Flinch: Cathy Moriarty Return Match Comes Out Swinging

 A more offbeat window into women saving themselves, while shaking up the seemingly forever set in stone macho mob genre - Cathy Moriarty unconventionally rules in Flinch as a senior citizen gunslinger protecting her shabby downscale turf, along with her reluctant hitman son, Joey. Costa Rican born actor Daniel Zavatto who'd rather be communing with his pet goldfish - sulks his way through when not staging hits as the reluctant mobster, and apparently as a debt owed by his incarcerated dad to a West Coast crime syndicate.

The veteran feisty actress with working class roots best known for standing up to Raging Bull's deranged domestic violent boxer Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta when she was just seventeen years old, and not too successfully as a battered wife - what was Scorsese thinking - is back this time around still swinging as an over-protective to say the least, take charge badgering gangster mom. And handling a mix 'n match identity crisis, divided between dodging cops and culprits alike, when not tough love mothering Joey who gets nagged to brush his teeth before bedtime, refrain from cursing, and 'no cell phones on the dinner table.'

Meanwhile, the possible femme fatale of this combo mob noir satire, seems to be juggling assorted contradictory identities herself - and portrayed with elusive, inventive flair by Australian actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey. While impressing as well this past year as iconic singer/songwriter Helen Reddy in the feminist biopic, I Am Woman. Let's just say Flinch, though showcasing the conventional crime genre, is owned by the women this time around.

 

Prairie Miller