Variety (1983; Bette Gordon) GRADE: B By Mike Dub Bette Gordon’s 1983 independent thriller Variety is a sharp, ambitious thriller. It deserves to mentioned alongside other vivid films about the alienated abyss of the old New York City – the ugly, dangerous, vile New York City that is nostalgically eulogized […]
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976; John Cassavetes) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Like most of John Cassavetes’ movies, his meditative 1976 crime film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie opens on what appears to be a random moment. When I watched Faces for the first time […]
By Daniel Barnes *Originally published on the Movie City USA blog on August 21, 2007 [w/updated comments at the end] “He makes Hollywood feel better about itself.” -David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film I think that Thomson means this not just in the sense that Ron […]
CHINESE ROULETTE (1976; Rainer Werner Fassbinder) GRADE: A- By Mike Dub A precocious adolescent concocts an elaborate plan to expose the secrets of her family in Chinese Roulette. It sounds like it could be the plotline of a heartwarming Christopher Columbus movie, but this is a film by […]
Youth of the Beast (1963; Seijun Suzuki) GRADE: A- By Daniel Barnes “Irreverent Energy” Youth of the Beast is the first movie I have seen from Seijun Suzuki, the Japanese director best known for flashy crime films like Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter. I am eager […]
Fear (La Paura) (1954; Roberto Rossellini) Grade: B+ By Mike Dub Italian Neo-Realist director Roberto Rossellini and Hollywood superstar Ingrid Bergman engaged in one of the most scandalous affairs of the 1950s. Each was married when they worked together for the first time on Stromboli (released in 1950), […]
