The Drop

In Michaël R. Roskam’s film a Brooklyn bar doubles as a night safe for the local mob, and a robbery brings the gang and a detective down on the barman Bob. The device is withheld information: Bob’s past stays hidden until the last stretch, then opens in one speech. Dennis Lehane adapted his own story, his first feature screenplay. Animal Rescue appeared in the 2009 Boston Noir collection, set in Boston; Lehane moved the neighbourhood to Brooklyn after producers told him Boston was a little played out. The bar was manufactured, not found: unable to close the 3 bars he liked for 6 weeks, Roskam had a set built in an empty room, a crossbreed of the three. Shooting ran through Marine Park, Fort Greene and Windsor Terrace. This was Roskam’s first film in English. His Bullhead was a 2012 Oscar nominee for best foreign language film, and both Matthias Schoenaerts, who plays Eric Deeds here, and cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis came from it. Marv was James Gandolfini’s last screen role. A good fit if you want menace built by standing behind the same bar again and again rather than by raised voices. Not for you if a beaten puppy lifted out of a bin, and a dog then kept as a bargaining chip, is more than you want.