Small Crimes

***Small Crimes*** is a 2017 crime-drama film directed by Evan Katz. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Dave Zeltserman. The screenplay was written by Katz and Macon Blair. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars as Joe Denton, a former cop recently released from prison for attempted murder. The film also stars Gary Cole, Molly Parker, Macon Blair, Pat Healy, Jacki Weaver, and Robert Forster. *Small Crimes* was first premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2017, and was released exclusive on Netflix on April 28, 2017.

## Plot

Joe Denton, a corrupt ex-cop, is released from jail. Six years earlier, Denton, while on the mob's payroll, attacked district attorney Phil Coakley, earning him the enmity of the police and the nickname "slash cop". After finding his ex-wife has left the city with their children, he moves in with his elderly parents. Denton researches his ex-wife on the internet, eventually digging up a phone number. After briefly talking to one of his daughters, his ex-wife takes the phone and threatens to press charges if he ever contacts them again.

Denton passes a bar on his way back home. Although a recovering alcoholic, he enters and orders a drink. His friend Scotty, the brother of Denton's slain partner, greets him and offers him any help he needs. A young woman asks Denton for a ride home. Denton is surprised when she reveals herself to be Coakley's daughter and intentionally bloodies herself. Cued by her cries for help, two men drag Denton from his car; Denton beats both men savagely. After Denton is questioned by the police, Coakley admits the evidence backs up his story and reluctantly asks if Denton wants to press charges. Denton declines, saying he wants to leave his history in the past, to the disgust of Coakley and Lieutenant Pleasant, who calls him a disgrace.

Pleasant, revealed to also be corrupt, demands Denton kill mob boss Manny Vassey, who has found religion on his deathbed. Pleasant explains Vassey's guilty conscience may lead him to confess to Coakley. Pleasant promises to help Denton renegotiate the terms of the settlement with his ex-wife if he kills Vassey. At his house, Vassey denies the rumors. As Vassey falls asleep, Denton begins to suffocate him, only to be interrupted by Charlotte Boyd, Vassey's hospice nurse. Denton smoothly thanks her for her work and leaves the house, where he encounters Vassey's sadistic son, Junior. Junior threatens to kill Denton, enraged that Vassey would see him while avoiding his own son.

Frustrated with his suspicious behavior, Denton's parents demand explanations. When they disbelieve his lies, Denton angrily accuses them of having no faith in his redemption. Denton encounters Boyd again at a diner, and the two soon begin dating. After Pleasant threatens him and his parents, Denton probes Boyd for a way to access Vassey. When this fails, Pleasant suggests he murder Coakley instead. Denton breaks into Coakley's house but can not bring himself to do it. Instead, he bribes a prostitute Coakley has been seeing into secretly recording him.

After another argument with his parents, in which his father asks him to leave, an unknown assailant fires several shots into Denton's parents' house, wounding his mother. Denton confesses to Boyd, with whom he has grown closer, that the situation has spiraled out of control. She assures him it will work out, and, unknown to Denton, murders Vassey. At the same time, Pleasant sends an assassin to kill Coakley during his tryst, much to Denton's horror. As Coakley kills the assassin, Junior's thugs kidnap Denton. Junior reveals he has tortured and presumably killed Boyd. Denton's protests that he was uninvolved with Vassey's death are interrupted by the arrival of Scotty, who announces his brother's friendship with Denton has led him to attempt a rescue.

Denton and Scotty kill Junior and his thugs, but Scotty is shot. Scotty admits to being the person who shot Denton's mother; Coakley told him that Denton was the one who killed his brother. As Scotty dies, Pleasant calls Denton and congratulates him for killing Coakley, who died in an unrelated car accident. Denton ransacks his parents' house for dirty money they found and hid from him before kicking him out. After Denton finds the money and indicates his desire to deliver it to his children, Denton's father says he will not allow Denton anywhere near the children, fearing Denton's self-destructive impulses will harm them. When Denton incredulously asks what his father can do to stop him, Denton's father stabs him. As Denton dies, he wipes the knife clean of fingerprints.

## Cast

* Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Joe Denton
* Gary Cole as Lieutenant Dan Pleasant
* Molly Parker as Charlotte Boyd
* Macon Blair as Scotty Caldwell
* Pat Healy as Junior Vassey
* Jacki Weaver as Irma Denton
* Robert Forster as Joe Denton, Sr.
* Michael Kinney as Phil Coakley
* Daniela Sandiford as Cara Coakley
* Shawn Lawrence as Manny Vassey
* Glen Bowser as Abraham
* Larry Fessenden as Earl
* Tara Yelland as Toni
* Derek Barnes as Rooster
* Tyrone Benskin as Chaplin
* Frank Schorpion as Flattop

## Production

In May 2016, it was announced that director Evan Katz and producer David Lancaster were producing the film based on Dave Zeltserman's book of the same name. Katz worked with Macon Blair on adapting the book to a screenplay.

## Release

*Small Crimes* premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2017, as part of the "Narrative Spotlight" screenings. Netflix acquired the exclusive distribution rights a month before the premiere, and it debuted on Netflix on April 28, 2017.