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.

The Legend Of Billie Jean (1985)

All I knew about The Legend Of Billie Jean (1985) was the title and the Pat Benatar song ‘Invincible’ (Theme from The Legend Of Billie Jean), which was used in the first season of Netflix’s GLOW. Helen Slater is the lead character living in a small Texas town who comes to her brother’s defence (a […]

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 […]

Certain Women (2016)

Certain Women (2016) is based on the short stories by Maile Meloy, and set and shot in Montana, small towns and wide open plains, everything overcast and grey, filmed as a space of both beauty and loneliness. Three short narratives play out – a lawyer’s (Laura Dern) interaction with a disgruntled client (Jared Harris), a […]