The Hit (1984)

The Hit (1984) is an existential road movie directed by Stephen Frears and set in Spain. Starring John Hurt and a young Tim Roth as a pair of hitmen tasked with taking back a “grasser” played by the benevolent Terence Stamp. This is beautifully shot and continually tense yet imbued with a thoughtful tone. Recommended.

Raising Cain (1993)

John Lithgow running the acting olympics in Raising Cain (1993), doing the most by playing the most characters, both real and/or imagined. Director Brian De Palma’s underrated early ‘90s return to the thriller genre, riffing on Hitchcock and Psycho once again in a story about baby stealing, infidelity and multiple personalities. I’d seen this before […]

F/X2 (1991)

I used to watch F/X2 (1991) so much when I was a teenager, taped off TV on VHS, more than the first one which starred “our” Bryan Brown as a special effects technician caught up in a criminal plot with Brian Dennehy as the cop after him. The sequel is more upbeat and cartoonish with […]

Love And Anarchy (1973)

I’d not heard of Love And Anarchy (1973; Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero: stamattina alle 10, in via dei Fiori, nella nota casa di tolleranza..) until Lewis Rice O’Donnell talked about it. Directed by Lina Wertmüller and set during the 1930s, it’s about a fuzz-faced yokel named Tunin (Giancarlo Giannini) who travels to the city in […]

The Silent Partner (1979)

After rewatching one of my all time favourite movies The Long Goodbye, I was keen for some more Elliott Gould movies. The Silent Partner (1978) is a thriller I’d not heard of before, shot in Canada and set at Christmas time. Gould plays a bank teller in a shopping mall who gets wind of a […]