Cleaner is a low-grade, predictable thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson about a guy who cleans up the blood and guts left over at crime scenes and then one day gets tricked into cleaning up a murder scene before the police are called in. Stylistic touches such as inserting close-ups of inanimate objects, doorbells being pushed and coffee being poured are distracting to the narrative. What narrative does exist is conventional and ultimately melodramatic and stupid. It’s not a good movie.
Black Snake Moan is definitely the coolest movie of 2007. This movie sweats cool. From Berardinelli’s review: “Black Snake Moan… opens with a hot sex scene followed shortly thereafter by the sight of a girl writhing on the ground in apparent sexual frustration. Later, there’s booze and blues and black-and-blue marks. There’s a (white) girl in chains [Christina Ricci] and a (black) man holding the key [Samuel L. Jackson]. The film pushes more buttons than an elevator operator but, in the end, Black Snake Moan works to turn expectations upside down. The movie has things to say about race and religion and the pain of loneliness, and it does so with considerable offbeat wit.”
Cleaner is a low-grade, predictable thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson about a guy who cleans up the blood and guts left over at crime scenes and then one day gets tricked into cleaning up a murder scene before the police are called in. Stylistic touches such as inserting close-ups of inanimate objects, doorbells being pushed and coffee being poured are distracting to the narrative. What narrative does exist is conventional and ultimately melodramatic and stupid. It’s not a good movie.