I think we all expected Lionsgate to hit a rough patch after their tentpole John Wick franchise wrapped, but sweet Mary on a cross, 2024 has been an awful year for Lionsgate.
Imaginary. Arthur the King. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Boy Kills World. The Strangers: Chapter 1. Freaking Borderlands. This whole year, it’s been choke after choke after choke. Even when their films were halfway decent, they tanked at the box office because the studio fucked up the promotion and/or release dates. Hell, Megalopolis isn’t even out yet, and Lionsgate already fucked that by using ChatGPT to fabricate critical reactions.
And that’s not even getting started on The Crow (2024). That’s a whole other story, but be assured, that review is coming post-haste.
As if to prove my point, Lionsgate has a legitimately good film out right now, but nobody knows a damn thing about it. The film is releasing on so few screens that as of this typing, BoxOfficeMojo doesn’t even have a page for it. Releasing it day and date with The Crow (2024), like that makes any sense at all. Fucking idiots.
Greedy People lays its scene in the sleepy town of Providence, RI. Himesh Patel stars as Will Shelley, a police officer freshly moved into town with his pregnant wife (Paige, played by Lily James) so the two can settle down and start a family in a more peaceful environment. Unfortunately, Will got himself partnered with Terry Brogan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a corrupt cop who is literally too incompetent and obnoxious to function.
Long story short, Will botches a response to a call and indirectly kills Virginia Chetlo (Traci Lords) in self defense. What’s worse, Virginia was married to Wallace Chetlo (Tim Blake Nelson), the magnate whose seafood company keeps the local economy running. Thus Will and Terry do their best to stage the incident as a burglary/homicide.
But then Will and Terry discover a basket full of cash on the scene, promptly pocketing the money for themselves. And they notice that Wallace doesn’t seem terribly cut up for a man whose kitchen is covered in his wife’s fresh blood. And Chetlo’s on-staff masseur (Keith, played by Simon Rex) has suddenly made himself scarce. Hilarity ensues as various secrets come to light and all the revelations dovetail into a mountain of dead bodies.
All I really have to say about this one is that it’s a Coen Brothers riff. That’s it. All the pieces are here. This whole picture was pulled right out of the playbook that gave us Fargo and Burn After Reading and all its ilk. And the filmmakers show a keen understanding of what made those movies so effectively funny and clever. So if you want a complex dark comedy that interweaves half a dozen convoluted criminal storylines in a manner that’s fun to watch, here you go.
Granted, the themes are kind of weak. There’s a bit of lip service about the corrupting nature of greed, but that’s all been done before. And yes, it gets a little grating to follow such unsympathetic characters, but there’s some comfort in knowing that they’re all going to suffer.
Except the dog. Yes, it is my sad duty to report that the dog does indeed die in this movie. Major points knocked off for that.
Otherwise, I’m not really comfortable spoiling anything else about Greedy People. And even if I could, I don’t think I have anything else to say except that this is the best Coen Brothers movie I’ve ever seen that didn’t actually have the Coen Brothers involved. It’s darkly comical, it’s whip-smart, and even if the themes are nothing interesting, the plotting is more than fun enough to make up for that.
And anyway, it’s not like the actual Coens have made a comical crime thriller on this level in quite some time. (Yes, I’m absolutely including Drive-Away Dolls in that assessment.) So if that’s what you’re in the mood for — and again, if you can get past the dog getting killed, which is a great goddamn big “if” — go ahead and give it a watch.
If you can find it, anyway. Fucking Lionsgate…