2 for 2. I really liked Scott Smith's novel A Simple Plan. When the film was first announced I was hoping they'd do a decent enough job of adapting it. But when Sam Raimi got involved I figured it was in good hands. And it was. Couldn't hold a candle to the novel but a really solid thriller. Exceptional cast with Paxton, Thornton and Bridget Fonda.
I watched The Grifters ages and ages ago. But I remember really liking it. It definitely calls for a rewatch though. It's been too long.
"Let’s be clear first of all – this is not a masterpiece of cinema, but on the same hand, it is also not a completely incompetent film. Technically, there’s little to complain about – there’s some nice camera work and Alan Silvestri’s score is fine. Acting on the other hand is not exactly the best with the two young actors – Jade Calegory and Lauren Stanley – providing the best young child performances they can muster. The story cribs a lot from E.T., but manages to throw its own spin on the ‘lost alien’ story." (read full review here)
Jacob Ethington, of Jacob Writers Forever, said:
"For fans of 'so bad it's good' movies, Mac and Me is essential. It's totally watchable, unlike some movies of its kind, but it's many MANY idiosyncrasies and horrifying decisions make it damn entertaining. But anyone expecting a gauntlet of movie watching patience won't find much here (whoever that person is)." (read full review here)
Daniel Barnes, from Dare Daniel, said:
"A film that warms your heart with rage, Mac and Me offers a constant stream of soulless corporate synergy. Like a 19th-century mountebank, the film peddles Coca-Cola as a life-saving elixir. Meanwhile, McDonald’s gets portrayed as an ecstatic dance party, even in the presence of hate crimes." (read full review here)
"The materials of Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan are not unfamiliar, but rarely is a film this skillful at drawing us, step by step, into the consequences of criminal action." (read full document here)
Seth Harris, from Pop Cult, said:
"It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that A Simple Plan would be so close to that rural noir the Coens made popular with Fargo. Raimi is enough of a student of American film that he isn’t just going to make a carbon copy but bring in other influences [...] The result is a very dark picture of greed that needs to be brought up more in conversations about great movies of the 1990s." (read full review here)
"Director Sam Raimi really scores here creating an atmospheric drama that takes on an added richness with the story being buried in snow and the eerie cinematic symbolism of black crows overlooking the story [...] The effect of greed has rarely been so effectively showcased as screenwriter Scott B. Smith does here, adapting his own novel for the screen." (read full review here)
"One of the strengths of The Grifters is how everything adds up, and it all points toward the conclusion of the film, when all secrets will be revealed and all debts collected. This is a movie of plot, not episode. It's not just a series of things that happen to the characters, but a web, a maze of consequences" (read full document here)
Stefan Betz Bloom, from The Oberlin Review, said:
"Film noir is one, if not the only, genre that seems to have improved with time. Directors, under less and less pressure from studios to have their movies provide a sense of uplift, have more freedom to explore the blackness of the human heart that is, essentially, what film noir is about. Unlike a love story, where the sentimentality of an old movie only enhances the intended effect, film noir gets better the darker it gets. And The Grifters is maybe the darkest film noir of them all." (read full review here)
"A pitch black, hard nosed neo-noir which also has a surprisingly fragile tone, none more so seen than in Huston's desperate Lilly. Huston and her two co-stars are all terrific." (read full review here)
There are two movies that I have to have considered watching 100 times in the past 25 years. One is Crying Game, the other is The Grifters. At this point I probably won’t watch them just to keep the streak alive. I really like Cusack, so I may remedy the blind spot eventually.
I watched Simple Plan when it came out and enjoyed it quite a bit. He had definitely left the noggin, so it needs a rewatch. I remember it feeling very Coen-esque.
I only have two directors who appeared on both my Classic and Neo Noir ballots. One of them is Samuel Fuller. I have two of his titles on my other ballot – my one-pointer The Crimson Kimono has been revealed thus far, the other has not – but I could not resist Sam’s bold, crazy, unforgettable The Naked Kiss here. Its legendary opening is one of the most memorable not only in the Noir genre but film in general: After two brief title cards announcing it is an Allied Artists Production and the names of the producers we cut to a woman attacking a man in an apartment, striking him about the head and body over and over again, all to a loud jazz score with a quick tempo. The first shots all have the camera subbing for first the man’s point of view and then the woman’s in close up as the kinetic struggle continues. Then her wig is pulled off revealing her completely bald head, which seems to enrage her even more! She beats the man to the ground and then rolls him for his wallet. She tells him she is only taking what he owes her, then throws his wallet back at him and gets up to leave. She stops at a mirror to reset her wig and we get the title, THE NAKED KISS, as the music changes to a more melodramatic score and the credits flash over her fixing herself up, staring into the lens as if it were a mirror. If THAT don’t grab you, maybe nothing will?
