Miami Blues

Miami Blues (1990) is a crime comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Director George Armitage builds a sly neo-noir around a con man who walks out of prison, lands in Miami, and accidentally kills a Hare Krishna at the airport within hours of arrival. Alec Baldwin plays the charming lowlife with a grin that makes you root for him even when you know better.

Freddie Frenger steals a badge and a gun from detective Hoke Moseley — played with weary authority by Fred Ward — and reinvents himself as an undercover cop. The scheme lets him rob, bully and sweet-talk his way through the city while Susie, his soft-hearted roommate played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, quietly builds a domestic life around a man who has no idea how to deserve it. The tagline says it straight: "Real badge. Real gun. Fake cop."

What makes this one linger is Leigh's performance — tender and specific in a way the genre rarely bothers with. Moseley's dogged pursuit gives the film its comic spine, but Susie gives it heart. Stream Miami Blues (1990) on iFILM.