Washington, Malek and Leto revisit ’90s noir in detective thriller that embraces and subverts the genre

When The Little Things was written, Denzel Washington had just won his first Oscar, Jared Leto was an unknown actor fresh off the bus in Hollywood, and Rami Malek had barely finished elementary school.

Now each an Academy Award-winning star in their own right, the trio have combined to finally bring the three-decadeold dark, detective thriller to the screen out today in theatres and on HBO Max streaming.

Set in the murky criminal underworld of 1990 Los Angeles, the movie finds a semi-retired cop (Washington) pairing up with a hotshot young sergeant (Malek) to track a suspect (Leto) in a string of grotesque killings. “You don’t imagine the character the first time you read the script – you have to find the character,” said Washington. “You’re introduced to him or her when you read the script, but that’s day one of the work.”

For his role that meant imbuing sheriff’s deputy Joe Deacon with a shadowy past and a fiery devotion to police work.

Despite the seemingly formulaic premise, director John Lee Hancock penned the film as a macabre response to the buddy cop movies of the early 1990s, setting out to “embrace the genre and subvert it at the same time”.

Nothing is clear-cut, from the film’s mysterious suspect to the lack of neatly solvable clues, as the two lawmen struggle with their demons while they race to get a murderer off the streets.

Washington said he signed up because the writing just felt “different” – and “if it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage”. Malek said having Washington on board made the project “a no-brainer,” and praised Leto for completing the trio’s “explosive energy”.

Leto added: “I did think I’ve kind of walked on the darker side of the universe a lot in my career – maybe it’s time to not do that again. But after seeing the opportunity here I just couldn’t say no.” –