Miller's Crossing
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen · 1990
A 1990 neo-noir gangster film directed by the Coen brothers, set in an unnamed Prohibition-era city. Gabriel Byrne stars as Tom Reagan, a strategist caught between rival mob bosses Albert Finney and Jon Polito. Built on Hammett’s The Glass Key, it prioritises formal rigour over emotional exposition — its dialogue elliptical, its violence understated, its moral universe amoral. Shot in New Orleans by Barry Sonnenfeld, with a restrained score by Carter Burwell, it is a study in control: of image, rhythm, and implication.
