The Little Things: A Garbage Crime Syllabus
Let's talk about crime.
Hello, and welcome to the first official Working Title newsletter. I was originally going to start next week with a recap of Sundance, but there’s a movie coming out this weekend that I think deserves your attention and gives me a good excuse to write about one of my favorite types of movies.
That movie is THE LITTLE THINGS starring Denzel Washington, Jared Leto, and Rami Malek. It debuts this Friday in theaters (lol) and will also be available to stream on HBO MAX. This movie falls into a genre that’s known as “garbage crime” and there’s a good chance you’ve seen one of these types of movies.
What follows is a little mini-syllabus of the Garbage Crime™️ genre as a way to get excited about THE LITTLE THINGS this weekend. This is by no means an exhaustive list of these types of movies, but there are some that I really enjoy and that I think give a good overview of what the genre can be about.
What Is Garbage Crime?
Great question. Garbage Crime is another name for a type of movie that’s been around for a long time. It’s known by several monikers: B-Movie, exploitation film, Grindhouse films (although this is a little misleading. Gargbage Crime can ABSOLUTELY be a Grindhouse movie, but not all Grindhouse movies are Garbage Crime).
These movies are usually pretty well made, if not exactly on a blockbuster budget. They’re also, admittedly, usually pretty violent, masculine, and don’t particularly have much to say about society as a whole, but take themselves extremely seriously. The Rotten Tomatoes score is usually around like a 57 or something. They’ve been around for a while, but I think their modern run starts back in 2008 with TAKEN
They also feature a roster of pretty recognizable characters, usually played by at least one (1) if not two (2) capital M movie stars and a nice ensemble cast. These characters usually include: a cop who’s in over his head, a thief coming back for one last job, a father who has had something taken from him, etc…
I guess the best way to describe these movies is that they don’t have a particularly high ceiling, but they also don’t have a low floor. They’re usually very enjoyable and have some great re-watchability. They have a little pulp to them, some grit if you will. They’re the type of movie you leave on if you flip across it while channel surfing or are looking for a nice use of 2 hours on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon.
Below, I’m going to give you some of my favorite movies from this genre that you can watch to either: 1. Familiarize yourself with this genre 2. Reintroduce yourself to this genre, or 3. Rewatch some movies you might have already seen if you’re a fan of the genre like me. I’ll start with some older movies and move into some modern favorites.
The Garbage Crime Movie Syllabus
Title: DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE
Released: 1995
Where To Watch: streaming on Hulu, rent wherever
Why Watch: This is my favorite of the Die Hard movies and its premise is a fun one. Originally, this film wasn’t supposed to be a Die Hard movie. It was a standalone screenplay called Simon Says, but eventually got turned into the 3rd film in the franchise. Bruce Willis returns as John McClane and he and his impromptu partner Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) have to race around New York City trying to stop bombs from detonating and killing tons of people. Jeremy Irons plays the main baddie in this one and he’s amazing. It loses the plot a bit towards the end, but the movie is solid, especially the first hour or so.
Title: S.W.A.T
Released: 2003
Where To Watch: Stream on Netflix, rent wherever
Why Watch: Remember back when Colin Farrel was going to be the next big thing? They were putting him in everything, trying to figure out what kind of actor he was going to be and what his career would look like. This is one of the movies we got out of that time period. It has an insanely stacked ensemble cast outside of Farrel ( Samuel L. Jackson shows up again, LL Cool J, Jeremy Renner) and features some great action and a couple of betrayals that keep the movie moving pretty nicely.
Title: INSIDE MAN
Released: 2006
Where To Watch: Stream on Peacock (lol), rent wherever you rent movies.
Why Watch: We’ll get this out of the way up top. Denzel Washington is a master of the garbage crime genre. It’s a big reason why I’m so excited for THE LITTLE THINGS. He’s a garbage crime king, giving amazing performances in movies that don’t necessarily call for them. Some other classics of his include MAN ON FIRE, DEJA VU, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, SAFE HOUSE, and THE EQUALIZER. I could honestly write a newsletter based on Denzel’s garbage crime movies alone. That said, INSIDE MAN is my favorite out of all of them. It’s an incredible heist movie starring Denzel, Clive Owen (approaching the peak of his power), and Jodie Foster. It’s directed by Spike Freakin’ Lee (somehow forgotten). If you really wanna get a feel for Denzel in this sort of movie, this is the one I recommend most and is a great lead into THE LITTLE THINGS
Title: TAKEN
Released: 2008
Where To Watch: streaming on Hulu and STARZ, rent wherever
Why Watch: This movie doesn’t need a lot of talking about, but I think it’s important to note because it really did kick-off this sort of renaissance of these sorts of movies. You can usually count on 2-4 of these types of movies a year and I think it all starts here.
