Written by: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Pete Postlethwaite
Rating: [4/5]
Police investigations and interrogations involving criminals of all levels present the inherent challenge of trying to decipher the truth from what they share. These individuals answering questions have a vested interest in sharing answers that serve them the best and avoid the consequences of their alleged actions. In Usual Suspects, we receive a twisty story all about the deception at play making for something most famously known for its twist but still telling quite the effective story.
Following an incident that left multiple individuals dead but only a select number of them alive, including conman Roger Kint (Kevin Spacey), the police have a vested interest in who caused this horrific incident. After interviewing Kint and the other remaining survivors, they hear them all refer to the same mysterious figure behind everything named Keyser Söze. Seeing him as the central figure, the police try to decipher the individual’s identity.
For all of the issues, unfortunately, surrounding this film and the people involved with it looking at it through a contemporary lens, The Usual Suspects finds itself in an interesting place. A film that lives off its twist, which rivals M. Night Shyamalan in regard to what it reveals in the film, but through the writing of Christopher McQuarrie, we see this film succeeds beyond the acknowledgment of its twist. Even knowing the truth of what transpires at the end allows for a level of enjoyment seeing as it layers all of the testimony of these characters in a way that proves quite riveting.
With the film starting out by displaying the fate of the characters we follow for the majority of the narrative, we, as the audience, approach trying to figure out the identity of Keyser Söze from a different perspective. In a sense, we already know who it could not be, but none of it remains particularly clear unless one obviously already knows the twist or picks up on the small but cogent details layered into the dialogue of these characters. In a sense, we are walking towards the inevitable conclusion hoping to piece everything together in the hope of forming some semblance of clarity allowing for this screenplay to completely take us on a ride.
Having this film focus so much on the search for Keyser Söze presents this mysterious figure as quite the individual receiving a healthy amount of build-up. As these criminals describe the history and legend of Keyser Söze it comes across as if this individual exists as a boogeyman. Someone to not cross seeing as one would not survive an encounter with, which is quite comical seeing these hardened criminals have this massive fear of one man. Rings similar to how some children harbor fear for Krampus. Keyser Söze represents this for men who decide to engage in crime and find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Providing this level of build-up truly sets the state that if this figure will appear in this feature, they live up to it and The Usual Suspects makes sure to deliver on it in unexpectedly great ways, which once again comes down to the excellent screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie.
Of the moments we get this rag-tag group of criminals before what transpires with Keyser Söze, we see we get quite the group of characters collectively working together in the hope of getting some riches and it allows these actors to have some fun. Gabriel Byrne remains the figure that makes the biggest impression in this narrative as Dean Keaton. If anyone serves as the protagonist of this feature, the title would land on him and Byrne does so well in shepherding much of the segments with the criminals. We also get some fun performances from the likes of Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak, and Giancarlo Esposito. Benicio, in particular, brings such deranged energy to this character in bringing Fred Fenster with the limited dialogue and screen time received as compared to the other characters. A fun cast filled with many wild cards that only further raises questions about them seeing as any of them could theoretically be Keyser Söze by the end of it.
If you never knew the name Keyser Söze, then The Usual Suspects will certainly try its best to never forget it based on the number of times it gets stated in the film and with good reasons. In this film, we get the search for this mysterious figure as we try to piece together what we can from several unreliable witnesses sharing their recounts of what they saw during an incident where many perished. In between we receive a series of thrilling sequences as these criminals find themselves in the crosshairs of this dangerous figure while trying to complete a job all leading to the famous reveal that perfectly puts a cherry on top of this thoroughly captivating film.
Films with Josh 
