The textbook on "How To Make A Modern Mystery Film"

Rating: Null/10 (8 June 1999)

This film takes a mystery and turns it every which way but loose. It takes all 105 minutes to soak this movie in, and even then, a second viewing only enhances the experience. Expertly directed, brilliantly written, and extremely well cast, "The Usual Suspects" is the product of a film maker carefully studying and recreating what does and doesn't work when keeping an entire audience suspended with curiosity. If this movie is a valentine to the classic film noir mysteries of the 1940s and 1950's, then we could use a few more like it. As a treat, rent it along with "L.A. Confidential". That way, whenever people say, "they don't make 'em like that anymore," you'll know that they do.