Miami Blues

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Anakin L Jan 6, 2019 Frederick J. Frenger Jr. (Alec Baldwin), a violent sociopath recently released from a California prison, starts a new life in Miami. Before leaving the airport, he steals luggage and kills a Hare Krishna after breaking his finger. Junior checks into a hotel and hooks up with Susie Waggoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a naive prostitute who is a student at a community college. They become romantically involved and take a house together, with Susie blissfully unaware of Junior's criminal activities and harboring fantasies of living happily ever after. An investigation of the Hare Krishna murder leads grizzled policeman Sgt. Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward) to come knocking on their door. Moseley shares a home-cooked dinner with the couple, upon Susie's suggestion, and plays it cool while seemingly indicating to Junior that he's on to him. He overtly suspects Junior has been in prison and wants him to come to the police station for a lineup. Junior goes to Moseley's home the next day, assaults him, and steals his gun, badge and dentures. Later, while Susie is taking a bath and writing a haiku, Junior decides to break into a nearby apartment. He steals an IMI Desert Eagle handgun and a steak. Junior begins using the badge, demanding bribes as rewards after breaking up robberies, only to keep the loot for himself. Sooner or later Moseley and the law will catch up with him... This neo-noir black comedy crime film is based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford. In my opinion the storyline is a bit wobbly and quite simple, the scene structure a bit wobbly and the general 80s/90s vibe feels a bit outdated when seeing the film today. Alec Baldwin is however excellent as Junior, but that´s not enough to be honest. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Fred Ward are fine in their roles, but they still ends up more like backdrops to Baldwin´s psychopathic Frederick J. Frenger Jr. character. The issue is that non of the characters are that easy to identify with, but their flaws gives them humanity which creates a more "real" feeling to the film. But, "Miami Blues" becomes an average black comedy crime thriller when re-seeing it today. See more

Finn R Sep 17, 2018 This is a very fun underrated dark comedy.

Anakin W Jan 20, 2017 Alec Baldwin seems different, younger, and, well, more psychotic, but it is possible to see his later comic swagger buried deep inside his character here, an ex-con on a murderous rampage who shacks up in an illusion of domestic tranquillity with hooker Jennifer Jason Leigh. The film is an adaptation of Charles Willeford's book (featuring homicide detective Hoke Moseley, played screwily by Fred Ward here), but as Jonathan Rosenbaum has pointed out, it also owes something to Godard's Breathless, a film which also saw a man-on-the-run make the mistakes that end his life because of love. Miami Blues is no Breathless but it does have a certain unpredictable charm - perhaps this is due to the inordinate amount of odd details. For example, Moseley's dentures play a prominent supporting role. Perhaps though the central theme is about the power of cultural "ideals" to lend stability to a life that is falling apart? Although they may be only illusions, Baldwin seems to want badly to experience a domestic partnership and a house with a white picket fence. He also seems to believe that cops have power and command respect (at least this is how he acts when adopting the role, illicitly) even when Ward's cop Moseley is doing it tough, living hand-to-mouth in a dingy hotel room. All told, this is a film that looks like any number of early 90s thrillers but is far more eccentric, contains superior acting, and isn't headed anyplace you expect. See more

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Miami Blues

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