The Rapture (1991)

Being a teenage fan of The X Files, I was aware of The Rapture (1991) as a movie David Duchovny was in before becoming Fox Mulder. Yet the central performance is by Mimi Rogers and she is great in delivering a character who shifts gradually throughout this movie’s ongoing thematic conversation with God and religion. […]

Inferno (1999)

In my quest to cover Jean-Claude Van Damme’s late 1990s period, and sift through the direct-to-video releases for any hidden gems, we ride into Inferno (1999), which works as Van Damme’s version of a modern western. He gets to rock a pair of jeans, wear a singlet, sport a straw hat, and wander through a […]

Days Of Being Wild (1990)

SBS On Demand added two early movies directed by Wong Kar-wai, As Tears Go By and Days Of Being Wild. I’d not seen either and went for Days Of Being Wild (1990) first, the main thing I knew about it being that it bombed on release in Hong Kong despite having high profile stars. As […]

Close-Up (1990)

What a magic trick this movie is. An odd courtroom case is filmed by the camera, the person charged is studied in the frame, everyday people are asked to become actors and recreate what they experienced, and the result offers a complexity of meanings and readings, but also depending on your viewing experience, it also […]

Blackjack (1998)

“Directed by John Woo” was what the DVD cover advertised. I remember seeing Blackjack (1998) in video stores as a kid and thinking that was a gag – wasn’t Woo’s last movie Face/Off a big hit? Why was his name brandishing a direct-to-video Dolph Lundgren action movie? Turns out Blackjack was a TV pilot that […]