Chicago – There are over 500 episodes of “Law and Order” but I’m not about to embarrass myself publicly by revealing just how many of those I’ve seen; let’s leave it at “a lot.” In the age of binge television, I know I’m not the only one that has taken a deep dive into the show and other long-running shows like it, but I know we can all agree why we continue watching them: they keep things fresh. Like any television series that has aspirations of longevity, they can’t stay the same over time, especially when it comes to detective procedurals. The Little Things pays homage to everything we love from an old-fashioned detective procedural but aside from being socially tone-deaf, it also has the misfortune of doing it a couple decades too late.
Rating: 1.0/5.0
The story follows a local sheriff who is, of course, haunted by...
Rating: 1.0/5.0
The story follows a local sheriff who is, of course, haunted by...
- 2/4/2021
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Hollywood star Jared Leto says his new film, John Lee Hancock's The Little Things, comes with questions about guilt, innocence, assumptions and identity.
"I have wanted to work with John Lee for quite some time, he's such an incredible writer and director. When I first read the script, I really was taken in by the characters and he did a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat," Leto said while talking about collaborating with the director.
"The story poses questions not just about guilt or innocence, but assumptions and identity. It was surprising and I think people are going to be shocked by the ending," he added.
In the psychological thriller, Denzil Washington is seen as Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon, who gets involved in tracking a serial killer who is terrorising the city of Los Angeles. Rami Malek as L.A. Sheriff Dept.
"I have wanted to work with John Lee for quite some time, he's such an incredible writer and director. When I first read the script, I really was taken in by the characters and he did a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat," Leto said while talking about collaborating with the director.
"The story poses questions not just about guilt or innocence, but assumptions and identity. It was surprising and I think people are going to be shocked by the ending," he added.
In the psychological thriller, Denzil Washington is seen as Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon, who gets involved in tracking a serial killer who is terrorising the city of Los Angeles. Rami Malek as L.A. Sheriff Dept.
- 1/30/2021
- by Glamsham Editorial
- GlamSham
by Matt St Clair
A movie like The Little Things probably would’ve done very well in the 90’s. A time when crime thrillers such as Se7en, and another Denzel Washington starrer The Pelican Brief, could thrive financially and when actors rather than superheroes were bonafide box office draws. Given how Denzel is one of the few A-listers left who can open a movie on his name alone, The Little Things might've made a decent profit in a pre-covid world. Yet, given the film’s poor and dated quality, it would’ve been best to let it live in the past.
Once Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) teams with LA detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) to help him solve a string of serial killings...
A movie like The Little Things probably would’ve done very well in the 90’s. A time when crime thrillers such as Se7en, and another Denzel Washington starrer The Pelican Brief, could thrive financially and when actors rather than superheroes were bonafide box office draws. Given how Denzel is one of the few A-listers left who can open a movie on his name alone, The Little Things might've made a decent profit in a pre-covid world. Yet, given the film’s poor and dated quality, it would’ve been best to let it live in the past.
Once Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) teams with LA detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) to help him solve a string of serial killings...
- 1/30/2021
- by Matt St.Clair
- FilmExperience
This article contains The Little Things spoilers. You can find our spoiler-free review here.
It’s the piece of the puzzle Rami Malek’s Jim Baxter has been waiting for. The young—and now entirely ruined—LAPD police detective can stop wondering about the night before—the night his shovel cracked the skull of Albert Sparma (Jared Leto). At the time of the murder, there was no clear cut evidence Sparma was the serial killer that law enforcement was hunting—or that Sparma even committed a crime beyond being a full-on creep. But when Joe “Deke” Deacon (Denzel Washington) mails the younger man a red barrette, Jimmy knows he can at least have peace of mind: He killed a killer.
Of course life and the questions which keep you up at night don’t have answers as easy as a typical Hollywood movie. And peace cannot exist for those who...
It’s the piece of the puzzle Rami Malek’s Jim Baxter has been waiting for. The young—and now entirely ruined—LAPD police detective can stop wondering about the night before—the night his shovel cracked the skull of Albert Sparma (Jared Leto). At the time of the murder, there was no clear cut evidence Sparma was the serial killer that law enforcement was hunting—or that Sparma even committed a crime beyond being a full-on creep. But when Joe “Deke” Deacon (Denzel Washington) mails the younger man a red barrette, Jimmy knows he can at least have peace of mind: He killed a killer.
