Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, 1982) November 2019. Blade Runner has ceased to be a story of the future and is now an alternative history. It has happened many times before, particularly with Philip K. Dick, who never seemed to date his fiction more than a couple of decades from their publication. Still, this feels … Continue reading Blade Runner (1982)

Inherent Vice (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014) The only reasonable way to begin writing about the film Inherent Vice is to direct you elsewhere. Travis Woods’s essay “Does It Ever End?: The Sweet Heartbreak of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice" at Bright Wall/Dark Room and Kim Morgan’s program notes for the New Beverly Cinema are … Continue reading Inherent Vice (2014)

The Long Goodbye (dir. Robert Altman, 1973) When I got home I mixed a stiff one and stood by the open window in the living room and sipped it and listened to the groundswell of traffic on Laurel Canyon Boulevard and looked at the glare of the big angry city hanging over the shoulder of … Continue reading The Long Goodbye (1973)

You Were Never Really Here (dir. Lynne Ramsay, 2017) 16.99 for a ball peen hammer, a few dollars more for duct tape, water, and soda. These are what Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) brings with him when he works, as he puts it somewhat inaccurately, as a “hired gun.” His approach to doing a job--rescuing children from … Continue reading You Were Never Really Here (2017)

Under the Silver Lake (dir. David Robert Mitchell, 2018) Sam (Andrew Garfield) does not have a job and soon will not have a place to live. He is behind on rent and is facing eviction from his apartment. A new neighbor Sarah (Riley Keough) captures his attention one day and their meet cute later that … Continue reading Under the Silver Lake (2018)

The Big Sleep (dir. Howard Hawks, 1946) The most famous anecdote about the making of The Big Sleep is how no one working on the film’s script had any idea who shot Owen Taylor, the Sternwoods’ chauffeur whose body is discovered in an abandoned car. Not Howard Hawks, not Jules Furthman, not Leigh Brackett, and … Continue reading The Big Sleep (1946)

The Big Heat (dir. Fritz Lang, 1953) It’s difficult to think of a more brutal moment captured in a film of the fifties than in The Big Heat when Lee Marvin’s gangster scalds Gloria Grahame with a pot of boiling coffee. It’s an almost unspeakably violent act for the decade, especially given the prior cruelty … Continue reading The Big Heat (1953)

The Good German (dir. Steven Soderbergh, 2006) Berlin in the summer of 1945. The war is over in Europe. Jacob Geismer (George Clooney), a foreign correspondent for the New Republic, is back in the city for the first time since 1941 to cover the Potsdam Conference. The US Army has arranged for him to be … Continue reading The Good German (2006)

Hammett (dir. Wim Wenders, 1982) It’s an inviting idea: tell a fictional story in which a real author becomes wrapped up in events that mirror their own work. Off the top of my head, examples of this include Steven Soderbergh’s underappreciated Kafka, Shakespeare in Love, the frame narrative of that H.P. Lovecraft anthology Necronomicon: Book … Continue reading Hammett (1982)

The American Friend (dir. Wim Wenders, 1977) Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz) is dying. His health prevents him from working as an art restorer, and framing pictures only brings in so much money to provide for his wife Marianne (Lisa Kreuzer) and son. At an auction, Jonathan has a chance encounter with an American who he … Continue reading The American Friend (1977)