The woman is named Kelly (Constance Towers) and she is a prostitute. The man she beat up was her pimp. A couple months later she arrives by bus to a small town, and immediately catches the eye of a kind local cop named Griff (Anthony Eisley). She is trying to go straight, selling cheap champaign. But he recognizes her for what she was and refers her to a cathouse. Instead she rents a room from a kindly widow, takes a job as a nurse’s aide, and meets one of the town’s most eligible bachelors, a rich world traveler who lives in a mansion (Michael Dante). She confesses her past to him, but he assures her it doesn’t matter and they agree to marry. That it is all spoiled when she learns the secret he is keeping! Fuller’s tale of whores, cops, and child molesters hiding in the supposed sunlight of a small town doesn’t match the energy of that crackerjack opening, but it had to be on my list. It was my lucky number thirteen, good for thirteen points.
Blast of Silence is a lean, micro-budgeted Noir delight. Unmistakably and omnisciently narrated by the gravely-voiced Lionel Stander with dialogue by Waldo Salt (both were blacklisted at the time, originally uncredited) with incredibly fun stuff like “You know the type; a second-string Syndicate Boss with too much ambition and a mustache to hide the fact that he has lips like a woman, the kind of face you hate” that is part homage and part parody. It tells the simple tale of hitman Frankie Bono sent to his old stomping grounds to do a rub out around Christmas. Terrific location work around New York City boroughs and an at times documentary-like feel juxtaposed with that hyper-stylized voice over dialogue make for a winning combo.
It was set to star writer/director Allen Baron’s friend Peter Falk, but when he got his big studio break in Murder, Inc. (which would net him a Best Supporting Actor nod) he had to back out, forcing Baron to play the lead himself. Blast of Silence’s cult following might have developed faster had it starred Falk, but Baron’s less polished performance adds to the underground mystique. I had it ninth on my ballot, good for seventeen of its points!
Jim Thompson’s The Grifters was wonderfully adapted for the big screen by Stephen Frears with a screenplay by another hard boiled author in Donald Westlake. John Cusack is very well cast as Roy Dillon, a charming smalltime con man who is used to scoring anywhere from ten bucks to a few hundred dollars at a time. But he lives cheaply, is mostly careful, and has squirreled his money away. He isn’t aware at first, but his new gal Myra Langtry (Annette Bening) is also on the grift. She is stuck doing small and almost desperate things now, but that is only because her former partner who was teaching her the long con for big money had a breakdown. Where Roy and Myra’s partnership may have gone we’ll never know because into the picture strolls Roy’s mother, Lilly (Anjelica Huston). Lilly is a bit more dangerous than either of them, working for a mobster named Bobo (Pat Hingle) keeping racetrack odds in check by making bets for the syndicate. But like most crooks Myra has grown greedy, skimming more and more money from the mob until they confront her. Now she has to come up with a pile of cash, fast, to placate her violent boss.
The tidy plot was kept from the novel, but the real secret to the success of the film was the tone and capturing all of the details of the big and small cons, which makes it feel authentic. These three terrific central characters on their inevitable collision course is an actor’s dream, and there is an amazing supporting cast along for the ride too that includes J.T. Walsh, Stephen Tobolowsky, Henry Jones, and Charles Napier with a wonderful score by the great Elmer Bernstein. It is a first-class production all around for a tale of clever criminals. Huston and Bening were both rightly Oscar nominated, as was Frears as Best Director and Westlake for his adapted screenplay. It was all the way up at number seven on my ballot.
That makes eight of my choices, thus far.
HOLDEN'S BALLOT 7. The Grifters (#45) 8. One False Move (#73) 9. Blast of Silence (#48) 13. The Naked Kiss (#51) 15. Shallow Grave (#95) 17. Dead Again (#90) 22. The Hot Spot (#85) 24. Blue Ruin (#82) 25. Johnny Handsome (DNP)
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
Last edited by Holden Pike; 3 weeks ago at 10:32 AM.
