Similar to Gran Torino (Spoiler)

I enjoyed the performance by Dennis Farina-- just wonderful and genuine. Reminds me of Harry Brown with Michael Caine, a movie with a much larger budget (I suspect). Mr Farina does just as well.

It's a "picture show", where good and bad are sharply drawn... in a solid, mostly predictable script. So look for the little moments of sparkle. They're there. The cast and crew worked very hard to give us an enjoyable 107 minutes.

Kind of like Midnight Cowboy Meets Gran Torino. Not that Joe May was a slimy hustler in the Ratso Rizzo mold, but he was a small-timer for sure and he did have a persistent case of walking pneumonia. And the Gran Torino part of it is obvious to anyone who's seen the film. I'm a huge Dennis Farina fan from way back, from his first non-speaking role in Thief to his many and various wonderful performances that followed. I have a huge poster from Crime Story, of Farina and Anthony Denison (the Ray Luca character) covering one of the walls in my apartment. Farina's relationship with Jennifer Lopez was one of the prime treats in Out of Sight, and his comic bombast in the other great Elmore Leonard adaptation, Get Shorty, was a window into this man's, this former cop's, versatility as an actor. I was so saddened when HBO decided not to go forward with the wonderful horse track series Luck, because, once again, Farina's relationship with Hoffman -- coming full circle now -- was a weekly pleasure to watch.

I am so proud of Dennis Farina's performance in The Last Rites of Joe May. This was a tour de force, and it's a shame that more people won't see it.