Title: CONTRABAND
Released: 2012
Where To Watch: streaming on HBO MAX, rent wherever
Why Watch: Besides Denzel, the other patron saint of the garbage crime genre is Mark Wahlberg. He’s done countless of these types of movies, but around 2012 with CONTRABAND, my man really kicks it into high gear making the types of movies that if made today would go right to VOD or streaming. They’re all reliably insane and reliably entertaining (see: 2 GUNS, MILE 22.) This is another one of those that has a deep roster of talented actors filling out its cast and is set in New Orleans and features a heist of stealing paintings off a barge. It’s nuts.
Title: THE PURGE: ANARCHY
Released: 2014
Where To Watch: not streaming anywhere, unfortunately. rent wherever.
Why Watch: I will be the first person to admit that I’m not a huge horror film guy, and The Purge series initially positioned itself as a straight-up horror movie. As the series progressed, however, they started to reinvent themselves, and THE PURGE: ANARCHY is a great example of this reinvention. It’s a run and gun crime movie that’s a lot of fun.
Title: JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK
Released: 2016
Where To Watch: not streaming anywhere, unfortunately, rent wherever
Why Watch: This may be the perfect encapsulation of what the garbage crime genre is all about. This movie is straight up not very good. The story is a little convoluted, the pacing isn’t great and it’s overall mediocre. I’ve seen it 4 times. It’s somehow so watchable despite not being great from a movie standpoint. Tom Cruise is hard to beat in a movie like this. The first JACK REACHER is also awesome, but a little too good to qualify here.
Title: Triple 9
Released: 2016
Where To Watch: Netflix
Why Watch: This movie honestly has maybe the most stacked cast out of anyone on this list. Listen to this: Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aaron Paul, Gal Gadot, and Academy Award Winner Kate Winslet as a Russian Mob boss wife. Everyone in this movie is acting on 120% and it is a treat. A billion betrayals. I cannot recommend it enough.
Title: SHOT CALLER
Released: 2017
Where To Watch: Netflix
Why Watch: This was one that admittedly slipped by me for a little bit. It was always hanging around in my Netflix recommendations, but I never gave it the time until this pandemic started. I wish I had watched it sooner. It stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as a guy who goes from, like, a regular dad to a hardened criminal because he’s involved in a DUI accident and sent to prison. It also has my boys Jon Bernthal and Holt McCallany. Really good stuff.
Title: SLEEPLESS
Released: 2017
Where To Watch: streaming on Sling, rent wherever
Why Watch: 2 words: Scoot McNairy. Scoot McNairy rules and he’s great in this movie. Put Scoot McNairy in more things.
Title: SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLEDADO
Released: 2018
Where To Watch: streaming on Hulu (I think). Rent wherever.
Why Watch: Another sequel movie that’s original (SICARIO) is a little too good to be called garbage crime, but falls into the genre itself. SICARIO: DOTS takes Josh Brolin and Benecio Del Toro and puts the focus more on their characters (A CIA agent and CIA Assassin, respectively) and it mostly pays off.
Title: Den of Thieves
Released: 2018
Where To Watch: Netflix
Why Watch: This is it. This is the one. My favorite movie in this genre. It kicks so much ass. Cool heist. Great cast, with Gerard Butler trying to do his best “what if this movie was HEAT” thing. O’Shea Jackson Jr as the driver. Set in LA, but very clearly filmed in Atlanta. It is the perfect garbage crime movie. If you only watch one movie on this list, watch this one.
Movies That Are Too Good To Be Considered Garbage Crime
There are a few movies that have hallmarks of garbage crime, but they are too good to fall into the genre. They include: THE TOWN, HEAT, GOOD TIME, UNCUT GEMS, and movies like that. These movies are all too well made, acted, edited, etc… to fall under the garbage crime umbrella.
Thanks for reading this first edition of Working Title! I hope this list leads you to a movie you enjoy, and I hope you find something to like about the Garbage Crime genre.
I’ll be back next week with a quick roundup of what I watched at Sundance. See you then.