Based on a short story by Harlan Ellison, this is a real cult classic. Don Johnson, looking better than anyone thought he ever did, is a teen trying to get by in a post-apocalyptic world with the help of his trusted companion dog, Blood, who is highly intelligent and speaks telepathically. Besides helping Johnson keep out of trouble in a violent world, Blood also sniffs out women for raping.

Yes, despite some cutesy and oddly cheerful tones, this is one mean, dark sci-fi comedy. If its premise has you running for the hills screaming misogyny! then certainly don't bother sticking around for the conclusion, which is essentially a Mad magazine joke gone R. Crumb – equally juvenile and tasteless (Ellison hated it and complained that the ending went against his vision).

Still, political correctness aside, this is a truly unique film that features Jason Robards as the leader of a phony subterranean”Our Town” which is a weird American dream/nightmare charade. Viewing for only lovers of bizarre movies, but a damn good one for such fans. Surprisingly, this is available on DVD.

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Posted on March 5, 2007

This gritty noir deserves to be remembered with such classics as Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, and The Postman Always Rings Twice, but I've found many people today have never heard of this Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas thriller. Hopefully with its recent DVD release and inclusion in the Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 1, that will change.

I've seen a lot of noir in my time and this is at the top of my list. First there is Mitchum: a smooth, laid back, rough, handsome and excitingly dangerous actor who plays the relative good guy of the picture (in sharp contrast to his evil preacher in Night of the Hunter). He can raise any film in my eyes and I will always tape anything he's in on TMC. But he doesn't have to rise above this film, with a smart-talking script based on the Geoffrey Homes novel Build My Gallows High, an intricate and complex plot, a wicked femme fatale and more double crossing than cigarette smoking.

The movie opens with Mitchum as a gas attendant in a small town trying to out run his past (I mentioned this film before as a great double feature with A History of Violence, and recommend the combo once again). His past comes back to haunt him in the form of Douglas and Jane Greer, the dame he was once hired to follow and who ended up double crossing him. When telling his current girl about what happened she says, “She can't be all bad. No one is.” Mitchum responds, “Well, she comes the closest.”

It's just that kind of dialogue that made this film stay with me even years after seeing it for the first time. If you are a fan of noir, make this your next watch and add it to the list of classics from the genre. You won't be disappointed.

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Posted on February 19, 2007

Honored by Roger Ebert as one of the ten best films of all time and supported by Werner Herzog – who said he'd eat his own shoe if Errol Morris ever completed it in an attempt to coax the movie aong (all of which is documented in Les Blank's Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe – a documentary short that is more than worth watching), this film is highly revered and loved by many.

Gates tells the story of pet cemeteries in California simply, through rambling interviews with memorable characters involved in the industry as well as pet owners.

Now, if it doesn't sound interesting, then look at what Ebert has to say: “Every time I show this, it plays differently. Some people think it's about animals. Some people think it's about life and death. I've shown it to a group of bankers, who believe it raises all kinds of questions about success, about starting a small business. People think it's funny or sad or deadpan or satirical. They think that Errol Morris loved the people in the film, or that he was being very cruel to them. I've never yet had a person tell me that it's a bad film or a film that doesn't interest them.”

And here's what Herzog said: “It's the only authentic film on love and emotion and late capitalism and maybe it's the only authentic film on loss of emotions and distortion of feelings and degeneration of feelings.”

The film is complex in its simplicity and will completely engage and enthrall you if you have any interest in people, or animals, or life. I adore this movie and am happy to say it's finally been released on DVD.

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Posted on February 5, 2007

While it can hardly be considered a sleeper after being nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globes, and a SAG, I still feel like this is the most under appreciated but best Tarantino film. Generally considered subtler and gentler than his other work–and all the better for it, in my opinion–the subtlety seems to have disappointed many fans of the unabashed audacity of Pulp Fiction.

But this is my favorite of his films, thanks in part to the brilliant characters provided by Elmore Leonard, a man that can write about dumb criminals like no one else. Surprisingly, both Leonard and Tarantino can write and empathize with a middle aged, low income, African American woman. Although the character in the book, Rum Punch, was white, Tarantino changed to accommodate Pam Grier with Leonard's full approval and for good reason too, she is beyond phenomenal and the entire cast keeps up with her: Robert Forster's sincere and charming bail bondsman, Max Cherry; Robert DeNiro's dangerous but dull witted Louis Gara; Bridget Fonda's voracious surfer girl, Melanie Ralston; Michael Keaton's contrived tough guy cop, Ray Nicolette and Samuel L. Jackson's Ordell Robbie, a criminal who reads as a wanna be bad ass who has watched too many Samuel L. Jackson movies.

All of these performances and characters are so thoroughly believable and so complex that it makes watching their interactions an absolute treat. If you missed this movie when it came out, or saw it but it failed to live up to your high octane expectations, please give it a second look. I think it stands as one of the great crime movies of its decade and is by far my favorite Elmore Leonard adaptation and Tarantino film.

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Posted on January 22, 2007

An unassuming and quiet treasure that we stumbled across on TCM. Part one act play, part after school special, and part thriller, this film is more than worth a look. Not only for a young, exceptional, and amoral Jodie Foster, but Martin Sheen appears as a genuinely creepy perv and there's a brilliant performance by Alexis Smith as his nosy mother and Jodie's landlord, who cackles great waspy lines like “Just because he's a poet, your father thinks he doesn't have to live like normal people” after she sees the furniture has been moved around her rental property.

But the most amazing character of all is Marco, the limping high school magician, played by Scott Jacoby, a character that I not only fell head over heels for, but one that Jim and I would have created for one of our scripts. Underrated and under seen, help pluck this sleeper from obscurity by renting it today, or watch for it on TCM.

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Posted on January 8, 2007