Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2012)

In Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Forest Whitaker is a Y2K assassin guided by ancient warrior codes in director Jim Jarmusch's cross-cultural take on the gangster flick. The hit-gone-wrong plot is incidental — the director is clearly more fascinated by intermingling Italian geezers and ghetto hustlers, all against Wu-Tang producer RZA's brilliant score. The result — as dense as most Jarmusch films — is a mob flick for hip philosophy majors, with all the style and pretension that implies. B+