the ending

@VicBooth

And it so rarely happens in American films.
American (and to a great extent English and parts of European) cinema is so hopelessly obsessed with justice and closure that even the most daring film-makers can't seem to sneak an upsetting ending into their work.
Japanese cinema has been so okay with it to the extent where I think they must by now find western endings cloying.



Actaully, American films have been doing that since the '70s---showing protagonists who get away with doing bad things---and I don't think America is "hopelessly obsessed with justice,"---it's just that things don't always tie up that neatly in real life either, so it's nice to see villains or just plain terrible people get what's coming to them in films sometimes. Just saw the film,mainly because it was filmed entirely in Michigan,and being a Michigander, I had to see it. I also was interested in seeing a film where,for once, the main character actually escapes to Detroit to get away from a situation----that just sounded funny to me,being a Detroiter too. Can't remember the last time that happened in a film. Liked it, and I felt that even though he'd gotten away with at least one of his little scams, that it was still going to catch up with him sooner or later.

Another thing---the synopsis says the main character escapes to "a dangerous Detroit"---that makes me laugh, because the scenes in Detroit were filmed less than a stone's throw from the downtown area, which is one of the least dangerous areas there (I know because I lived down there for a couple of years.) What tripped out was how he was stupid enough to pay for an expensive hotel room at the Motor City Casino hotel (which is the tall brown building in the far background when he passes the fence) and live it up chomping up the spaghetti with giant meatballs,then the very next night he's sitting up in a low-budget hotel eating dinner straight from the can, when he could have just saved the little money he had, and no have to sneak back in the next night. For all the effort Marty puts into scamming other folks, he's not really all that smart about it. And when he did what he did to the manager who busted him in a scam, I was like, "What the hell,dude? Why did you even have to go and do that? It wasn't even worth hurting someone over!" That was a fckd-up thing to do,and he knew it. And,yeah, he was a selfish user SOB---which is why it was cool to see the scammer get scammed for a change---I'm not spoiling that,but it was kind of funny,though---talk about what comes around going back around directly to you.

All in all, I liked the film, because it's basically what I cal la "slice-of-life" flick---you go into the film and watch a character's journey from the beginning to the end, and all the trials and tribulations they go through in between (or put themselves through,in Marty's case.) That's always been an interesting thing for me watch to watch in any good film that makes the journey worthwhile.