Of course life and the questions which keep you up at night don’t have answers as easy as a typical Hollywood movie. And peace cannot exist for those who...
- 1/29/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Both Denzel Washington and Rami Malek have won Oscars for their acting ability, and in John Lee Hancock’s new crime thriller, The Little Things, the actors are given an expansive canvas with which to work. Unfortunately, there is little else to The Little Things than the presence of these two talented actors. The film is an overlong and, in the end, uninteresting detective story that is an abject lesson in what could have been.
The film starts off as most stories of this ilk do. Seemingly tired and worn out Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon (Washington) drives into town and, despite a somewhat checkered past, becomes an unlikely partner to Sgt. Jim Baxter (Malek) as they search for a serial killer who has been terrorizing Los Angeles. As the investigation progresses, Baxter is unaware that it may be bringing to surface disturbing secrets from Deke’s past that could...
The film starts off as most stories of this ilk do. Seemingly tired and worn out Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon (Washington) drives into town and, despite a somewhat checkered past, becomes an unlikely partner to Sgt. Jim Baxter (Malek) as they search for a serial killer who has been terrorizing Los Angeles. As the investigation progresses, Baxter is unaware that it may be bringing to surface disturbing secrets from Deke’s past that could...
- 1/29/2021
- by Mike Tyrkus
- CinemaNerdz
If “The Little Things” seems like a movie from another time, it is. John Lee Hancock wrote the script 28 years ago, back when he wrote the Kevin Costner vehicle “A Perfect World” for director Clint Eastwood. Steven Spielberg was interested, but found the drama about the fight to find an L.A. serial killer too noir. Eastwood considered it, then Warren Beatty. Then Danny DeVito.
“I put in a drawer, and didn’t think about it,” said Hancock, who went on to direct “The Rookie,” “The Alamo,” and “The Blind Side.” “But every couple years, Johnson called.”
“The Little Things” seems commercial enough: Set in the 1990s, it’s a thriller about grizzled ex-LAPD detective Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) who goes into exile after an unsolved serial killer case goes terribly wrong. When he visits LA and reconnects with his old department, he meets hotshot detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek...
“I put in a drawer, and didn’t think about it,” said Hancock, who went on to direct “The Rookie,” “The Alamo,” and “The Blind Side.” “But every couple years, Johnson called.”
“The Little Things” seems commercial enough: Set in the 1990s, it’s a thriller about grizzled ex-LAPD detective Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) who goes into exile after an unsolved serial killer case goes terribly wrong. When he visits LA and reconnects with his old department, he meets hotshot detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek...
- 1/28/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
If “The Little Things” seems like a movie from another time, it is. John Lee Hancock wrote the script 28 years ago, back when he wrote the Kevin Costner vehicle “A Perfect World” for director Clint Eastwood. Steven Spielberg was interested, but found the drama about the fight to find an L.A. serial killer too noir. Eastwood considered it, then Warren Beatty. Then Danny DeVito.
“I put in a drawer, and didn’t think about it,” said Hancock, who went on to direct “The Rookie,” “The Alamo,” and “The Blind Side.” “But every couple years, Johnson called.”
“The Little Things” seems commercial enough: Set in the 1990s, it’s a thriller about grizzled ex-LAPD detective Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) who goes into exile after an unsolved serial killer case goes terribly wrong. When he visits LA and reconnects with his old department, he meets hotshot detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek...
“I put in a drawer, and didn’t think about it,” said Hancock, who went on to direct “The Rookie,” “The Alamo,” and “The Blind Side.” “But every couple years, Johnson called.”
“The Little Things” seems commercial enough: Set in the 1990s, it’s a thriller about grizzled ex-LAPD detective Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) who goes into exile after an unsolved serial killer case goes terribly wrong. When he visits LA and reconnects with his old department, he meets hotshot detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek...
