Film noir of the week is “Sudden Fear,” starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance. You weren’t aware of Film Noir of the Week? Yeah, that’s something I just came up with. I fully expect to forget about it over the next few days. Anyway, “Sudden Fear” is a perfectly respectable noir, made in 1951 just before all the conventions of the genre solidified into cliches. It’s shot […]
Neo-noir in L.A.
Netflix is now streaming “Nightcrawler” for free — a fact I discovered after paying four bucks for it on Amazon Prime. If you like a smart noirish crime thriller, it’s definitely worth a look. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a weird loner who gets by selling stolen scrap metal in outer L.A. One night he happens by a fiery accident, where a free-lance “crime journalist” on the […]
Seen any ancient films lately?
Lately we’ve been watching really old movies, streamed through our really old Wii to our really big TV. Old movies — black-and-white ones that mostly seem to star Barbara Stanwyck — are about all we have left. We’ve gone through all the good shows on streaming Netflix and Hulu Plus, then through the OK ones, then the bad ones. Don’t tell anybody, but we’ve also viewed certain […]
It ain’t heavy; it’s a heist picture
I don’t want to be that tiresome guy who’s always raving about obscure foreign films while sneering at American blockbuster sequels. But I will anyway. Last night, while the rest of the nation was lining up for Toy Story 3, The Karate Kid and Shrek Whatever Number This One Is, I was sprawled on my couch watching a 2006 Argentine movie called The Aura, subtitles and all. […]
In film, you can keep the classics
I admit it: I’m not particularly fond of old movies — the term “old” in this case meaning those made before about 1958. To be more honest, I usually like them even less if they’re considered “classic.” While I can credit their groundbreaking moments, movies made in the 1930s and ’40s rarely hold up very well today. Maybe it’s the cornball acting style, all that staccato dialog […]