Be Cool

Director: F. Gary Gray

2005 / 118min / 35mm

Ten years after first appearing in the role of Chili Palmer, the Miami mob loan shark who muscles his way into the movie business, in post-Pulp Fiction hit Get Shorty, John Travolta reprised the role for Gray in a pointed satire of music industry machinations based, like Shorty, on a novel by Elmore Leonard. Conniving hip-hop producers, Russian gangsters, and a flotilla of musician cameos all make their way into the mix on Be Cool, a film whose depiction of the cut-throat record biz anticipates Gray’s Straight Outta Compton.