- 1/28/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) never wanted to return to Los Angeles. It didn’t matter that he had a good life there before his divorce and estrangement from his daughters. It didn’t matter that he’s now a Sheriff’s deputy in a small town when he used to be a big city detective with the department’s highest clearance rate. His fall from grace scarred him enough to know that setting foot in the City of Angels again would bring the memories he’s struggled to suppress during sleepless nights back into crystal clear focus. Deke has no choice, though, when his boss sends him to procure evidence for a case set to go to trial the next day. And it doesn’t take long to find himself right back where he started.
The Little Things writer/director John Lee Hancock (whose first draft of the script in...
The Little Things writer/director John Lee Hancock (whose first draft of the script in...
- 1/27/2021
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
With the 25th anniversary of Seven having passed and the 30th anniversary of The Silence of the Lambs upon us in just a few weeks, it wouldn’t be surprising if nostalgia for the serial killer thrillers of the ’90s is now upon us. That makes the arrival of The Little Things, directed and written by John Lee Hancock (The Founder), almost uncanny in its timing.
The film is an unabashed throwback with the visual and narrative cues of the films mentioned above, and others along those lines, like Manhunter and Kyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure, liberally baked into its DNA. With its rich sense of atmosphere, period details–it’s perfectly set in 1990–and formally traditional style, The Little Things (which Hancock says he wrote a first draft for in 1993) is the type of movie that we haven’t seen in a while. It makes its familiar storytelling and character arcs almost seem fresh again.
The film is an unabashed throwback with the visual and narrative cues of the films mentioned above, and others along those lines, like Manhunter and Kyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure, liberally baked into its DNA. With its rich sense of atmosphere, period details–it’s perfectly set in 1990–and formally traditional style, The Little Things (which Hancock says he wrote a first draft for in 1993) is the type of movie that we haven’t seen in a while. It makes its familiar storytelling and character arcs almost seem fresh again.
- 1/26/2021
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
A slow-burn serial killer saga that leans into genre clichés like they haven’t been bludgeoned to death yet, John Lee Hancock’s “The Little Things” isn’t just set in 1990, it was also written in 1990. And — an unambiguous positive at a time when most straight-to-streaming fare is so cheap and glossy that it makes 20th century shlock like “Kiss the Girls” and “The Bone Collector” feel like Visconti movies by comparison.
But really it’s “Se7en” that comes to feel like the most obvious antecedent of all, even if that epochal hit came out a few years after Hancock first hatched the idea for this one. Here is another vivid, patient, character-driven psychological thriller that sees its A-list cast as a license to subvert audience expectations, prioritize the detectives over the murderer they’re trying to catch, and offer a gruesomely dark vision of the world that focuses its...
But really it’s “Se7en” that comes to feel like the most obvious antecedent of all, even if that epochal hit came out a few years after Hancock first hatched the idea for this one. Here is another vivid, patient, character-driven psychological thriller that sees its A-list cast as a license to subvert audience expectations, prioritize the detectives over the murderer they’re trying to catch, and offer a gruesomely dark vision of the world that focuses its...
- 1/26/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
It’s not a stretch to compare “The Little Things” to a season of HBO’s erratic crime series “True Detective,” from its conflicted cops (played by A-list stars) to its flashbacks from an old crime that colors the investigators’ judgment of a new case.
It’s a comparison that works all too well, since writer-director John Lee Hancock’s procedural very often feels like an eight-episode series that’s been chopped into an ungainly two-hour feature, with lots of motivation, plotting and thematic coherence left on the cutting-room floor.
Denzel Washington stars as Deke, a deputy in Central California’s Kern County who is sent by his boss to Los Angeles to pick up some important evidence on a case. Once he arrives, we learn that Deke used to be a hot-shot detective with L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, before a heart attack, a mental health crisis and...
It’s a comparison that works all too well, since writer-director John Lee Hancock’s procedural very often feels like an eight-episode series that’s been chopped into an ungainly two-hour feature, with lots of motivation, plotting and thematic coherence left on the cutting-room floor.
Denzel Washington stars as Deke, a deputy in Central California’s Kern County who is sent by his boss to Los Angeles to pick up some important evidence on a case. Once he arrives, we learn that Deke used to be a hot-shot detective with L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, before a heart attack, a mental health crisis and...
- 1/26/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
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