Joe Denton, a disgraced former cop, is under the mistaken impression that he can go home after his 6 years in prison and start redeeming himself. The truth is, even his own mother is wary of him. He’s clean for about 20 minutes before his old life starts digging its claws back into him.
Denton’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) dirty ex-partner (Gary Cole) tells him new evidence 
could throw him back in prison, or worse, death row. So obviously he should cast aside his plans to live a better life, and to earn back the right to see his daughters, and murder the mob boss who could ruin everything for him. Just one problem. Well, okay, just three problems: a bitter D.A. (Michael Kinny), an unhinged war vet (Macon Blair), and the mob boss’s son (Pat Healy). It’s such a shoddily erected pyramid that the very least thing could cause it all to come crumbling down – and it must come down. Things are further complicated when Denton falls for the palliative nurse caring for the mob boss: fat chance he’s going to impress her with the mess he’s in.
Denton’s no anti-hero, he’s a piece of shit. Co-writers Evan Katz and Macon Blair reveal his soiled past so slowly that it’s hard to really understand what the stakes are, and there were just too many pieces of the puzzle for me to keep track of. The script is blacker than black, and as Denton’s dad tells him (and us), the guy’s a narcissist, which makes it morally impossible for us to root for him. Great performances by Jacki Weaver and Robert Forster as his parents make this thing watchable, but not exactly satisfying. The downward spiral is slow but relentless. There’s no hope, not even really any cynicism, just defeat. Denton’s a born loser. And maybe that’s Small Crimes’ fatal flaw: it follows the least interesting character. Follows him right down the dirty hole he digs for himself, deeper and deeper.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Yep!!my kinda movie;)
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Badass 💋
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Well ok 👮♀️
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Wow Jay, what an upper today! You can’t go home again! Didn’t Lot’s wife prove that for everyone by becoming a salt lick? Well, guess not.
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Nice, I just watched this! 🙂 I love how the movie starts out as a redemption story, then quickly turns in the other direction. But I too thought it was unsatisfying and fell flat in its third act. There’s so much unfulfilled potential.
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Yes, it turns very quickly doesn’t it? I don’t know if there was ever hope.
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I love NCW so I definitely want to see this.
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Damn, NCW deserves better than those movies he is starring in lately
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Aw I like looking at him, but maybe not in this.
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Yeah, not a fan of downward spiral stories. I’ll skip.
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I just reviewed this myself. Nice write-up.
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I like the way your review doesn’t pull any punches. It is straight forward and clean…sad, because it sounds like this could have been a much better movie except for that “wrong direction”
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I quite fancied this one. Sounded like your standard ‘out of jail and going straight’ story, but it helped that Robert Forster and Gary Cole are in it. May still watch it, but probably won’t be in a hurry.
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