Some Dude Reviews Movies

"She called me a dirty word." I can't remember why I watched Rian Johnson's Brick  for the first time. It might have been a recommendation from my sister, or a friend. I do know, however, that the copy I own is a battered, used copy from Blockbuster, replete with a stack of price stickers and a tear in its disgustingly textured plastic cover. I got it at one of the many Blockbuster Going Out of Business Sales that I frequented, like a cinema vulture, to pick the bones. I would walk in with twenty dollars in my pocket, and come out with an armful of DVDs and BluRays. But I digress. What I do know is that Brick has become one of my favorite neo-noirs. It was bold and unique, while at the same time echoing the genre's past in loving and respectful ways. I tripped down a noir hole this weekend, and decided to revisit one of my favorite modern noirs in celebration. Also, the wife was out of the house, and I wouldn't get in trouble for rewatching a m...

"What does it matter what you say about people?" Here I am finally discovering how great Orson Welles really was. Summary: A Mexican border town is rocked by a bomb planted in the boot of a car. Two lawmen arrive on the scene, and immediately find themselves in opposition to one another. What follows is a meditation on justice, murder, and the corruption of power. Pros: Orson Goddamned Welles: I didn't believe that Welles was Quinlan at first. Perhaps it's the prosthetics. Perhaps it's the intervening ten years between this film and The Third Man (1949). I'd like to think that Welles is just that good. That he's a chameleon. That he was a singular talent before and behind the camera. Touch of Evil  routinely tops many essential noir lists, as well as essential movies lists. I can see why. Welles not only turns in a powerhouse performance as a lawman that's waded so far into corruption that he cannot tell the difference between right...

"A person doesn't change just because you find out more." I'd heard about The Third Man (1949). A friend of mine once forced me to sit and watch bits and scenes. He even forced me to listen to the zither music from the score, which I immediately loved. But I still hadn't actually sat down and watched the whole thing, from start to finish. When carousing for something to watch, and upon hearing that I hadn't seen The Third Man , my wife immediately made an executive decision. We would be watching The Third Man . Summary: Vienna, after World War II, is an occupied place. Amidst its rubble and finery there is a thriving black market. Enter Holly Martins, American novelist, to visit his old friend, Harry. The thing is, Harry died. But no one seems to be able to get the story straight. So Martins, in a fit of amateur sleuthing, decided to find out what happened to his friend. He has no idea how far down the rabbit hole this will go. Pros: Th...

A good noir always acts as an indictment of justice. Good noirs feature bad men trying to break good in a system that is stacked agains them. In a system that often caused them to break bad in the first place. That struggle, of a bad man trying, desperately, to do one last good thing, comes chock full of storytelling potential. By that metric, Curtis Hanson's epic  L.A. Confidential  (1997) is "good noir." I've read the book (and others by James Ellroy) and can say, definitively, that screenwriters Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson did the Lord's work in adapting it for the screen. It is distilled in all the right places, while keeping its spirit and soul intact. This review is not a review so much as it is a love letter to one of my favorites of the genre. Summary: Three disparate cops begin to unspool a vast conspiracy in 1950s Los Angeles. The case will challenge them to be better men then they are. The case will take everything they have. Not...

"You ripped my favorite shirt!" Nicholas Cage is one of our national treasures. He is an actor capable of subtlety, and beauty. He is also an actor that has no scruples about cutting loose in psychotic, GIF-able, absurdity. But he isn't just an asshole "going crazy." Cage knows where to draw the line: he can do both, in the same film. It makes watching his films, some of which are truly awful films, at least a bit fun. You can always, at least, count on Cage to be compelling. Which brings us to Panos Cosmatos' sophomore effort, Mandy . I saw the trailer some months ago. It looked like a schlocky, B-movie masterpiece, and I knew I had to see it. Well, there's no way in hell it was actually going to play here, in the Central Valley, but it IS available to stream on Amazon Prime. Summary: Red Miller (Nicholas Cage) and his girl, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), live a quiet life in the woods. That life is shattered when a creepy cult rolls onto...

"I've had nightmares that made more sense than this." Armando Ianucci is a Scottish satirist best known for his work on Veep (2012) and In the Loop (2009) ( and its TV progenitor The Thick of It (2005)). He's a genius, and has earned my attention whenever he drops a new project. His work is imbued with a sharply absurdist bent, and an eye for tearing apart the insanity of our modern institutions. I saw the trailers for The Death of Stalin, and was immediately excited at the prospect of seeing Ianucci's version of a momentous historical moment. I wasn't able to see it when it dropped in theaters last year, but it popped up as a $5.99 deal on Amazon prime, and I couldn't pass that up. *** A Note: I am no historian, and so my review will be discussing the world of the film as presented by Ianucci. I have no way of knowing how well the film adheres to the historical record of the events it portrays*** Summary: Uncle Joe has died. He leaves a g...