Films That Matter
Murder ‘Mystery’
Sometimes a movie just doesn’t fit perfectly within its own genre... going against a few of the tropes that define what something is, all while hitting enough of them to still be what it is – confusing! That’s the case with this latter-day Italian giallo, Mystère... sometimes better known by its English title Dagger Eyes (1983). Co-written and directed by Carlo Vanzina, the film opens with a rather impressive, though more crime inspired assassination in Rome... resembling the real life John F. Kennedy car killing. It will start a chain reaction of murders that will rock the Eternal City.
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Run Off the Rails
TranssiberianJanuary 6, 2017A perfect film to watch as you hunker down on a cold, blustery winter’s night, 2008's Transsiberian, directed by Brad Anderson (The Machinist) follows a married American couple, Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer), as they take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing, through Siberia, and ending in Moscow. A taut, tense traditional thriller, the couple, despite their recent charitable efforts (helping needy children in China), are having some relationship issues. With opposite pasts, Roy is an excitable, boyish man who has lived a good life, while his wife has been running from her demons, finally finding some semblance of normalcy after meeting him (they were thrown together by way of a serious car accident). At one point, Jessie ominously utters "kill off all my demons, Roy, and my angels might die, too" – a complicated warning for her do-gooder husband.
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Journalist Takes Shocking Journey
Shock CorridorFebruary 26, 201610 days: that was how long it took to film the 1963 B-movie Shock Corridor. Originally advertized as an exploitation picture (and it does have some of those elements), Samuel Fuller’s film about a journalist who has himself committed to solve a mysterious murder is so much more than its original label.
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What to Get the Man Who has Everything
The GameMarch 28, 2014Before I refer to the main title, I must first announce that long-time character actor James Rebhorn passed away last week at the age of 65. Though perhaps not a household name, the tall balding man (who looked the same age for as long as I can remember) will surely be missed, as he played small yet memorable roles for more than 30 years.
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A Tribute to the Master of Suspense
Blow OutJanuary 26, 2014Alfred Hitchcock is often considered to be one of the greatest directors of all-time and I would have to agree with that assessment. His genius at building a suspenseful story through the camera lens in films such as Vertigo, The Birds, Rear Window, North By Northwest, to name a few, place him at the top of the list. One active director who would wholeheartedly agree is Brian De Palma.
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Fontaine Shined Bright
SuspicionDecember 30, 2013This is the second week in a row that I have had to begin with the sad news of another death of a film legend. Joan Fontaine, the actress who gained fame for playing threatened wives to possibly dangerous husbands in the early 1940s, passed away at the age of 96 last week.
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What’s in that Box?
Kiss Me DeadlyAugust 7, 2013Fans of Quentin Tarantino and his iconic crime thriller Pulp Fiction may remember the cryptic glowing briefcase with the lock that is opened by the number 666 which is held by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. This mysterious plot device was borrowed from one of the last great film noir pictures from that genre’s classical era, 1955's Kiss Me Deadly. Similarly, this gimmick was also used (but this time in the trunk of an automobile) in the Alex Cox 1984 cult classic Repo Man, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez.