Ray Liotta recently did an interview with Examiner to promote The Iceman, in which he co-stars opposite Michael Shannon as hitman Richard Kuklinski (who, sidenote, was once supposed to be played by Channing Tatum until the author threatened to take back the rights). Hard to say whether Liotta and the interviewer just didn’t get along, or if Liotta was trying to communicate some sarcasm that didn’t quite come through, or if he was simply still in character as a gangster. But man, the guy doesn’t pull any punches.

Assorted quotes:

Dorri Olds: Do you think Richard Kuklinski was a sociopath?
Ray Liotta: What’s a sociopath?

Someone incapable of empathy and lacking a social conscience.
Any guys who kill for money, they chose that as their business. Mafia guys are all just insecure people who want their money. They’re like little seven-year old kids when they don’t get their way. I knew guys like that growing up in New Jersey.

Did you hang out with wiseguys?
Why would you ask me that?

Because you said you grew up with them in New Jersey.

—

Was your character, DeMeo, portrayed accurately in “Iceman”?
From what I read about DeMeo, he was a bad guy. There’s a book [For The Sins of My Father] about him by his son. He wasn’t well liked. They [Mafia guys] used him when the higher ups didn’t want to do it [murder]. He just kept begging to get made.

Do you think he was gay?
Not f*cking gay. Why would you ask that?

It’s generally a bad sign when the interview subject asks “why would you ask me that?” twice in the first five minutes. This whole thing sounds so gloriously ornery.

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Drive had Ryan Gosling, acclaimed indie director Nicholas Winding Refn, it-girl (I still don’t really know what that means, but it seems accurate) Carey Mulligan, and vroomy-vroom vroom getaway cars. Place Beyond the Pines has Baby Goose, acclaimed indie derektor Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), it-girl Eva Mendes (Goose’s real-life special lady!), and reer-reer dirtbikes. Once again, Baby Goose plays a stunt driver turned getaway driver. Only this time, Bradley Cooper is there for a handsome-off. THE RUGGED VULNERABILITY, IT’S TOO MUCH! (*sirens, alarm bells*)

Official synopsis:

Luke (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) is in constant motion, a high-wire motorcycle stunt performer who travels from town to town with the carnival. Passing through Schenectady in upstate New York, he tries to reconnect with a former lover, Romina (Eva Mendes), only to learn that she has in his absence given birth to their son Jason. Luke resolves to forsake life on the road and to provide for his newfound family, taking a job as car mechanic with Robin (Ben Mendelsohn). Robin soon discovers Luke’s special talents, and proposes to partner with him in a string of spectacular bank robberies. But it is only a matter of time before Luke will run up against the law – which comes in the form of Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper).
 
Avery is an ambitious rookie cop navigating a local police department ruled by the menacingly corrupt detective Deluca (Ray Liotta). When Avery, just beginning to balance his profession and his family life with wife Jennifer (Rose Byrne) and their infant son AJ, confronts Luke, the full consequences will reverberate into the next generation. It is then that the two sons, Jason (Dane DeHaan) and AJ (Emory Cohen), must face their fateful, shared legacy.

Good lord that is a wordy synopsis. Wait, this cop, is he corrupt? Oh yes, he’s menacingly corrupt! He growls when I bribe him, GRRRR! Anyway, this looks eerily similar to Drive, but without the awkward, too-long stares and almost total lack of dialog. Which is too bad, I was really hoping for a scene where Baby Goose and Brad Cooper exchange sizzling looks until one of them gets a boner. No shame in that, by the way, they both have beautiful eyes.

Stimulus Whackage

Take it from this reviewer, there’s no finer date movie this season than Killing Them Softly. You and your special lady can hold each other close as Brad Pitt opens Italian guys’ skulls with a shotgun! Interlace fingers as you thrill to bloated Ray Liotta getting his teeth kicked in by a fat rapper! Heck, bring grandma and the kids! They’ll love James Gandolfini talking about cutting up hookers! And the best part is, it’s family entertainment that’s not just fun, it comes with an important message. Namely, “Everything sucks and people are assholes the end.”

If that sounds like a negative critique, it’s not, I loved this movie. Killing Them Softly is like that angry song you loved when you were 15, or that angry poem you wrote when you were 15. It’s a crime story-as-political-allegory that’s about as nuanced as a middle finger and as subtle as a pistol whipping, but what it lacks in complexity, it makes up for in panache, consistency, and consistently graphic skull trauma. The main point director Andrew Dominik is making, that politics is just as messy and amoral for foul-mouthed, shit-smelling murderers as it is for candidates wearing American flag pins, isn’t a particularly unique or insightful one, but then neither is “Eat the Rich.” Tight, fast, brutal, and gleefully immature, like my lovemaking, it’s sort of a cinematic Motörhead song, not especially smart, but there’s a certain poetry to getting punched in the face. Art in the same way that a brick through the window has a beauty that transcends the thrower’s justification.

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NOOOO! Not Scoot McNairy!

After Seven Psychopaths turned out to be more about fartsy navel fingering than actual ownage, Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly seems like it might be Fall’s last hope for a shoot ‘em up (release date: November 30th). It stars Brad Pitt as a hitman and James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta as a couple bad guys, plus Gloansy McGloane from The Town, and really, you don’t hire Gloansy McGloane unless he’s going to die violently.  He’s like a fat Irish Michelle Rodriguez. Less spice, more grit. Anyway, the latest trailer is below, and it has murder and Johnny Cash. That’ll do, Pitt, that’ll do.

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"I'm telling you, it does exist. Just a couple inches inside, then curl back towards yourself and feel for the fleshy thing."

After the jump, I’ve got the first trailer for Killing Them Softly, from Chopper/Assassination of Jesse James director Andrew Dominik, starring Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, and Richard Jenkins. Oh, and Slaine, the fat Boston rapper who was in The Town. Anyway, everyone loved it at Cannes, so if you don’t like it, you probably aren’t doing enough cocaine just don’t have a European sensibility. It actually looks pretty great, but it’s fitting that James Gandolfini is in it, because I feel like we saw a very similar plot in a Sopranos episode.

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