I watched Simple Plan when it came out and enjoyed it quite a bit. He had definitely left the noggin, so it needs a rewatch. I remember it feeling very Coen-esque.
For what it's worth, Sam Raimi and the Coens worked together a lot during the 80s as they were launching their careers.
Raimi frequently collaborates with Joel and Ethan Coen, beginning when Joel was one of the editors of Evil Dead. The Coens co-wrote Crimewave and The Hudsucker Proxy with Raimi in the mid-1980s (though Hudsucker was not produced for almost a decade). Raimi made cameo appearances in Miller's Crossing, The Hudsucker Proxy, and with Joel Coen in Spies Like Us, and they all worked together on Mac and Me. The Coen brothers gave Raimi advice on shooting in snow for A Simple Plan, based on their experiences with Fargo.
I want to thank Holden Pike for encouraging me to watch The Naked Kiss. I loved watching our girl wail on her pimp with her handbag. It was a beautiful thing. The denouement was definitely a surprise. I guess I was getting a little comfortable with the Hallmark moments before that.
Of the last six movies, I have not seen only one Blast of Silence. Of the remaining five only two were on my list. You Were Never Really Here was my #2 and The Grifters was my #12. I saw these two films only once but they both had a lasting resonance.
A Simple Plan is yet another one of those that, even though I haven't seen it in a couple of years, it stuck with me. The story of three friends crumbling under the pressure of money is not new, but it is wonderfully told by Raimi, and handled by the great cast. It was my #19.
The Grifters, on the other hand, was higher for me. What a wonderfully dark film. Great performances from the three leads, in a film that moves at a fast pace, with some dark humor and bleak results. It is probably my favorite film from 1990, and I had it all the way up at #2.
...
I really enjoyed A Simple Plan for its innovation and unusual story. Plus, I'm a big Billy Bob Thornton fan.
The Grifters was extremely well done, with plenty of twists. Top notch acting. But the story was a little too sick for me..
48. Blast of Silence - Another I haven't heard of.
47. The Player - Great Altman flick - couldn't quite make my list, but I caught up with it again a couple of years ago and bought the Criterion edition. Well worth it - there's so many little touches for movie lovers, so many really funny moments, and such a thrilling film noir narrative that it's a real attention stealer. Has to be rated up near the top of Tim Robbins roles and performances (he got in another good one with Mystic River a little while back.) This is the film that introduced me to Robert Altman, as it was his big "comeback" to mainstream prominence, allowing him to make more elaborate films with bigger budgets during the 90s than he had during the 80s. I also love all the cameos from stars and Hollywood heavyweights playing themselves.
46. A Simple Plan - Another suitcase full of money, another blood-drenched tale of misfortune and ill-gotten gains that cause way more trouble than they're worth. Oh, and another significant performance from Billy Bob Thornton, who had only just become a big star. Can I also mention how much I miss Bill Paxton? A really solid thriller from Sam Raimi with it's fair share of tension and tragedy, this is a favourite amongst my family members, but I think I've only seen it the once. I liked it well enough, but it wasn't going to ever make my ballot.
45. The Grifters - I've heard of this, but never seen it. Seeing as it's made #45 on the Neo Noir Countdown I should perhaps remedy that.
Seen : 33/56
__________________
Remember - everything has an ending except hope, and sausages - they have two.
We miss you Takoma
60. True Romance (63 points) - Fun film. Not quite good enough for a top 25 in my opinion.
59. Bound (63 points) - same here. fun but a little pastiche. Hot scenes though.
58. The French Connection (65 points) - an all time classic, totally forgot to put it on my list
57. Alphaville (66 points) - great film that i didn't really consider as neo noir. more sci fi.
56. Thelma & Louise (67 points) - need to rewatch this. it's been years
55. Lost Highway (67 points) - my favourite Lynch film, and another i totally forgot to put on my list
54. Pale Flower (71 points) - really great 60s neo noir but didn't quite make my list
53. The Departed (74 points) - I dislike this film more and more every week. It's really quite bad and doesn't deserve to lick the boots of the original.
52. Oldboy (75 points) - I didn't consider this ne-noir, if i had it would have been top 5. It's the film that got me into Park Chan Wook.
51. The Naked Kiss (77 points) - don't think I've seen this one.
Reply to Topic
Check out my podcast: 
