Carlito's Way

Escape to Paradise.

I still had to use physical media last night (tomorrow I am FINALLY going to have Internet and cable again; if this long nightmare continues for me and something goes wrong there... expect an all-timer rant from me) so thankfully in my collection was a steelbook of this movie. I don't usually purchase those but I found it for cheap somewhere so I couldn't turn that down. It's another De Palma movie where Pacino plays a Hispanic character and even if it's not as great-or over the top-as Scarface the film is still very good.

Carlito Brigante is a Puerto Rican drug dealer who is released from prison due to a technicality by his sleazy lawyer and he actually wants to reform and be involved in legit businesses (a nice twist); in fact he has an end goal in mind-he just needs to earn enough movie the right way but not only does his past haunt him, but some people in the present are really hampering him. Not even reuniting with his girl Penelope Ann Miller can help him. There were quality performances all around... from Latin actors Luis Guzman and John Leguizamo to Miller and Pacino. But, it was Sean Penn as Jewish lawyer David Kleinfeld who gave me the most entertainment.

I am not sure about Penn IRL (among other things, there are rumors concerning some things he may have done to Madonna when they were together) but this character was an amazing scumbag. The Art Garfunkel hair, some of his clothing, him being a cokehead-there were plenty of laughs and as I say often, those chuckles were needed. The story was engrossing (as talk about a conflicted lead), 1970's NYC was brought to life rather well and it has a wonderful soundtrack between the salsa music and the disco tunes. While it would have been better if it wasn't shown in the beginning, the ending is rather haunting.

It was a delight to finally talk about Carlito's Way on Letterboxd.