The Usual Suspects
1995
Bryan Singer
A cop told me one time that this was his favorite movie of all time. I don't like to openly speculate about people who have a greater-than-0% chance of reading this blog at some point (maybe, say, after Keyser Söze guns me down, and people rush to the blog to get a better sense of the murdered party), so let's not get too deep into it. I just genuinely think it's interesting that someone who chose that profession as a career would also choose this film as their favorite. Why? I've wondered that for close to a decade now, and it took me as long to actually search for some answers.
Back when there was a decent chance that the cop in question was going to get a Your Favorite Movie interview, I wondered whether The Usual Suspects was going to end up being an anti-cop movie. Might seem impossible, but not really. Cops don't see themselves as "cops," necessarily. They instead see themselves as "the good guys." And so if a movie suggests that the good guys are getting one over on the cops, then that's who they are relating to. This might be more of a general human trait than a cop trait, but still... you ever wonder why so many cops have Punisher tatts and decals? Despite the fact that the Punisher has made it canonically clear that he despises cops who look up to him?
I wouldn't describe The Usual Suspects as "anti-cop," though. The cops are the good guys. Interesting, though, that the cops are outwitted by the bad guy. So this is just a matter of disassociation, perhaps. I'm not saying that a movie that paints people in your own profession in a certain light is grounds for making you dislike that film. But we're not just talking about liking a film, we're talking about saying a film is your favorite of all time. And so I don't think, if you're a cop and this is your favorite, that you can watch The Usual Suspects and give a single second of thought to what it's saying about your career and the people in it.
So I'm leaning away from that theory and toward the theory that the twist just gets you. It's an easy theory because the twist really is a good one. SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!! Spacey's character, Verbal, who till the end of the film acted as the unreliable narrator, is revealed to be the big bad. Which changes the entire movie, every second of it. I gotta imagine that this is one of the more famous twists in movie history, and it's pretty cool that I managed to get through my entire life and also the bulk of the movie without the spoiler being revealed (Se7en this is not). I can imagine, at a certain age, watching this movie and allowing the twist to blow your fucking mind. A good twist can make you believe in movie magic. I totally get that.
I understand it because I felt and feel that way about another famous twist, possibly the most famous twist in my lifetime—The Sixth Sense. That shit was absolutely stunning, as a kid. It's just so interesting when one secret can completely change your understanding of a film. Now, what's even more interesting is watching the film again, knowing the twist. I think this is an important aspect to any twist-ending film. Does it hold up on the second viewing?
I've only seen The Usual Suspects once, but I have my doubts. General consensus seems to be that it's a lot worse on the second viewing, because that means that everything that the narrator was saying was a lie, and it's harder to take the film seriously when you know none of what is being shown even happened. Maybe once more through to see if you can pick up any clues, but then what after that? How can you get emotionally invested in these characters when you have no idea how it really was for them? The Sixth Sense had clues, certainly, but it also had deep themes of grief and loss. You know what the best scene in that movie is? The second-to-last scene, with Toni Collette and Haley Joel Osment in the car. Has nothing to do with Bruce Willis being dead the whole time. What can The Usual Suspects offer in that regard?
I've only seen The Usual Suspects once, but I have my doubts. General consensus seems to be that it's a lot worse on the second viewing, because that means that everything that the narrator was saying was a lie, and it's harder to take the film seriously when you know none of what is being shown even happened. Maybe once more through to see if you can pick up any clues, but then what after that? How can you get emotionally invested in these characters when you have no idea how it really was for them? The Sixth Sense had clues, certainly, but it also had deep themes of grief and loss. You know what the best scene in that movie is? The second-to-last scene, with Toni Collette and Haley Joel Osment in the car. Has nothing to do with Bruce Willis being dead the whole time. What can The Usual Suspects offer in that regard?
Now, it won Best Original Screenplay at that year's Oscars (beating Braveheart and Toy Story), and I'm not disputing its worthiness in that regard. I'm not saying that this is a bad movie! No, I enjoyed watching it, and I thought the script was pretty tight. There were no lulls in the action. On the first viewing, I enjoyed it—no sense speculating on subsequent viewings if I don't plan on rewatching it any time soon. With these kinds of twisty, double-crossing movies, there's always the risk that it's too complex for the audience to follow.
