Jerry and Tom

By day Tom and Jerry work at a small second-hand car lot; their real work is killing people for money. Tom has been doing it for years and has shut his feelings off entirely. Jerry has just started, is eager, and does not yet understand what he has got into. The master-and-apprentice relationship between them cracks when killing Karl, an old friend of Tom's, comes up. It is the actor Saul Rubinek's first film as director, from a stage play by Rick Cleveland, and that origin shows in the structure: the narrative is a series of short scenes spread across years, each with a new guest performer. Ted Danson, Charles Durning, William H. Macy and Maury Chaykin pass through this way. The humour is black and quiet; the killings are work rather than spectacle. The pairing of Joe Mantegna and Sam Rockwell carries the whole weight of the film.