It was made recently - probably within the past ten years. Most of the actors speak with an English accent.
It deals with a drug dealer and his hapless friend. I thought the friend was played by Ben Mendelsohn. But I checked all the films in which Ben Mendelsohn appeared and none of the titles seemed familiar.
But I have a very strong feeling that Ben Mendelsohn did appear in this film.
There was one film listed in which he appeared. It is “Killing Them Softly” (2012). He appeared in that movie and once again played the part of a hapless loser. Ray Liota also appeared in that film. But that film was about something very different than a drug dealer. So, I’m convinced I’m still looking for a different film.
The film I’m looking for is about this drug dealer who arranged with a lady to smuggle in a large amount of cocaine from The Netherlands to England. But she rips him off and that starts an ugly chain of events.
The single most notable thing about this film is that most all the characters keep referring to drugs as “gear”.
Anyway, the hapless loser character messes up and causes the drug dealer to lose all his drugs and to be hunted by the police. As a result, he beats the living daylights out of his hapless friend.
At any rate, I used to know the name of this move and I’m fairly certain that if I saw it, I would recognize it.
But I don’t recognize any of the films in which Ben Mendelsohn appeared.
I seem to remember the title of this film had something to do with a “Drug Dealer”. But I could easily be mistaken about that.
Does anyone here think they may know the name of this movie?
I know… I was in a show. As soon as I posted I looked at the OP’s time and went “oh fuck, that’s a long time for an answer on the Straight Dope”; I was actually a little bit ashamed.
That’s silly. There is one other poster who is mighty fast and I’m ashamed that I forgot his name. He has helped me find some extremely obscure films in the past.
But I was very doubtful that anyone would be able to help me with this one and so I give you applause for that.
BTW, “gear” is British slang for drugs. If you watch Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels you’ll notice that several of the characters refer to the marijuana as “gear”. Lots of other UK films use the term as well (I seem to recall it being used in Attack The Block, for example), but LS&2SB is prolly the most familiar UK film for US audiences that features it.
Layer Cake was an excellent film with a crappy ending, IMO. Worth watching, but the ending is always a lame disappointment to me.
ETA: I don’t mind an anti-feel-good ending, but the ending of Layer Cake makes absolutely no sense. When they pull back for the wide shot, you can see that it would have been impossible for a) the guy to get near the club unseen to begin with and b) cover the ground from the car to Craig’s character unnoticed. Plus, I really wanted him to win out in the end, I admit.
