Just as the song promises and "Broken City" delivers, New York, New York, is a "helluva town." Only, the movie, unlike the song, is dark and murderous and craven. "Broken City" posits that the Big Apple has a bad apple for a mayor, plus a killer cop, an adulterous First Lady, and thugs in every echelon of society.

It’s difficult to embrace a film as downright emotionally and often physically ugly as director William Friedkin’s Killer Joe. Yes, it trades on many of the familiar elements of film noir, anchored in a murder scheme for money. But unlike the best of those, it lacks the grace, wit and humanity embedded in cautionary tales.