In 1949 Hollywood, a gangster from New York (Sean Penn) muscles his way into the West Coast crime syndicates. To bring him down, a renegade cop (Josh Brolin) assembles a team of outsiders (including Ryan Gosling). This is a time when everybody smoked and women were called “tomatoes.” This film’s elegant period style and suave, snappy dialogue verge on parody, but director Rubin Fleischer manages to keep a sense of fun, while loading it with plenty of fights (fists and guns). The performances are enjoyable and the pacing never lags. While this isn’t exceptional in any way, it’s still thoroughly entertaining.
