Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I really enjoyed Hoffman, Jenkins, Turturro, etc. at an individual level. I enjoyed the set detail, lighting, and mood created and really felt as if I were having a drink in a Devil's Pocket dive bar in the 80's.The movie as a whole and plot however, were completely forgettable. I was actually quite pleased to see "Old Lucy" knock that horrible, racist, knife wielding kid over the head with a pipe. It actually felt like justice as it could be argued the murder was in self- defense and involuntary at its worst.Regardless, from that point on, I could not connect with the plot of Jeanie Scarpato seeking justice. I could not connect with the overly contrived "feeling" that Jeanie had about her dirt bag son getting killed as if getting accidentally killed in an industrial yard is completely unbelievable?! Not too mention that the rest of the film felt disjointed, without purpose and lacking in realism.At the end of the movie, I felt A) glad it was over and B) disappointment that we won't see Hoffman's incredible talent for acting again.

I've just watched this again a couple of years after my first viewing. This time I feel I must do the movie justice by writing a review.This is an absolute gem, almost poetical in its description of the working-class neighbourhood of God's Pocket. The film shows the events following a death and in that showing describes the lives of the people. Those lives are also examined by an outsider, an ageing and world-weary reporter, who is given to drinking too much and finds his libido drawing him too deeply into the world of which he is writing.At the heart of the story are Mickey and Jeanie Scarpato portrayed to perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christina Hendricks. It is the death of their highly unpleasant son that sets the plot in motion which rolls inexorably towards its close taking in moments of tragedy, high comedy and pathos on its route.In sum a beautifully conceived and realized movie which among much else drives home to us all just how much the incredibly talented Philip Seymour Hoffman will be missed.

The acting is good. I only gave it a 6 out of 10 for other reasons. The story revolves around a couple of part time criminals named Mickey and Bird. Mickey has a kind of crazy son in law who wants to be a tough guy. At work he puts his knife to an old man's throat and threatens to kill him, and breaks the skin on his neck. The old man clubs him on the back of the skull, killing him. The cops are told a crane hook came loose and hit the kid in the back of the head. The kid's mom doesn't believe it happened that way, just from intuition. Mickey and Bird both gamble, both are short on money. Bird owes about 20 grand to a bookie. I will let you see the rest for yourself. One reviewer said this is a film about real people. I suppose. But I have to say I don't know any people like the ones depicted in this film. Just about everything these guys do is stupid and their lives are really screwed up. It's not just those two. The undertaker is screwy and a real jerk, the kid was a nut case, the journalist is an alcoholic who often fails to write his column because of his drinking. Just about every main character and most of the minor characters are screw balls. Even the hired muscle can't rough up a guy, they get their asses kicked instead. The writers use these glaring foibles to deliver the dark humor. It is very subtle. But this film is really more of a drama; to me, it isn't really a comedy. I have never run into people who screw up everything in their lives as much, make as many really stupid decisions, as the people in this film. I just don't find that funny in a drama. A lot of people do I guess. I tend not to like films with self destructing characters. So I gave it a six.

I caught this movie off Showtime the other night, and I see this finished filming only a few weeks before the death of it's star, Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film is set in a working class South Philly neighborhood based on what is actually called "Devil's Pocket", Philadelphia. PSH stars as a blue collar worker in the 1970s, whose stepson is killed in a mysterious accident, and then he tries to cover things up. But things become difficult when a reporter (Richard Jenkins) won't let the story die. I see that this movie is listed as a "black comedy" at Wikipedia, which, other than the drunken antics of Jenkins' character, I really couldn't see. I did like how this community is painted as an isolated world where outsiders are tantamount to alien invaders, and *possible SPOILER* the scene at the end when reporter Jenkins faces the people of the community he wrote a scathing story upon- it's no less than a deadly confrontation. Hoffman is great in one of his last film roles. Plus, look for some other good performances from John Turturro, Christina Hendricks and Eddie Marsan.Please check out all my reviews, plus lots of good interaction and group discussion about anything/everything movies/TV/entertainment at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/movie.holiks/Email us at:[email protected] don't settle for second best!- lots of copy-cat and imitation groups out there, but "the REAL movie-holiks" is THEE original one!