A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Chinese and Chinese-language Films
Johnnie To, “Exiled” aka “Fong Juk” (2006) Set in Macau territory just before its return by Portugal to China in 1998, this gangster film is a…
David Lynch, “Blue Velvet” (1986) A beautiful film to watch with noirish elements and a lot of symbolism yet oddly not very suspenseful or satisfying. “Blue…
French and French-language Films
Jules Dassin, “Rififi” (1955) A film about a technically perfect crime, only for its participants to be totally undone by one small action by one of…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Sonia Bible, “Recipe for Murder” (2010) Contrary to what most people think about the 1950’s, the decade or the early part of it at least wasn’t…
David Fincher, “Se7en” (1995) “Se7en” is a well-made film with some excellent acting performances and an ingenious if implausible premise of a literate serial killer who…
German and German-language Films
Fritz Lang, “M” (1931) During the 1920’s and early 1930’s, Germany played unfortunate host to some extremely vicious serial killers, one of whom, Peter Kürten, inspired…
Ridley Scott, “Blade Runner” (1982) The curious thing with this movie is that as it recedes back in time – 2012 will be its 30th anniversary!…
Curtis Hanson, “L.A. Confidential” (1997) Based on the novel by James Ellroy and named after an actual 1950’s magazine which focussed on celebrity scandal, “L.A. Confidential”…
David Fincher, “Alien 3” (1992) At least in this third episode in the Alien series, people finally figured out a new original way of killing the…
Roman Polanski, “Chinatown” (1974) Chinatown” was Roman Polanski’s foray into the private eye / film noir genre and his last major film for Hollywood. A few…