'Play Dirty' Review: Shane Black's Welcomed Return
Shane Black has fun in the cartoonishly glorious adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s Parker with ‘Play Dirty’, containing Mark Wahlberg’s best performance in years as he dons the mantra of Westlake’s most iconic character.
If you thought Shane Black’s The Predator was a massive disappointment, you may be happy to learn that his latest directorial effort, Play Dirty, sees the filmmaker back to his “non-Christmas-released Christmas buddy movie” roots that made him a household name in the 1980s and 1990s in Hollywood. With screenplays such as Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Black’s unmistakable trademarks are more than present in this loose adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s Parker.
Play Dirty is not the first iteration of the Parker character to the screen. The book series was first adapted Jean-Luc-Godard’s unauthorized Made in U.S.A., while authorized transpositions, throughout the years, starred Lee Marvin, Robert Duvall, Mel Gibson, and Jason Statham as the “Parker” character. Now, Mark Wahlberg dons the persona of Westlake’s most popular character in a film that is decidedly Shane Black from the first minute it opens until its fourth-wall breaking conclusion. It may not be the best adaptation of a Westlake’s work released this year (that award goes to Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice), but Play Dirty remains a propulsive, bracingly kinetic piece of entertainment that ranks high as one of Black’s most polished screenwriting – and directing – effort.
The one major drawback from Black’s previous films is how it carries the stench of sterile direct-to-streaming cinematography, which often creates unengaging and flat compositions to essentially discourage viewers from paying attention to the frame on the television screen. This is highly apparent in the opening scene, as the heist Parker and his gang take part in culminate on the most poorly shot and edited car chase on a horse racetrack I’ve ever seen. For some inexplicable reason, Philippe Rousselot’s photography lacks any sense of spatial awareness and depth of field as the erratic cutting from Chris Lebenzon and Joel Negron creates no actual rhythm to sustain the chaos of such a setpiece.
And yet, after an aesthetically emotionless cold open, Black finds his groove with a Saul Bass-esque opening credits, scored through the smooth jazz compositions of Alan Silvestri, which gives the movie a specific Noir vibe it begins to adopt as soon as it cuts to New York at around Christmastime. Black is, of course, in his element when staging capers set around the holiday (for reasons that are actually deeper than I thought), and this one focuses on the unconventional pairing between Parker and Zen (Rosa Salazar), as they attempt to steal a priceless artefact from an entire country.
Unconventional, because, in their last heist, Zen double-crossed Parker and took all the money to fund her biggest – and most elaborate – mission yet. Deep down, though, she knows she won’t be able to do it alone, and that’s where Parker, alongside his sidekick Grofield (LaKeith Stanfield) come in. Together, they assemble a crew to perform a heist no one – not even Parker – know for sure they will be able to accomplish. But it won’t be for a lack of trying, especially considering that they also have the opportunity to takedown an entire organized crime ring, led by the ruthless Lozini (Tony Shalhoub), who always thinks he’s one step ahead of Parker, but grossly underestimates him at every turn.
Throughout Play Dirty’s 128-minute runtime, Black consistently twists his story, which he co-wrote with Charles Mondry and Anthony Bagarozzi, in a plethora of exciting directions, either by staging formally inventive, heightened shootout sequences of pure cartoonish pleasure, or in forming a rock-solid alchemy between Parker and Zen that becomes far more complex than it meets the eye. In any event, Wahlberg delivers the best – and most emotionally riveting – performance he’s given in a very long time. In recent memory, he’s been more concerned with developing his Municipal brand (and shoving it into every single direct-to-streaming offering he’s starred in before this) than “act” in movies, but Black reminds us of all what kind of talent he can be, when he cares. It helps that the screenplay is mordantly funny, which allows Wahlberg to effectively waltz into the story as if he never made any shoddy picture in the first place.
Parker’s moral code is consistently tested, especially when the widow of a deceased partner at Zen’s hands (played by Gretchen Mol) asks the protagonist to kill her. Yet, the two begin to form a connection that transcends friendship. Will he be able to pull the trigger when the job is over, or stick to his code to only kill when necessary (which is, we quickly learn, all the time, going so far as to use people as human shields in these heightened action setpieces)? Perhaps Black’s visualization of Parker may not be as psychologically riveting as John Boorman’s approach in Point Blank, but it still works, because Wahlberg knows how to operate within this highly fictionalized version of New York, where a subway train can be destroyed on a busy street and no one ever mentions it again.
This could be a problem if Black didn’t heavily lean into the cartoonish nature of his bloodletting, which is perfectly in tune with the tone he wants to set for this heist flick. We quickly get entranced by the playfulness of his gunfights, and bravura setpieces that are as improbable as any Fast & Furious movie but are shot and executed with such verve that it’s impossible not to hate them. Black compensates the usual dull cinematography of direct-to-streaming “content” with as much caricatured movements as possible from its actors, which creates a real sense of kinetics within the action that no streaming effort actively wants to craft. Moreover, the climax moves at such a thunderous pace that it automatically reaffirms Black’s status as one of Hollywood’s most exciting voices, one who, despite his misses, still knows how to write lively characters inside dynamic settings that only make you want to clamor for more.
Perhaps some of the side characters are undercooked in favor of more time with Wahlberg, Stanfield (who is also excellent), and Salazar. Notably, anything involving Chukwudi Iwuji, who is one of our most treasured talents, barely has room to breathe in an already hefty movie that goes in all different directions. However, there’s no denying the sheer pleasure you’ll have in watching Black step away from franchise fare to deliver the movie that fans of pictures like The Nice Guys wanted to see from him. Streaming limitations sadly prevent him from reaching the level of greatness he’s known for in his career, but Play Dirty is such a step above The Predator that it almost doesn’t matter. It’s pure popcorn entertainment, the likes of which Hollywood seldom releases on any screen anymore. Sadly, no one will get to see this romp on the big screen, but the smile you’ll have watching it at home will be so good that you’ll hope this won’t be the last time we’ll see Wahlberg playing Parker, which has hopefully reignited a spark that his desire for product placement eliminated…