The Usual Suspects

          Just watched The Usual Suspects for the first time. One of my readers had the DVD sent to me, so this one is for you. After a ship is wrecked, the sole survivor (played by Kevin Spacey) of the incident is questioned by the police. He tells the story of the four other members of an old police lineup and himself, explaining everything that lead them to that ship. He even tells the story of Keyser Söze, a mysterious, devilish man whose existence is debated by criminals. Although I was thoroughly confused the entire time I was watching it, it was sort of like the first time watching Inception: the ending helps you start to grasp what was happening previously, and it also raises new questions. So if you are miserably confused the whole time, then be patient. I must say I found the framing and basic idea of the movie to be very much like those of Tarantino's earlier work. In Reservoir Dogs, the story begins after the actual event being discussed, and the men try to find out who the snitch was. In The Usual Suspects, we do not see the ship incident until toward the end of the movie, and the whole time the police are trying to find out who made the ship explode. Also, there were a lot of close-ups of people's faces, much like in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill in particular. The accompanying score worked really well with the movie, helping the pacing and overall feel of the film. I definitely need to go back and rewatch this picture now that I know what happens. Despite the confusion, I really enjoyed this movie. I have a lot of respect for people like Bryan Singer, the director, who have the talent and dedicated cast and crew to be able to make a good movie with a small budget. The acting was top-notch (Shout-out to Giancarlo Esposito, who plays Gus in Breaking Bad. He played an FBI agent in this feature.), especially Kevin Spacey, who was very deserving of his Oscar for this role. If any of you would like to discuss anything about this movie or have any questions that we can try to answer, please take a quick moment to comment below. Also, if you would like me to watch/review a certain movie(s), then tell me in the designated form in the right margin. -->