Category: Drama
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Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
I remember some DJ night at The Bird when someone ended their set, or played as ‘closing up’ music, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s theme to Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983). I mean, what an all timer piece of music, so ethereal, plaintive, calming, just plain beautiful. And it is kind of bizarre that it is the title… Read.
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Miami Vice (2006)
For a film version that didn’t give the 1980s pastel aesthetic that fans of the TV series grew up with, switching it up for intense drug enforcement research and grainy digital cameras, I’m always heartened by the cult love that Michael Mann’s Miami Vice (2006) generates for film lovers and Michael Mann fans. I completely… Read.
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Blow The Man Down (2019)
Acquired by Amazon Studios and streaming now on Amazon Prime is the film, Blow The Man Down (2019). Beginning with a stirring rendition of the title sea shanty by several fisherman on the docks (who function as a type of Greek Chorus throughout the film), it’s a stylish way of announcing its setting – a… Read.
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The Shout (1978)
This was an odd one and I knew it was going to be. The Shout (1978) is a British horror film directed by Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski. All I knew about the film was that it was about a man – named Crossley and played by Alan Bates – who can kill by shouting. Based… Read.
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Winter Light (1963)
Continuing my education into the work of director Ingmar Bergman, I picked Winter Light (1963; Nattvardsgästerna) to watch next. Mostly on the basis that it’s one of the big inspirations for Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. In that movie, it was a struggling priest dealing with a suicidal parishoner obsessed with climate change apocalypse – here,… Read.
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