Brad Pitt plays Jackie Cogan in Andrew Dominik's crime thriller Killing Them Softly, a mobster whose task is to investigate an impudent murder which happened during the illegal poker game organized by mafia bosses. To have a holistic perception of the movie atmosphere just mix-up in your imagination The Sopranos, GoodFellas, Pulp Fiction and put them in a Bush/Obama post-crisis America of last half of 2008; ladle it with some thick layer of political dressing made of pragmatic thoughts and infallible Jackie Cogan's phrases about what happens with people when recession comes and who is responsible for all of this mess. Killing Them Softly is loosely based on George V. Higgins novel Cogan's Trade which he wrote in the period of time 1972 – 1974, when he worked as lawyer, specializing in crime processes involving mafia complicity. This fact leads us to believe that he knows a lot about the shady inside world of gangster's "paradise" which served as a perfectly sharpened background for Andrew Dominik's movie. Filmed for that point in post-Katrina New Orleans Killing Them Softly immerses us in the abyss of despair and hopelessness which enveloped everyone's minds and souls of in America, regardless of occupation – even for thorough-paced gangster – it's time to think about what's wrong with this world. The movie was nominated for the Palme d'Or at 65th Cannes Film Festival in 2012.