The Ice Harvest

The Ice Harvest falls somewhere between a film noir and a comedy, but works pretty well in both genres.

Here's a movie neither too big nor too small — just good. We need more of this size, this shape. Because, as The Ice Harvest rises, so rises the stock of the midsize American movie.

...finds a balance between the goofy and the gruesome, as in a rather brilliant scene in which a mobster who is locked inside a trunk is nevertheless optimistic enough to shout out muffled death threats.

...this Christmastime crime caper boasts a sincere existentialist heart and jet-black funny bone...

...Charlie and Pete’s relationship—or rather, their shared sense of abuse by the wife—evolves over Christmas Eve into something of a beautiful friendship, the sort of male bond based in a shared experience of violence and fear.