Aid and Trade

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Movie description based on actual events, this black comedy/drama stars nicholas cage as international arms smuggler uri orlov. The story follows uri from his humble beginnings as a soviet immigrant in 1970s brooklyn and peaks with his involvement in selling off the stockpiled arsenal of post-cold war ukraine to--among other top clients--the sadistic african dictator andré baptiste, sr. (Eamonn walker). Jared leto costars as uri’s little brother vitaly, whose conscience and a burgeoning cocaine problem get in the way of business. Ethan hawke is good as a sanctimonious interpol agent with a vendetta against uri, but the films biggest dose of onscreen gravitas comes from walker, whose baptiste seethes with a heavy, serpent-like malevolence. Written and directed by andrew niccol, the film makes fine use of the brisk stream-of-consciousness narration style that martin scorcese brought to the true crime genre with goodfellas (1992), and a near constant flow of action and classic rock songs that ensure a speedy, riveting ride through three decades of global carnage. Cage, who coproduced, lets his patented oddball magnetism slowly change polarity, until viewers realize they’ve been led into a moral quagmire by falling for his self-delusory spiels about supply and demand, making this one of the bravest and most jet-black comedies of its decade.