Army Of Shadows (1969)

Programming the VCR recorder to tape Le Samourai off daytime SBS was my introduction to director Jean-Pierre Meville, mainly because I’d read about him in old classic cinema books as well as knowing that film was an influence on John Woo’s The Killer (as well as Ronin, Ghost Dog, etc). I’ve only slowly caught up […]

The Nest (2020)

The Nest (2020) is not a horror movie but it feels like one. It’s like The Shining but if The Overlook Hotel was haunted by the spirit of Reaganomics. Set during the 1980s, the film charts an American family placed under pressure by the father’s plan for a new wealthy life in his homeland, the […]

The Big Racket (1976)

If you start watching Poliziotteschi from the 1970s, or Eurocrime movies where they attempt to go further than Dirty Harry and Death Wish, there’s always going to be some heinous shit in there in terms of the violence and sleaziness. The Big Racket (1976; Il Grande Racket) has that and more, but it is one […]

Quintet (1979)

I was always intrigued by the existence of Quintet (1979), a poorly-reviewed box office flop and low point in both director Robert Altman and actor Paul Newman’s careers. As a kid leafing through my Mum’s Paul Newman books, the idea of a sci-fi flick about a death game sounded great, but this was before the […]

To Be Or Not To Be (1942)

A very influential book for me about movies growing up was Danny Peary’s Cult Movies 2, which I found a graffitied copy of in the school library. In it, Peary writes about fifty cult movies, the images of which I couldn’t forget from the book and led me to seeking out absolute favourites (The American […]