"The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" is a haunting dreamscape. The characters and action emerge from an inky darkness to leave a series of impressions upon the viewer. The mind stitches together these impressions to make a cohesive and simplistic storyline that ultimately is secondary to MOOD. It's a raging sea of emotions & actions: conflict, power struggle, greed, ambition, pride, wanting, desperation, fate, trapped, claustrophobic, helplessness, failure, success, doom, fear. Throughout the movie, there's a visual obscurity, an emotional numbness and disconnect that is reminiscent of a murky dream world.
I must confess I am not familiar with the writing and directorial works of John Cassavetes. Although it was released the same year I graduated from high school, I never heard of this movie until last week. I was listening to a podcast from a couple years ago where Bret Easton Ellis interviewed Larry Clark and they both expressed their admiration for this movie. Their praise of Cassavetes and of this particular film inspired me to watch it. I have no special insight or perspective on Cassavetes' work, I only know what I saw and felt as I watched.
The cast is comprised of character actors and unknowns, which only adds to the dreamlike experience. A big name movie star in any of the rolls would have broken the spell. Yes, I consider Ben Gazzara to be a glorified character actor, not a Hollywood star. He was perfectly cast here. The sequences involving the annoying, ironically-named "Mr. Sophistication" flanked by the world's least enthusiastic strippers create that drowning feeling we sometimes get in a dream where we want to wake up, but can't. There is nothing visually "cinematic" about this movie. It's primarily dark - very dark, choppy and unsettling. But, all of that faithfully serves its intention.
I must confess I am not familiar with the writing and directorial works of John Cassavetes. Although it was released the same year I graduated from high school, I never heard of this movie until last week. I was listening to a podcast from a couple years ago where Bret Easton Ellis interviewed Larry Clark and they both expressed their admiration for this movie. Their praise of Cassavetes and of this particular film inspired me to watch it. I have no special insight or perspective on Cassavetes' work, I only know what I saw and felt as I watched.
The cast is comprised of character actors and unknowns, which only adds to the dreamlike experience. A big name movie star in any of the rolls would have broken the spell. Yes, I consider Ben Gazzara to be a glorified character actor, not a Hollywood star. He was perfectly cast here. The sequences involving the annoying, ironically-named "Mr. Sophistication" flanked by the world's least enthusiastic strippers create that drowning feeling we sometimes get in a dream where we want to wake up, but can't. There is nothing visually "cinematic" about this movie. It's primarily dark - very dark, choppy and unsettling. But, all of that faithfully serves its intention.