I just saw the new hardboiled-private-eye movie Too Late, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough. People say they don’t make ’em like they used to, but what I love about this one is that it combines newer techniques of filmmaking with exactly the kind of human, emotional appeal that was central to older Hollywood classics. I thought more than once while watching this movie that this is what Pulp Fiction might have been like if it had had a heart, as opposed to just style. (And don’t get me wrong: I was impressed by Pulp Fiction. But there’s a big difference between admiring something and loving it. My colleague Dan Foster put it best: Quentin Tarantino is “a great example of a genius who should have read better books.”) The story of Too Late sounds familiar — private eye searches for missing woman – but there are twists that will genuinely surprise you, and touch you. Raymond Chandler himself would have been impressed.

I won’t provide any spoilers here: I urge readers to discover this film for themselves. It opened in L.A. today, will open in NYC next Friday, and aim for a broader release thereafter.

NB. John Hawkes is excellent in the lead role of the private eye. I understand he is well-known for being on HBO’s Deadwood show, which I have never seen. He was at the screening I was at tonight at Sundance Sunset, and I asked him whether he’s any relation to the novelist of the same name. (He says he isn’t, but that he admires the novelist greatly.)