Blood Simple (1984)

I’m such a fan of the Coen Brothers that Blood Simple (1984) is low on my list of favourites since it is their first (directed by Joel Coen, produced by Ethan Coen, written and basically made together). From the show-off camera moves and bold imagery to the way in which action over dialogue is emphasised […]

Night Of The Juggler (1980)

Thank you, Cinephobe TV, for screening this lost gem. Night Of The Juggler (1980) stars James Brolin as a bearded trucker who returns home for his daughter’s birthday but then spends the whole day tearing up the city after she is kidnapped by a psychotic Cliff Gorman in a case of mistaken identity (this creep […]

Fear City (1984)

I was hooked on Fear City’s (1984) opening credits with its lurid red-coloured titles, New York neon, and strip club montage, all pumping to Joe Delia and David Johansen’s song ‘New York Doll.’ Abel Ferrara directed this film, which feels like a 1940s film noir melodrama but coated in Times Square Eighties Sleaze. Filtering the […]

After Hours (1985)

During the mid-1980s, director Martin Scorsese’s career was stuck after the lack of box office success for The King Of Comedy and his frustration trying to get The Last Temptation Of Christ financed by a major studio. Connecting with an independent production by actor Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson (who acted in Mean Streets), they […]

Local Hero (1983)

After rave reviews from a Year in Cinema: 1983 book I would read in the high school library and growing up with my parents owning the Mark Knopfler soundtrack on CD, I finally watched Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (1983) on a DVD I purchased, the prototypical ‘business man charmed by small town’/’fish out of water’ […]