Director · Screenwriter

Carl Franklin

2: briefs
13:00: average
26 min: in total

On film.briefs2

Devil in a Blue Dress

Carl Franklin · 1995

Carl Franklin’s 1995 adaptation of Walter Mosley’s novel follows WWII veteran Easy Rawlins through a 1948 Los Angeles entangled in political corruption, racial surveillance, and familial secrets. Denzel Washington anchors a tightly constructed crime narrative shaped by Tak Fujimoto’s restrained cinematography and Elmer Bernstein’s blues-tinged score. The film excels in atmosphere and historical texture but resolves its central tensions with procedural efficiency rather than emotional resonance.

13:00

One False Move

Carl Franklin · 1992

One False Move (1992) is a tightly wound neo-noir crime film directed by Carl Franklin and written by Billy Bob Thornton. Three Los Angeles criminals flee to Star City, Arkansas, triggering a quiet, inevitable convergence with the town’s police chief — a man whose authority is rooted in local knowledge, not jurisdiction. Shot on location in Arkansas and California, the film avoids genre clichés in favour of psychological precision, restrained performances, and a morally complex portrait of place, race, and consequence.