Harvey Keitel takes center stage as a double-crossed crook goes for blood after a major jewel heist turns sour — and bloody. Timothy Hutton and Stephen Dorff are in on the split for one late- ’90s crime caper that’s not a stylistic hijack of Quentin Tarantino. Directed by John Irvin.
City of Industry
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1997 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date October 3, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff, Timothy Hutton, Famke Janssen, Wade Dominguez, Michael Jai White, Lucy Alexis Liu, Reno Wilson, Dana Barron, Tamara Clatterbuck, Elliott Gould.
Cinematography: Thomas Burstyn
Film Editor: Mark Conte
Special Effects: Joe Lombardi
Original Music: Stephen Endelman
Written by Ken Solarz
Produced by Evzen Kolar, Ken Solarz
Directed by John Irvin
Director John Irvin earned his right to crow early on with TV’s ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the excellent action film about mercenaries The Dogs of War.
City of Industry
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1997 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date October 3, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff, Timothy Hutton, Famke Janssen, Wade Dominguez, Michael Jai White, Lucy Alexis Liu, Reno Wilson, Dana Barron, Tamara Clatterbuck, Elliott Gould.
Cinematography: Thomas Burstyn
Film Editor: Mark Conte
Special Effects: Joe Lombardi
Original Music: Stephen Endelman
Written by Ken Solarz
Produced by Evzen Kolar, Ken Solarz
Directed by John Irvin
Director John Irvin earned his right to crow early on with TV’s ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the excellent action film about mercenaries The Dogs of War.
- 10/21/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Nothing if not quirky, "The Taxman" plays at times like a "Saturday Night Live" parody of the detective genre, with the protagonist being not a tough-talking, gun-wielding detective but rather a mild-mannered, depressive ... tax investigator. Avi Nesher's film has aspirations of exploring the nature of obsession, of Don Quixote-style dreaming, and it doesn't really succeed, but ultimately you come to admire "The Taxman" and its stubborn title character for their sheer willfulness. The film opens in Los Angeles today.
Joe Pantoliano, one of Hollywood's great character actors, has the starring role here, and it's a pleasure to watch him run with it. He plays Al Benjamin, a New York state tax investigator who pursues his quarries with the zeal of Javert. Fancying himself a sort of tax-oriented Dirty Harry, he naturally runs afoul of his bosses.
Al's big break occurs when he stumbles onto a gas station scam in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, involving the area's huge Russian community. When the case leads to the murder of several people, Al gets a partner of sorts, an ambitious rookie detective (Wade Dominguez). During the investigation, Al becomes friendly with a Russian (Michael Chiklis) deeply involved in the criminal scheme and develops a crush on the man's beautiful daughter (a nicely understated Elizabeth Berkley, sporting a credible Russian accent).
The film, co-written by a former tax investigator who worked on a similar case, doesn't work as a thriller, and it never quite manages to make its title character as fascinating as it should. The chief virtues of the film are the performance of Pantoliano, who invests Al with the off-center charisma that has kept him one of our busiest actors, and the real-life atmosphere of Brighton Beach, which is on extensive display.
Although there are moments when it achieves a kind of loopy grace, "The Taxman" mostly comes across as a genre film with pretensions.
THE TAXMAN
Phaedra Films
Director: Avi Nesher
Screenplay: Avi Nesher, Roger Berger
Producers: Kathy Jordan, Open City Films
Music: Roger Neill
Color/stereo
Cast:
Al Benjamin: Joe Pantoliano
Joseph Romero: Wade Dominguez
Nadia Rubakov: Eliazabeth Berkley
Andre Rubakov: Michael Chiklis
Peyton Cody: Robert Townsend
Running time --100 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Joe Pantoliano, one of Hollywood's great character actors, has the starring role here, and it's a pleasure to watch him run with it. He plays Al Benjamin, a New York state tax investigator who pursues his quarries with the zeal of Javert. Fancying himself a sort of tax-oriented Dirty Harry, he naturally runs afoul of his bosses.
Al's big break occurs when he stumbles onto a gas station scam in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, involving the area's huge Russian community. When the case leads to the murder of several people, Al gets a partner of sorts, an ambitious rookie detective (Wade Dominguez). During the investigation, Al becomes friendly with a Russian (Michael Chiklis) deeply involved in the criminal scheme and develops a crush on the man's beautiful daughter (a nicely understated Elizabeth Berkley, sporting a credible Russian accent).
The film, co-written by a former tax investigator who worked on a similar case, doesn't work as a thriller, and it never quite manages to make its title character as fascinating as it should. The chief virtues of the film are the performance of Pantoliano, who invests Al with the off-center charisma that has kept him one of our busiest actors, and the real-life atmosphere of Brighton Beach, which is on extensive display.
Although there are moments when it achieves a kind of loopy grace, "The Taxman" mostly comes across as a genre film with pretensions.
THE TAXMAN
Phaedra Films
Director: Avi Nesher
Screenplay: Avi Nesher, Roger Berger
Producers: Kathy Jordan, Open City Films
Music: Roger Neill
Color/stereo
Cast:
Al Benjamin: Joe Pantoliano
Joseph Romero: Wade Dominguez
Nadia Rubakov: Eliazabeth Berkley
Andre Rubakov: Michael Chiklis
Peyton Cody: Robert Townsend
Running time --100 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/1/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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