Underrated ‘The Little Things’ deserves better recognition

Underrated+The+Little+Things+deserves+better+recognition

   Many movies throughout time have absolutely been hit with negative reviews and horrible box office numbers. Sometimes, throughout the film’s lifespan, as in the case with Blade Runner or Big Trouble in Little China, those movies become popular and people realize that they were wrong. I believe that The Little Things will become one of those movies.

   The Little Things is about a cop called Joe Deacon who has experienced an unfortunate accident in his career in which he shot someone who should not have been shot at. One of the main plots in the movie is how he deals with this. The main storyline is how Deacon met a cop named Jim Baxter when he had to be transferred to Los Angeles. Deacon was only supposed to be in Los Angeles to gather some evidence, but something even bigger came up. Deacon and Jim discover murders that are very peculiar all throughout Los Angeles. They suspect a man named Albert Sparma because wherever the two police officers are, it seems that Sparma is always there with them. Without any hard data, most of the movie follows how Deacon and Baxter do some investigating to see if it is indeed Sparma.

   The film features three big stars as the three main characters. Denzel Washington (Malcolm X, Training Day) plays Joe Deacon. Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody, Buster’s Mal Heart) plays Jim Baxter. Jared Leto (Requiem For a Dream, Dallas Buyers Club) plays Albert Sparma. In my personal opinion, Leto steals the show. The role needed someone who is able to be portrayed in a psychotic manner; Leto took the role and ran with it, giving one of his best performances.

   The movie was very entertaining and had a really great storyline that kept me interested until the end. However, one gripe that I have with this movie is that it borrows from other movies and shows. It specifically has many similarities to the detective work in Se7en and the murder mystery aspect of Twin Peaks. Se7en is set in 1990s Los Angeles, and so is The Little Things. Se7en features a serial killer that murders victims in mysterious ways, as does The Little Things. Even the relationships between the two characters are eerily similar. The way that the two characters met are also similar in both movies. It is similar to Twin Peaks in the way that they showed videos of the people that Albert killed. I am by no means saying that The Little Things is a 1:1 copy of Se7en and Twin Peaks. However, the similarities are just too noticeable to ignore.

   Overall, I think that this movie is without a doubt a great movie. Despite having some similarities to other works, that did not take away from the experience because I feel like The Little Things still has a lot to offer. I definitely think that more people will appreciate this as time goes on.

   The Little Things is streaming on HBO Max through February 28 and is in theaters where available.