Hot Movie Takes: Chinatown

This post may container spoilers for the movie. It’s my hot take while watching or directly after watching the movie. Don’t expect too much from this post.

Chinatown is the story about a private investigator named J.J. Gittes who is investigating the death of a man named Hollis Mulwray who works for the LA water. It takes place sometime in the 1940s. The movie starts out when Gittes is hired by Mrs. Mulwray to investigate if her husband is cheating on her with another woman. Gittes soon finds proof and publishes it in the newspaper. Hollis is then suddenly murdered. Gittes uncovers that he was murdered because he uncovered a plot to cause a draught in LA in order to buy orange groves at an incredibly cheap price. We soon find out that the woman Hollis was dating was both his wife’s sister and daughter. Gittes goes back to the Mulwray’s house and discovers a pair of glasses in a salt water pond. He puts together that this is where Hollis was murdered and that the glasses belong to Mrs. Mulwray’s father, Noah Cross. He tells Mrs. Mulwray to go wait at a house in Chinatown. Gittes confronts Noah and he confirms that he’s the one buying up all the land to expand LA and he’s the one who killed Hollis. Everyone then arrives at the house in Chinatown, they have a big shootout, and Mrs. Mulwray dies. And then the movie ends so I guess Noah Cross got away with everything?

It’s an interesting movie to say the least. I think the most noticable thing to me is how on point the music soundtrack is.

The movie is a commentary on the corruption in the LA politics. Gittes is constantly running around town trying to find clues, get himself out of sticky situations, and figure out who killed Hollis.

Overall, I would say that the movie is good, but I don’t think that the movie is for me. At no point did I really feel invested in the movie or the characters. I thought the acting, script writing, and cinematography was good. With this in mind, I have decided to give the movie a 6/10.