''McCanick'' is a 2013 American crime-drama mystery film directed by Josh C. Waller, written by Daniel Noah, and starring

David Morse David Bowditch Morse (born October 11, 1953) is an American actor, singer, television director, and writer. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison in the medical drama series ''St. Elsewhere'' (1982–88). His film ca ...

Mike Vogel Michael James Vogel (born July 17, 1979) is an American actor and former model. Vogel began acting in 2001 and has appeared in several films and series, including ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'', ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'', ''Grind' ...

, Trevor Morgan,

Ciarán Hinds Ciarán Hinds (; born 9 February 1953) is an Irish actor. Born in Belfast, Hinds is known for a range of screen and stage roles. He has starred in feature films including '' The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover'' (1989), ''Persuasion'' (19 ...

, and

Cory Monteith Cory Allan Michael Monteith (; May 11, 1982 July 13, 2013) was a Canadian actor and musician who played Finn Hudson on the Fox television series ''Glee''. As an actor based in British Columbia, Monteith had minor roles on television series before ...

. This was one of Monteith's final feature film roles along with '' All The Wrong Reasons'' - both films were released at the

2013 Toronto International Film Festival The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. '' The Fifth Estate'' was selected as the opening film and '' Life of Crime'' was the closing film. 75 films were ...

a few weeks after his death. ''McCanick'' had its theatrical release on March 21, 2014. Critics responded negatively to the film's derivative, cliché-filled plot and direction but were positive towards both Morse and Monteith for their performances.

Synopsis

Eugene "Mack" McCanick (

) is a detective who, along with partner Floyd Intrator (

), hunts down a young criminal named Simon Weeks (

) who was just released from prison.

Cast

as Eugene "Mack" McCanick *

as Simon Weeks *

as Floyd Intrator * Rachel Nichols as Amy Intrator * Trevor Morgan as Louis *

Aaron Yoo Aaron Yoo (born May 12, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for appearing in the films '' Disturbia'' (2007), '' 21'' (2008), and ''Friday the 13th'' (2009), as well as playing Russell Kwon in the sci-fi series ''The Tomorrow People'' ( ...

as Carl *

Tracie Thoms Tracie Nicole Thoms is an Emmy-nominated American television, film, and stage actress and singer. She is known for her roles in ''Rent'', ''Cold Case'', '' The Devil Wears Prada'', ''Death Proof'', and the short-lived Fox television series ''Won ...

as Sister Alice *

as Quinn

Production

Filming began taking place in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in September 2012.

Critical reception

''McCanick'' garnered a negative reception since its release, holding a approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on reviews, with an average rating of . Steve Pulaski of ''Influx Magazine'' gave the film a middling "C−" grade, saying that Waller's direction was needless in providing the action crime style necessary for Noah's script, calling it "a foul-mouthed action film that will either serve as basic entertainment for some or no entertainment for others." '' Paste'' contributor Geoff Berkshire criticized Noah and Waller's "narrative contortions" from keeping viewers invested in Morse's title character and the plot coming across like a "woefully thin" rip-off of '' The French Connection'', saying "this initially rote and ultimately ridiculous cop-on-the-edge drama suffers from too many creative missteps." Justin Lowe from ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' also found criticism in the storytelling and filmmaking, writing that Noah "recycles predictable narrative elements lmostto the point of meaningless and

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substitutes wildly improbable developments in place of actual originality" and Waller's directing style "drain most of the drama from key scenes."

Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and film-maker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for '' New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as ...

from '' RogerEbert.com'' credited Waller and cinematographer Martin Ahlgren for giving the film "a suitably unsettling look" but found the production and scripting "shallow, derivative" overall, concluding that it "barely has a frame it can claim as its own. It shambles in the shadows of similar but richer films, and never hits its own stride." Morse and Monteith garnered praise for their respective performances. Berkshire gave credit to Monteith's "against-type" performance for delivering "tough and vulnerable in all the right ways," while Seitz said that Morse "lends the material more dignity and heft than it deserves".

Jordan Hoffman Jordan Hoffman is an American freelance film critic and former actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his work with ''New York Daily News'', ''The Guardian'', Film.com, ''Vanity Fair (magazine), Vanity Fair'', ''ScreenCrush'', and ...

, writing for the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'', gave praise to both Morse and Monteith's performances but said, " 's a shame the script doesn't offer anything beyond loose-cannon-cop cliches." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Neil Genzlinger Neil Genzlinger is an American playwright, editor, book reviewer, and theatre and television critic who frequently writes for ''The New York Times''. Family Genzlinger is a grandson of the late ''The Philadelphia Bulletin'' columnist Don Rose. ...

said the film would've been a bit better with more appearances from Monteith's character than Morse's, despite being in a plot filled with "cop movie clichés" and confusing its take on '

show, don't tell Show, don't tell is a technique used in various kinds of texts to allow the reader to experience the story through actions, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the author's exposition, summarization, and description. It avoi ...

' as "cryptically suspenseful". ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

''s Andrew Barker also lauded praise to Monteith for giving a "very solid, professional" delivery of a "basic, straightforward" role and highlighted both Hinds and Morse's performances as well, but criticized the film overall for being a "drably derivative, infuriatingly improbable police drama." Paul MacInnes of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' wrote, "

ory Ory or ORY may refer to: People * Ory (surname) * Ory Dessau, 21st century Israeli art curator and critic * Ory Okolloh, 21st century Kenyan activist, lawyer and blogger * Ory Shihor (born 1967), Israeli pianist Other uses * the title character ...

Monteith's final onscreen performance has grabbed all the attention, but this solid cop thriller has its own impressive lead in David Morse".

References

External links

*
McCanick (2014)
Review on GiG Screen {{DEFAULTSORT:Mccanick 2013 films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American crime drama films American mystery films Films scored by Jóhann Jóhannsson Films set in Philadelphia Films shot in Philadelphia