It's a fresh take on Old Hollywood, steeped in the love of vintage private-eye movies, though after a while the air starts to go out of it.
Plus IconOwen Gleiberman
Chief Film Critic
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Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival In the opening scene of “Diamond,” we watch Andy Garcia, as a Los Angeles detective who looks like he stepped out of a Hollywood movie from the ’40s, put on his private-eye regalia — the three-piece suit, the pocket handkerchief he carefully irons, the fedora — and then grab his money clip from a tray of artifacts before he goes out. The movie, with its period trappings and mournful jazz soundtrack, appears to be priming us for some old-fashioned moody film-noir fun. But then Garcia’s detective, terse and fastidious, introducing himself as “Diamond, Joe Diamond,” steps out into the streets of L.A., and the first thing to confront him is a police car that’s right out of the 21st century. So are the streets, the skyscrapers, the restaurants. They’re all Los Angeles today. So what’s this relic of a detective doing smack in the middle of it?
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