Layer Cake – The Movie Gourmet

We’re living in a good time for crime drama. When I think of this genre, I generally think of The Godfather, Goodfellas, and the film noir of the 40s and 50s. But there are some excellent contemporary ones. This year, we have had A Prophet, The Secret in Their Eyes, Ajami, Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Animal Kingdom. (Interestingly, two of those films are French, and the others are Australian, Argentine and Israeli.)

Here are some more outstanding crime dramas from the past seven years: The Lookout, A History of Violence, Layer Cake, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Tell No One, Gomorrah, Sin Nombre, In Bruges, Zodiac, Maria Full of Grace and Eastern Promises. All of them have inventive, fresh takes on the crime genre. All of them are on my list of best films for its year.

For descriptions and trailers, see Best Recent Crime Dramas.

Daniel Craig — Hollywood's Mikael Blomkvist

There’s some good news about the upcoming Hollywood versions of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy. First, David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) will direct, and Fincher’s track record suggests that he is the perfect guy to pull this off.

Second, Hollywood is planning to make all three films (instead of just the first or compressing them into one movie).

Third, Entertainment Weekly reports that Daniel Craig will play Mikael Blomkvist. If you’ve seen the gritty British crime drama Layer Cake, you know that Craig can play the smart and understated Blomkvist.

Still, the success of the project depends on who will play Lisbeth Salander – and we still don’t know. My first choice is the Danish actress Noomi Rapace who has originated the role, and she speaks English well; but on the extra features of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo DVD, Rapace says that, after living with Lisbeth for 18 months of prep and filming, she is done with the character. Carey Mulligan has been quoted that it won’t be her, either. So we watch and wait.