Smile (1975)

Smile (1975) is a forgotten satire about a beauty pageant in Santa Rosa, small town California, representative of the heartland. Written by Jerry Belson and directed by Michael Ritchie, there’s plenty of gags and one liners about the Young American Miss Pageant, which this movie observes, from the preparations to talent show routines to the […]

The Drowning Pool (1975)

I was in the mood for some 1970s neo-noir and this fit the bill. Harper was a 1960s private eye flick starring Paul Newman as Lew Harper, a character from a series of Ross Macdonald novels. I saw it awhile back and I remember it intentionally reviving the 1940s Humphrey Bogart PI mould for a […]

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 […]

Body Double (1984)

While it might not be the best Brian De Palma film, Body Double (1984) is certainly the quintessential Brian De Palma film, and it’s certainly the most notorious, and it’s become my favourite of his auteur thrillers. Publicised as the heir to Alfred Hitchcock in his continual homages to the ‘Master of Suspense’ across films […]

Cecil B. Demented (2000)

I started watching John Waters’ Cecil B. Demented (2000) on NYE 2017, and took a break, only getting time to finish it on Jan 2, so this was technically the first good movie I watched in 2018. Trashed by critics on release, recommended to me by my friend Clare Nina, this film is a gleeful, […]