and exciting mix yet Killing Them Softly is a film that is rarely as insightful as it believes it is.

As a film it is aesthetically reminiscent of the grimy ‘70s crime dramas rather than the modern glorification of gangster culture. Barring a stylishly choreographed slow-motion centrepiece…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★ 8

In spite of the central message not fully gelling with me, Killing Them Softly is a mesmerizing work of genius musical ques, powerhouse dialogue that flows like lava, and performances that are as subtle as they are deeply potent. It's a film that is the equivalent of a spider crawling around in your room at night. It moves slowly, but surely; focused on one goal as it crawls inevitably towards a knockout conclusion. This is one film that deserves to be called a 'gem'.

And the set-piece moments are absolutely nuts.
Review by matt lynch ★★★★ 1

"Why are you being so fucking strident?
"Strident?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Um, you should leave."

first time i saw this i was all, "lay off the horn, i get it with your neat little analogy." but on a rewatch that's quantitatively so little of the whole. instead, focus on the relentless momentum (both of words and actions), the efficient translation of Higgins' gangland socioeconomy, the ostentatious formal flourishes, and the idiosyncratic performances. yeah, smugly makes its themes thuddingly obvious, but compared to the current glut of AmerIndie crime thrillers this might even be another THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, quite the novel jewel. using the Velvet Undergound's "Heroin" over the scene of the guy shooting heroin is simultaneously an incredible and incredibly mistaken set of balls.
Review by Travis Lytle ★★½ 2

A sort of mumble-noir that, save for bursts of intense violence, crawls through its narrative with talky languorousness, Andre Dominik's "Killing Them Softly" is a slow rolling crime thriller that is sometimes smart and sometimes uninvolving. The film is a meditation on the late 2000s American economic state of being, using the mob as its representative symbol, but it can not muster the energy to drive a narrative to be more than just occasionally interesting.

Revolving around hitmen, the instability of crime syndicates, and the need to clean up each, "Killing Them Softly" has enough gunfire, violence, and long passages of dialogue to make things interesting. Unfortunately, the film has a meandering sensibility and little sense of urgency. It is…

Recent reviews

Review by ebmsp ★★

I'm glad I watched this before Dominik's Jesse James picture, since now my expectations for that one are tamped down considerably.
Review by EliaN ★★★★

A fantastic surprise. I really liked this, everybody gives fantastic performances, some characters worked so well that they made me feel dirty just watching them. The script is excellent and as cliche as it is to say, very Tarantino-esque. The story is a hard time going, this is not a sit back and enjoy, you really have to listen to get what's going on. It's a very bleak story that is thankfully littered with black humor due to the wonderful script and dialogue. Pitt does an excellent job here, the entire supporting cast is pretty great too, including Ray Liotta, and that scientist from Cabin in the Woods, also another one that I didn't see coming at all, nice surprise.…
Review by PoonHoundAlex ★★★★

get a load of brad's pitt
Review by Naked_Airplane ★★½

This had the makings of a great gangster flick. Instead it is a mundane affair that even this stellar cast couldn't salvage.
Review by Stourly Cracklite

Subtlety is fucking overrated. This film is a pitchblack barrel of laughs that gets better with each viewing.
Review by carlx ★★★½

Emocionante y tenso de ver, me encantaron esas secuencias en slow motion y movimientos tan peculiares de cámara con las golpizas, además el trasfondo de la recesión económica del 2008 le da un toque muy especial a la trama y al asalto en la primera parte de la película. El único inconveniente que le encontré fue la corta duración que tiene, parecía que podía dar más...
Review by Lord_Buscemi ★★★

Within the first couple of scenes in Killing Them Softy, it's very transparent which direction it's heading in. And whilst I appreciate Dominik for tackling a worn out genre with an original twist, did it really have to be this heavy-handed in its approach?

The anti-capitalist stance in this movie is about as subtle as a kid with ADHD trying to smash an ant with a sledgehammer. Scene after scene, Dominik attempts to find some way of shoving coverage of the 2008 election right in the viewer's face, whether it be hearing it across the radio or plastering a billboard of Obama in the background. It's repetitive, tiresome, and way too overstated.

This film also suffers from some really unnecessarily…
Review by danis ★★★★

A pretty good artsy crime drama with great performances and an interesting style. Has a few flaws but they're quite minor. Some will like it some will not since it's a bit slow-paced.
4/5 , definitely check out if you're a fan of Brad Pitt or something
Review by ThatMovieGuy1 ★★★★

One of the most underrated films in recent years, Killing Them Softly is great. It's slow, beautiful, dramatic and brilliantly told. Every single performance is brilliant, the story is great, and there is a slow motion scene at the start of the final act that blew my mind. The cinematography is damn gorgeous. One or two scenes few quite expositional, and a few do drag a little, the social commentary is the opposite of subtle, but it is still a film that I am highly recommending.
Definitely check this movie out if you haven't already