The Night of the Following Day (1968; Hubert Cornfield) GRADE: D- Inert, pretentious, would-be nail biter featuring Marlon Brando in his weird, pre-Godfather down period as a hepcat kidnapper. He pairs with Mafia hard man Richard Boone to snatch and ransom the daughter of a wealthy American businessman. […]
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 […]
