Clean 

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• Photo Courtesy Of Fable House
• IRREDEMABLE? A reformed killer (Adrian Brody) returns to his violent ways when a gang goes after a local girl, in Clean, streaming with your subscription on Hulu and available to rent or buy on AMC Plus, Vudu, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV.

What's it rated? Not rated

When? 2021

Where's it showing? Hulu

This dark, violent little gem had a very limited theatrical release in the US and Canada at the beginning of 2022 ... and promptly left theaters never to be heard from again until it showed up on Hulu. I can see why it didn't get a lot of traction in theaters. Like the Joaquin Phoenix vehicle You Were Never Really Here (2017), Clean—directed Paul Solet (Tread, Bullet Head) who co-wrote the script with its star Adrian Brody—is almost too grim for its own good.

The titular character, Clean (Brody), is a man in need of redemption—redemption he knows he doesn't deserve. Working as garbageman, he spends his free time repairing broken things, which he sells to Pawn Shop Kurtis (RZA), spending the money on discount paint to "beautify" his crime-infested neighborhood and to make lunches for Dianda (Chandler DuPont), a young girl who lives nearby with her grandmother, Ethel (Michelle Wilson).

We slowly learn of Clean's ugly past and the tragedy that turned him into the local do-gooder, and when local mobster Michael (Glenn Fleshler) and his son Mikey (Richie Merritt) have a run-in with Dianda, Clean must return to his old violent ways. Atmospheric and well-acted, this is an engrossing revenge tale. (94 min.) Δ