Starring: Kevin Spacey, Benecio Del Toro, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite
Director: Bryan Singer
The film: The Usual Suspects was the sleeper hit of 1995, eventually pulling in awards at the Oscars (Kevin Spacey for best supporting actor and Christopher McQuarrie for best original screenplay). With a tight script, a great ensemble cast and top-notch direction it redefined the gangster genre.
The film follows the story told by Verbal Kint (Spacey), a disabled con man who happens to be the only known survivor of a gang of crooks that were taking down one final, seemingly impossible job.
He tells his interrogator (brilliantly played by Chazz Palminteri) of how he found himself in a line-up with Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne, left), McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Tod Hockney (Kevin Pollak) and Fenster (Benecio Del Toro), all notorious crooks. Soon enough they concocted their own plans together, not least of which involved getting the New York Police Department back for their original arrest.
However, not long after they found themselves spiralling into danger after being forced by a lawyer called Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite) to do an impossible job for one Keyser Soze. It was this job that left them all, bar Kint, dead. But all is not as it seems, and as Kint tells his story and the police get further leads a web of intrigue builds up around just what exactly these crooks were doing together and who the fearsome Keyser Soze actually is. It's brilliant, suspenseful stuff with fabulous acting and one of the great twists of modern cinema.