God's Pocket

God's Pocket is a drama set in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia. Mickey Scarpato's stepson Leon, a troubled young man who works construction, dies at a building site in what his boss calls a workplace accident. Mickey, who drinks heavily, wants the matter closed quickly and tries to dispose of the body. Leon's mother Jeannie, Mickey's wife, wants the truth about her son's death, and a local newspaper columnist, Richard Shelburn, begins asking questions that threaten the official version. Mickey also owes money to impatient creditors, and help from his friend Arthur "Bird" Capezio only makes things worse, leaving him caught between a body he cannot bury, a wife he cannot satisfy and a debt he cannot pay.

The film is John Slattery's feature directorial debut, and he also co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Metcalf and produced it with Lance Acord and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman leads the cast as Mickey, alongside Richard Jenkins as Shelburn, Christina Hendricks as Jeannie, John Turturro as Bird, Eddie Marsan as Smilin' Jack Moran and Caleb Landry Jones as Leon. Thirty-five actors are credited.

Released in 2014, the film runs 88 minutes and was made for about 1 million dollars. On IMDb it holds a 6.1 rating from roughly 13,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.8 from a much smaller number of votes, indicating a modest but consistent audience response. The critics' rating of 5.4 from 97 reviews places it slightly below those audience scores. Slattery's second feature, Maggie Moore(s), followed in 2023.