Review of The Usual Suspects (1995) by Kenneth B — 20 Jan 2013

The mystery of Keyser Soze is surely one of the most enduring of modern cinema. Even aside from the famous denouement The Usual Suspects is one of the best thrillers of its time, perhaps it would be a toss up between this and Heat (also from 1995) for the best crime thriller of the 90s, I do have soft spot for Carlito's Way though.

Central to the success of Usual Suspects is the cast. Spacey, Palminteri and Postlethwaite were already respected actors who put in great turns and Benicio Del Toro burst onto the scene as Fenster, it says a lot for his talent that he made a name for himself in a role where people could barely understand a word he was saying, something which also provokes one of the films funnier moments in the line up at the beginning.

This was also the career highlight for Stephen Baldwin and Gabriel Byrne who have frankly had indifferent careers aside from this. Baldwin is electric here while Byrne is assured yet vunerable at the same time.

Some thing just seemed to click with The Usual Suspects in terms of the cast, plot and even Bryan Singer hasn't managed to replicate the success of what was essentially his major debut.