This appears to be the reason why Ebert only gave the film 1.5 stars, its so-called complexity. And since we watched the film over the course of two nights, Pam prefaced our second-half viewing by asking, "Do you understand what's going on in this movie?" I did, but it was the type of movie that it was helpful to stop in the middle and talk about it. How these characters came together and why, and then why they are still together and who they are up against. I understood enough to follow, but probably missed some shit, and can definitely see why it would be confusing. I don't think that's the film's fault, though. It's good to challenge the audience sometimes, to ask them to try to keep up. I guess the only problem is that if you're gonna motivate someone to watch this film more than once, then you gotta give them something to chew on during that second viewing. But we've already talked about that.
This appears to be the reason why Ebert only gave the film 1.5 stars, its so-called complexity. And since we watched the film over the course of two nights, Pam prefaced our second-half viewing by asking, "Do you understand what's going on in this movie?" I did, but it was the type of movie that it was helpful to stop in the middle and talk about it. How these characters came together and why, and then why they are still together and who they are up against. I understood enough to follow, but probably missed some shit, and can definitely see why it would be confusing. I don't think that's the film's fault, though. It's good to challenge the audience sometimes, to ask them to try to keep up. I guess the only problem is that if you're gonna motivate someone to watch this film more than once, then you gotta give them something to chew on during that second viewing. But we've already talked about that.
The other Oscar that this film won? Best Supporting Actor for Kevin Spacey. Yes, if you're following along at home, disgraced sex criminal Kevin Spacey has appeared in two Film Club movies, two days in a row. That's probably enough for now. I just went through his filmography, and it looks like he'll eventually show up in L.A. Confidential and 21. It makes me so tired to write about this fucking guy. Would've been cool if literally anyone else had won Best Supporting Actor that year (Ed Harris from Apollo 13! Brad Pitt from 12 Monkeys! James motherfucking Cromwell from motherfucking Babe!), but what can you do. Mid-'90s moviegoers shouldn't be punished for what we only found out in 2017.
Considering Spacey in his role in The Usual Suspects is less interesting than his role in American Beauty. Only because I don't think The Usual Suspects is asking you to empathize with his character at all. Now, should American Beauty have asked us to empathize with Spacey's character? A privileged white middle-aged creep? Probably not. But it's interesting to consider the ask, and even more so knowing what we know now about the actor behind the character. The Usual Suspects doesn't ask us to do that. No empathy required. No self-flagellating required. Spacey is a terrible person in real life, Verbal Kint is a terrible person in the movie, Spacey's sex crimes are not reflected back to us through any of Kint's in-film crimes.
And boy... wouldn't it be interesting to get the perspective of a maga-brained cop on all this, huh? I got so deep into my own shit writing this that I almost forgot that that was the original thesis of this blog post. I can imagine how feelings on Kevin Spacey might differ across political lines. I think I'd rather just not ask about it, ya know? Like, maybe it's just better that we stay in our bubble here at PoYB and I don't venture out and interview anyone about shit I would just rather not hear about. Let's stick to the script here. Twist? Pretty good. Movie? Also pretty good. Casting? Leaves something to be desired, but what can you do.
GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5
STRAY THOUGHT: Whoops, sorry, one more thing. I didn't mention like I usually do how I original came to know about the existence of this movie. Looking back, I think it was that I was already familiar with the beginning scene where the five titular suspects are fucking around in the police lineup. Pretty fun acting! It definitely helped set the tone for what we were about to watch—that these are fucking characters, and that it's gonna be a puzzle for both the police and for the audience to figure them out. Maybe this scene, and not the twist, is the true key to figuring out why this could be a cop's favorite movie. "These criminals! We see guys like this all the time!"
NEXT TIME: No Kevin Spacey in Howard the Duck! I hope! Do us proud, Group F!
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