#Little things movie#
#Little things plus#

His retreat into rural living might have been a surrender, but it was also an act of self-preservation - there are demons back in the big city, and they’d love nothing more than to sink their talons into him all over again. But when hotshot Homicide Department Sergeant Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) hears that Deke is back in town, he can’t help but take advantage of his predecessor’s expertise. coincides with a spate of murders that resemble an unsolved case from his past, Deke is forced to confront the fact that his greatest teacher is still at large.ĭeke isn’t looking for trouble. And when an evidence-gathering trip down to L.A. Washington has always been able to see through people like he could level anything in his eyeline, but with Deke (Deke!) that same gaze seems directed inwards Washington’s knack for playing the wisest guy in the room is a subtly compelling fit for a character by a character who seems to have learned his lessons the hard way. Joe “Deke” Deacon has been wearing one badge or another for as long as he can remember, but as he nears retirement age in the fall of 1990 - a semi-recent transplant to the dusty stretch of Kern County, California that’s come to serve as his adopted jurisdiction - he seems less interested in catching bad guys than he is in punishing himself. Denzel Washington plays the obviously wounded Deacon with the hard stare, brilliant smile, and subdued “what’s he going to do with this take?” wild streak of a guy who used to be Denzel Washington in a past life, before something went very wrong with his high-profile detective work and he fled Los Angeles with his tail between his legs.

#Little things movie#

If a journeyman like Hancock (“The Blind Side,” “The Founder”) doesn’t grip this story with the Fincher-like stranglehold its subject demands - and his script relies on a moral disorder that it doesn’t always have the language to define - “The Little Things” is nevertheless held aloft by the gravitational pull of its star power and sustained by the sheer delight of watching Hollywood take itself as seriously as it did in the days before “product” curdled into “content.” Denzel Washington is still big - it’s the screens that got small.ĭespite being diverted onto HBOMax along with the rest of Warner Bros.’ 2021 slate because of the pandemic, “The Little Things” was clearly shot with the immersion of a movie theater in mind that’s not code for “slow,” it’s just a way of saying that Hancock’s film doesn’t seem like the overeager kind of fare that was made or paid for by people who ever planned to measure its success by the number of minutes it kept subscribers from clicking back over to “Bridgerton.” And while some of that classical flavor can be attributed to Hancock’s general steeliness and sense of place, the brunt of the credit inevitably belongs to Washington, who - even in the role of a haunted and humbled sixty-something deputy sheriff - still commands an unimpeachable degree of “I dare you to look at your cell phone” swagger.

#Little things plus#

New Movies: Release Calendar for August 26, Plus Where to Watch the Latest FilmsĮmmy Predictions: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - 'Hacks' Is on a RollĬhristopher Nolan's Best Shots: 37 Images That Define the Director's Career 'The Invitation' Review: Nathalie Emmanuel Gets Sucked Into a Languishing Legacy