Watched this movie last night, pleasantly surprised by the clever way it was structured and the beautiful cinematography. Also quite graphic. It blends inner city drama (almost John Cassavetes-esque) with dance film, psychological thriller and slasher elements really well.
A very young Michael Biehn playing a completely delusional and obsessive fan of an aging actress (Lauren Bacall) who goes to more and more extreme lengths to get her attention.
i could see mad max 2 getting in on rewatch, but i'm leaving it out for now--i don't remember it too well and it's on every other list anyway.
10) Just Before Dawn(Dir. Jeff Lieberman) There's nothing out there but God's little creatures, more scared of you than you are of them.
my homie sold this to me as deliverance for idiots. turns out i'm an idiot. actually, i was surprised by the assured way it presented its horrors as unfathomable extensions of an isolated mountain region (of oregon!) that doesn't wish to be claimed by fuckhead rich kids; there's some TCM too in how beautifully, mindlessly feral it gets.
9) Yokohama BJ Blues(Dir. Eiichi Kudo) Please tell him to take care of himself, although I will not search for him and will never see him again.
a tired, melancholy neo-noir shot in twilight blue, full of characters who seem to be waiting to die. a low key slow burn for a lonely night.
8) Scanners (Dir. David Cronenberg) You are 35 years old, Mr. Vale. Why are you such a derelict? Such a piece of human junk? The answer's simple. You're a scanner, which you don't realize, and that has been the source of all your agony. But I will show you now that it can be a source of great power.
there is a distinct sense that it runs out of steam as it goes on, and you can nitpick about some of the performances and dialogue, but this is pretty fully-fledged cronenberg tonally and one of his coolest films conceptually; i can't get enough of all this doctor sleep style psychic warfare shit. ironside, pierce and mcgoohan especially are great, and lack's lack of a personality makes thematic sense.
7) Southern Comfort(Dir. Walter Hill) Now, if I was you all, I'd quit askin' questions and haul ass... 'cause my buddies... dey not nice like me.
all-american bundles of machismo and entitlement stomp into the swamps of the bayou, or is it 'nam? whores await, but it's "steel pussies" and castrated trees they have to worry about; they fire blanks as they're mostly hung by their own rope or gutted like pigs before they can enjoy the climax. hill punctures a nation's self-serving myths with primal economy, while laszlo's oppressively desolate visual palette is augmented by feverish dissolves, freeze-frames and slo-mo, along with the spare, disorienting sound design.
6) They All Laughed(Dir. Peter Bogdanovich) That boy is very attractive but I don't think he understands the language.
one of the film's starlets, the former playboy model dorothy stratten, had fallen in love with director bogdanovich and filed for divorce from her husband, who shot her dead before the film's release. bogdanovich subsequently bankrupted himself in his desperation to get the film distributed for his late lover. thankfully it's attained classic status these days, as it's one of hollywood's most sincere, compassionate romantic comedies with a perfect blend of sadness and charm. stratten's performance isn't honestly a highlight unless armed with foreknowledge; rather, it's a heartbreaking late turn from hepburn and patti ugh-be-still-my-heart hansen who steal it for me (i guess it's no surprise that it took someone special to keep keith richards of all people honest for 4+ decades). plus my man gazzara, of course, always an absolute chief in everything.
5) Modern Romance(Dir. Albert Brooks) I mean... you've heard of a no-win situation, haven't you? No? Really, no? You've never heard of one? Vietnam? This? I'm telling you they're around. I think we're in one of them.
an absolutely savage puncturing of romcom tropes that's partially responsible for everything from michael bluth to louis c.k., this at times it feels like the closest hollywood has got to hong sang-soo, while also having maybe the second best ludes sequence ever. it's genius and i'd take it over any woody i've ever seen.
4) Cutter's Way(Dir. Ivan Passer) You know, the routine grind drives me to drink. Tragedy, I take straight.
my new favourite disenfranchised world-weary alcoholic deadbeat neo-noir. the coens obviously had it in mind when casting bridges in the big lebowski, although this one's too burdened by rage, terror and loss to become any kind of comedy, and heard is obviously the beating heart. one of those performances that goes so hard and deep it moves beyond all notions of good or bad.
3) Possession(Dir. Andrej Zulawski) He's very tired. He made love to me all night.
if any film collapses the divide between genius and madness it's this deranged treasure, equally awe-inspiring whether taken as a serious philosophical work or a mentally ill curio that makes vampire's kiss look like when harry met sally. one of the few truly one-of-a-kind films ever to exist.
2) Time For Revenge(Dir. Adolfo Aristarain) Some mercenaries have a weakness for lost causes.
the highest rated crime film of the '80s on letterboxd (mostly by native argentines); a taut, tense unionist revenge movie that somehow got made and released during a dictatorship. it reminds a little of the conversation if its sadsack paranoia was deemphasised in favour of a cold fury barely masked by hard-nosed machismo. absolutely ferocious, ballsy piece of filmmaking.
1) Blow Out(Dir. Brian De Palma) I didn't hire her for her scream, Jack, I hired her for her tits!
speaking of the conversation, here's another one that often garners that comparison (as well as blow-up of course), but it's unmistakably a de palma creation albeit his most politically engaged, his most sincere and resonant. it's the film where his love of artifice is folded most seamlessly back into the narrative, understanding that film is the ultimate tool for encapsulating the history of american politics and culture as a series of painful, slimy truths hidden within a comforting and enthralling web of fakery, whereas lesser filmmakers will choose one or the other and lose a crucial part of the picture.
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1. blow out
2. time for revenge
3. possession
4. cutter's way
5. modern romance
6. they all laughed
7. southern comfort
8. scanners
9. yokohama bj blues
10. just before dawn
1. Mad Max 2
2. The Evil Dead
3. Escape from New York
4. Thief
5. An American Werewolf in London
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark
7. Possession
8. Blow Out
9. Stripes
10. Friday the 13th Part II
i dunno about the top but i feel bad it wasn't on there somewhere. at least i listed it here! honestly the one big flaw is i find biehn and the central romance kinda shitty, i much prefer hamilton after she grows a pair in T2 as well although i get that the contrast is kind of the point.
this on the other hand is lowkey one of my favourite scenes in anything ever:
i dunno about the top but i feel bad it wasn't on there somewhere. at least i listed it here! honestly the one big flaw is i find biehn and the central romance kinda shitty, i much prefer hamilton after she grows a pair in T2 as well although i get that the contrast is kind of the point.
this on the other hand is lowkey one of my favourite scenes in anything ever:
i was never the master of shit, except maybe autism. although you might have me beat there too.
