It's nice to see that director Bryan Singer can do more than comic book movies (X-men 1 and 2, Superman Returns). In fact, I'd like it a lot better if he made more movies like his intricate crime-who-dunnit The Usual Suspects. The story follows (very much out of order a la Pulp Fiction, released just a year before) a group of thieves on what looks like a heist gone wrong. The first thing we see is a member of the group being shot by a hidden man before the ship he's lying on goes up in flames and the killer escapes into the darkness. For the next 20 minutes or so, the film is confusing as all get out, and you might actually want to keep a flow chart (debaters, those skills of yours a finally going to come in handy outside of the debate world!!) of who's who, because things get pretty damn chaotic. Once everything starts to settle, however, the film is absorbing and completely gripping in its retelling of the "heist gone wrong" from the point of view of Kevin Spacey's character. And of course, the fun of it all is trying to answer one little question: who in the hell is Keyser Soze? (revealed via one fantastically executed twist that is now often poorly mimicked in other thrillers)
Grade: A
Nominations: Best Picture (#2), Best Director (#2) Best Supporting Actor - Kevin Spacey (#1 WIN), Best Original Screenplay (#1 WIN), Best Editing (#1 TIED with 'To Die For'), Best Cinematography (#3), Best Original Score (#2)
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