Ida Red

The storytelling in this crime drama is far from clean, and the screenplay drags out quite a few stale old chestnuts, but it has a good pulpy quality. John Swab's Ida Red gets off on the right foot with its characters, and the actors do a good job of bringing those characters to life. Wyatt has a legitimate business that covers up his criminal activities, and he's capable of being charming as well as brutal. His visits to his mother in prison reveal that Red is the one who's in charge of everything, and Leo is powerful in the role; she recalls the "Smurf Cody" character from both the movie and TV series Animal Kingdom, as well as Margaret Wycherly's Ma Jarrett in White Heat (1949). Grillo is a standout, choosing to go over the top (as he did in Boss Level) and coming out mesmerizingly psychopathic. (He does a little dance to Naked Eyes' "Promises Promises" before dispatching one of his victims.)

Most of the other characters seem to have real inner lives, or at least specific bits of business to perform, such as cop William Forsythe forever shoving pieces of broccoli-green gum into his mouth, or bearded lawyer Mark Boone Junior lunching at a sushi-train cafe. Some of the dialogue includes groaners like "I'm getting too old for this s--t" or "one last job and we're out," and some of the movie's ideas and events feel tacked-on, not quite fitting into the rest of the story. But Ida Red has its share of unique touches, such as Wyatt and Dallas' attempt to set up a meeting with a mob boss, as well as a spiky B movie quality. It embraces its under-the-radar cheapness and seems unafraid to try off-the-wall things like using Madonna's lush, romantic "Crazy for You" as backdrop for a shocking moment of violence.