The Hot Spot (1990)

Look, I always knew about The Hot Spot (1990) because of an adolescent crush on Jennifer Connelly. A neo-noir directed by Dennis Hopper was also an alluring proposition, Don Johnson in the lead as an opportunistic drifter in a small Texan town, caught between two archetypical babes, the girl next door (Connelly) and the southern […]

The Big Combo (1955)

There are images in The Big Combo (1955) that are everything you want from a classic Film Noir. Opening with a woman stepping down a darkly lit corridor, backstage to a boxing match, pursued by suited figures. Later, a man in a suit wearing a hat emerges from the fog outside, stepping into a hangar to catch […]

Nightfall (1956)

For a classic film noir, I settled upon Nightfall (1956) on a whim and the opening moments of Aldo Ray browsing a newspaper stand in the evening, and flinching when the streetlights came on overhead, that hooked me in. The city lights turn on and the title card appears with the woozy theme song. There’s something poetic and […]

Yokohama BJ Blues (1982)

Only after I finished watching Yokohama BJ Blues (1982) did I realise that the lead actor, Yusaku Matsuda, played the role of Sato the villain in the Michael Douglas action flick, Black Rain. I knew Matsuda was a Japanese movie star and was known for action films himself in the 1970s, and yet I just didn’t connect him […]

Eileen (2023)

Eileen (2023) is a character study. It’s also about stretching out the tension. The question keeps occurring: where is all this going? It’s the mid-1960s, it’s wintery and grey Massachusetts. Eileen works as a secretary in a prison. She looks after an alcoholic ex-cop father. She has daydreams about sex, or about killing her father. As […]