Saturday, September 30, 2023

SHIMMER LAKE (2017)

 


Written & Directed By: Oren Uziel Cinematography: Jarin Blaschke Editor: Blake Maniquis 


Cast: Benjamin Walker, Rainn Wilson, Stephanie Sigman, John Michael Higgins, Wyatt Russell, Adam Pally, Rob Corddry, Ron Livingston, Mark Randall


An inventive crime thriller told backward, reversing day by day through a week following a local sheriff's quest to unlock the mystery of three small-town criminals and a bank heist gone wrong.

Friday, September 29, 2023

KILLING ZOE (1993)

 


Written & Directed By: Roger Avary  Cinematography: Tom Richmond  Editor: Kathryn Himoff 


Cast: Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hughes Angalade, Gary Kemp, Salvator Xuereb, Bruce Ramsey, Tai Thai, Kario Salem, Cecilia Peak, Ron Jeremy

Zed has only just arrived in beautiful Paris and already he's up to no good. Having just slept with a call girl, he spends a night on the town with his dangerous friends. They all decide to rob a bank the following day. There's only one problem: Zed's call girl, Zoe, just happens to work at the bank which is to be robbed!

Saturday, September 23, 2023

DECISION TO LEAVE (2022)

 


Directed By: Park Chan-Wook Written By: Park Chan-Wook & Chung Seo-Kyung  Cinematography: Kim Jo-Yong Editor: Kim Sang-Beom


Cast: Park Hae-il, Tang Wei, Lee Jung-Hyun, Go Kyung-Pyo 

From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man's wife Seo-rae. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire.

Friday, September 22, 2023

AS TEARS GO BY (1988)

 


Directed By: Wong Kar Wai Written By: Jeffrey Lau and  Wong Kar Wai Cinematography: Andrew Lau  Editor: Bei-Dak Cheong and Kit Wai Kai


Cast: Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Alex Man, Ronald Wong 

Mid-level gangster Wah falls in love with his beautiful cousin, but must also continue to protect his volatile partner-in-crime and friend, Fly.

Saturday, September 16, 2023

THE YOUNG SAVAGES (1961)

 


Directed By: John Frankenheimer  Written By: J.P. Miller and Edward Anhalt  Based on the Novel “A MATTER OF CONVICTION” By: Evan Hunter Cinematography: Lionel Lindon Editor: Eda Warren


Cast: Burt Lancaster, Shelly Winters, Telly Savalas, Dina Merrill, Edward Andrews, Vivian Nathan, Larry Gates, Pilar Seurat, Jody Fair, Stanley Kristien

A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy. He begins to discover that the facts in the case aren't exactly as they seem to be.

Friday, September 15, 2023

BRUTE FORCE (1947)

 


Directed By: Jules Dassin Written By: Richard Brooks  Story By: Robert Patterson Cinematography: William Daniels Editor: Edward Curtiss 


Cast: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth, Ella Raines, Anita Colby, Sir. Lancelot, Jeff Corey, John Hoyt, Roman Bohnen 


At overcrowded Westgate Penitentiary, where violence and fear are the norm and the warden has less power than guards and leading prisoners, the least contented prisoner is tough, single-minded Joe Collins. Most of all, Joe hates chief guard Captain Munsey, a petty dictator who glories in absolute power. After one infraction too many, Joe and his cell-mates are put on the dreaded drain pipe detail; prompting an escape scheme that has every chance of turning into a bloodbath.

Thursday, September 14, 2023

NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950)

 


Directed By Jules Dassin Written By: Joe Eisinger  Based on the Novel By: Gerald Kersh Cinematography: Max Greene Editor: Nick Deamaggio & Sidney Stone 


Cast: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Google Withers, Herbert Lom, Mike Mazurki, Charles Farrell, Hugh Marlowe, Francis L. Sullivan, Stanislaus Zbysko, Ada Reeve 

A small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.

Saturday, September 9, 2023

DREAM LOVER (1993)

 



Written & Directed By: Nicholas Kazan  Cinematography: Jean Yves Escoffier  Editor: Susan Cruthcher and Jill Savitt


Cast: James Spader, Madchen Amick, Bess Armstrong, Larry Miller, Frederic Lehne, Kathleen York, William Shockley, Carl Sundstrom, Clyde Kusatsu

Ray is young, charming, successful, and the owner of a prosperous architecture company. However, he has recently gone through a very painful divorce. His friends try to cheer him up by showing him the positive sides of being single but for Ray marriage and stability are just too important. But when he meets Lena his gloom is quickly forgotten. She is beautiful, sensual, and mysterious and he is drawn to her like a moth to a candle. They marry quickly, have their first child and Ray lives in total bliss. But then strange incidents occur which shed some light on Lena's background. Ray slowly realizes that he hardly knows anything about her at all. Who has he really married?

Friday, September 8, 2023

SLEEP WITH ME (1994)

 


Directed By: Rory Kelly  Written By: Duane Dell’Amico, Roger Hedden, Neal Jimenez, Joe Keenan, Rory Kelly and Michael Steinberg  Cinematography: Andrzej Sekula Editor: David Moritz 

Cast: Eric Stoltz, Meg Tilly, Craig Sheffer, Lewis Arquette, Todd Field, Parker Posey, Vanessa Angel, Susan Traylor, Dean Cameron, Thomas Gibson, Joey Lauren Adams, June Lockhart, Adrienne Shelly, Alexandra Hedison, Quentin Tarantino 


Sarah, Joseph, and Frank are BFFs. Joseph and Sarah get married but the evening before she tells Frank with a kiss that it could've been him. Frank continues to have a thing for Sarah.

Thursday, September 7, 2023

MOVIES WATCHED IN AUGUST (2023)




MOVIES WATCHED IN AUGUST (2023)

THE FAVOR (1994)





Directed By: Donald Petrie Written By: Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon Cinematography: Tim Shurstedt Editor: Harry Keramidas


Cast: Harley Jane Kozak, Elizabeth McGovern, Bill Pullman, Brad Pitt, Ken Wahl, Larry Miller, Holland Taylor, Kim Walker, O-lan Jones, Mindy Sterling, Heather Morgan,  Claire Stansfield 

With a 15-year reunion coming up, Kathy has sexual fantasies of her high school sweetheart. She's married, so she sends her BFF to check him out and report back. Things get complicated.

Saturday, September 2, 2023

BEAU IS AFRAID (2023)

 


Written & Directed By: Ari Aster Cinematography: Pawel Pogorzelski Editor: Lucian Johnston

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Richard Kind, Patti Lupone, Parker Posey, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zoe Lister Jones, Kylie Rogers, Denis Menochet, Hayley Squires, Bill Hader

Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.

Friday, September 1, 2023

WEEKEND (1967)

 


Written & Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard Based on the short story “LA  AUTOPISTA DEL SUR” By: Julio Cortazar  Cinematography: Raoul Coutard  Editor: Agnes Guillemot


Cast: Mireille Barc, Jean Yanne, Jean-Pierre Kalfon

A supposedly-idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into an endless nightmare of traffic jams, revolution, cannibalism, and murder as French bourgeois society starts to collapse under the weight of its own consumer preoccupations.