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After Hours, 1985

A man named Paul, working in a soul-killing office job, agrees to meet up with an attractive woman, Mandy, he meets on a coffee break. What ensues is a nightmarish carousel of misunderstandings, misfortunes, and just plain bad luck as it turns out that everyone on this New York evening is somehow connected.

I keep thinking of analogies involving things like roller coasters because that's how this movie feels. While it is a comedy (at times leaning into the darker side of humor), it's main trick is an extended, unrelenting feeling of suspense as Paul first tries to get a dollar for subway fare and eventually ends up running for his life from various outraged parties.

The movie is filled with "Whoa, is that _____?!" roles: Linda Fiorentino as Mandy's eccentric roommate; Cheech and Chong as a pair of reformed thieves; Teri Garr as a waitress; Catherine O'Hara as (wait for it) a manic ice cream truck driver; John Heard as a bartender; Bronson Pinchot as Paul's co-worker. The list goes on and on.

The best thing about the film is just the way it is shot. I was going to talk about how much I loved a POV shot of keys being thrown down to a character, and then read in Ebert's review that this sequence was improvised on the night it was shot! The whole movie is full of interesting angles and zooms, but because the film is so slapstick and surreal, the boldness and obviousness of the camera doesn't feel jarring.

My only complaint was a relatively minor one. I felt like the writing of the different female characters overlapped a little too much (especially Mandy and Garr's character). No one is all that well developed anyway, but the way the women were written was a bit too similar in its portrayal of female neurosis. This is slightly saved by the excellent acting by the different actresses, but an extended scene with Garr really drove home this weakness.

Again, though, this was a minor complaint. Overall this movie was a blast and I really enjoyed it.




DeepStar Six (1989)

A silly old-school B-movie. I could easily forgive its bad special effects but the cliched script and lack of action drag it down quite a bit.
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Shadow of a Doubt 1943 Alfred Hitchcock



The Quiet Man 1952 John Ford

Gorgeous filming locations in Ireland. Read that the 'White O’ Morn cottage' location still looks the same, so I will definitely be visiting someday.


Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion 1970 Elio Petri

+

F/X Murder by Illusion 1986 Robert Mandel






Kinda of a slap in the face, but I doubt it will change anything. Interesting though
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Caught (1949)

Melodramatic romantic potboiler starring Robert Ryan, James Mason and "Miss Ellie" from Dallas. It goes along at a fair pace and Ryan is good as a manipulative b@stard with no love for his naive wife.

Suffice to say, it has one of the strangest "out of place emotion" conclusions that I still find utterly bizarre to this day...you really have to see it to believe it!!







Both rather strange movies, but good ones. Really really good acting in both which was what carried me through.
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matt72582's Avatar
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Man from Plains

Highly recommend.. President Jimmy Carter tours with his Best-Selling book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid".


It's on Amazon Prime if you're interested.







1st Re-watch...it's consistently silly, and, at times, downright stupid, and every moment Marlon Wayans has onscreen is excruciating, but it still makes me laugh for most of the running time. It's still mind blowing that it actually inspired three sequels.





Birds of Prey, 2020

I am annoyed at myself for letting internet naysayers talk me out of having this on my to-see list. It's not a great film or one with a ton of depth, but it's a delightful, sparkly little Twinkie of a film.

Margot Robie returns to her portrayal of Harley Quinn (I say returns--I have not seen Suicide Squad), this time drawn into a deadly situation involving a mob boss, a stolen diamond, a teenage pickpocket, an alcoholic cop, a mysterious assassin, a singer, a sadist, and a hyena.

The whole film is very cartoonish and brightly colored and feels just one step away from the animated Batman series I used to watch as a kid. Robie's Quinn is an engaging lead, and the rest of the cast does just fine. McGregor's villain is at once both fragile and entirely amoral, and while the character doesn't make a huge impression, I liked the concept that a fragile, spoiled baby of a man could use his money and power to terrorize a whole city. The ease with which he was manipulated by his psychotic and sadistic right-hand man was a nice touch.

The action scenes are fine, with the smaller and shorter fights working better for me than the big final showdown--then again, I feel that way about most superhero films. I did really enjoy the roller skate pursuit at the end, along with the violent punctuation of the whole conflict.

The only real problem that I had with the film was just proportionately how much of it is taken up with origin story material. It's the same issue with so many remake/reboot type films. On one hand, the stories weren't familiar to me (unlike the tenth time you watch Spiderman gain his powers and lose his uncle), but on the other hand the ratio of plot to background skews a bit too heavily toward the latter.

I read a review on IMDb that complained that the film's only theme was "men are bad," but I don't think that's quite right. I saw the theme being more about people trying to break free from people who have authority over them: Harley from her ex, Canary and the detective from their bosses, Cassandra from her foster parents, and Huntress from the people who killed her family. What will people do to get power? And what will people do to keep it? We see the detective's female co-worker sell her out; we even see Harley think about selling out Cassandra for her own safety.

I'd be interested to see what could be done with another Harley Quinn movie (yes, I know that's not necessarily likely). I never got tired of Robie's portrayal. The "death" of her egg sandwich was an early highlight. Some of my favorite moments were when her psychology background came up--a reminder that smart and crazy aren't mutually exclusive.

This was a really fun film for a lazy Sunday night.




Shadow of a Doubt 1943 Alfred Hitchcock



The Quiet Man 1952 John Ford

Gorgeous filming locations in Ireland. Read that the 'White O’ Morn cottage' location still looks the same, so I will definitely be visiting someday.


Coupla heavyweights in your first two! I love "Shadow", which we watch every year. Hitchcock claimed it was his favorite. He liked the area so much he bought a house in the vicinity, and also filmed The Birds nearby.

And The Quiet Man is one of the most delightful films ever made. John Ford was something else, wasn't he? It's another film that I never get tired of re-watching.




Coupla heavyweights in your first two! I love "Shadow", which we watch every year.
Shadow of a Doubt was the first "grown up" movie that I got to watch, around the age of 8 or 9. It was the first movie I watched that wasn't like a Disney film or something explicitly made for kids. It holds a really special place in my cinephile heart.

And The Quiet Man is one of the most delightful films ever made. John Ford was something else, wasn't he? It's another film that I never get tired of re-watching.
There was something about The Quiet Man that just didn't land for me. I loved the theme of a man who has been traumatized by violence and now doesn't want that to be part of who he is as a person or as a man (as defined by society). And I liked the idea that the woman he loves doesn't totally understand what she's asking of him when she wants him to fight for her.

But the whole sequence of him dragging her back from the train station was really off-putting to me. If a male character were disrespected and dishonored, a film would be on his side in reclaiming his dignity. But she is seen as being petty and selfish for wanting her dowry--the money that is rightfully hers. The sequence of them burning the money together is strong--showing that it was the principle and not the money--but I wish that the film had given her character the "aha!" moment that his character is given several times. I liked it, but didn't love it, thought it is gorgeous and the performances are excellent.



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Winter Sleep (2014) -

Clouds of Sils Marie (2014) -

A Dark Song (2016) -

The Strange Thing About The Johnsons (2011) -

Killing Ground (2016) -

Evolution (2015) -
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