God's Pocket
Director: John Slattery Year: 2014 God’s Pocket is a movie that leaves me gnashing my teeth for what could have been. The killer lineup of actors, in particular, John Turturro, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Richard Jenkins set against a poor, blue collar, never quite defined northeast suburb and a small, dark, ugly little story has all the elements of a powder keg. Sadly, the explosion is more a pop than a boom. The setup is such: Jeanie Scarpato (Christina Hendricks) is in a loveless marriage with shlub, Mickey Scarpato (Hoffman). She has an adult child, Leon (Caleb Landry Jones), from a previous relationship living with them. Leon is a loud-mouthed drug addict with a switch blade for a best friend – and Jeanie believes her little boy is perfect. Mickey’s a hustler who owns a meat-delivery truck and does small-time crime to make ends meet. His partner in crime is Arthur ‘Bird’ Capezio (John Turturro). Sal Cappi (Domenick Lombardozzi) is the heavy who watches over...