• Rosa la Rose, Public Girl

    Rosa la Rose, Public Girl

    ★★★★★

    The strength of drama, the power of tragedy. Every shot trembles with all sorts of emotions they might contain. A movie that impressively succeeds in suggesting a world that is both beautiful and terrifying. There are not many as touching as it.

  • The Best of Times

    The Best of Times

    ★★★

    I mentioned when I wrote about Under Fire the other day, that I was surprised to learn Ron Shelton co-wrote it, and he and Spottiswoode team up again for this 3 years later, his first sports-related movie, although like in many Shelton movies, sport works better as a metaphor than when it is put front and center. It is a Capra-lite story (complete with Donald Moffatt doing his best 80s Edward Arnold impression) about a depressed town whose least favorite…

  • No Mercy

    No Mercy

    ★★½

    A strange mixed bag in that Gere getting swept into the uneasy criminal mood stands much more than the action but the stabs of making the neonoir drama matter are rather weak. So it is both more full filling as a broody violent crime tale and one who might benefit of being more straightforward. It is overqualified and overambitious.

  • Zone Red

    Zone Red

    ★★½

    Moderate engaging 1980s French conspiracy thriller with better than average cast. The anger feels genuine, but the movie seems happy to hit its marks.

  • Family Business

    Family Business

    ★½

    The attempt to keep a serious moral inquiry in the middle of its light family portrait mostly fails, along with the ambitious mix of tones. Some decent performances, but Costa Gravas is too dour a filmmaker not to dry up the drama of any real interest beyond its more illustrative needs.

  • The Morning After

    The Morning After

    ★★½

    Jane Fonda as a faded alcoholic actress who wakes up next to a dude with a knife in his chest, and Jeff Bridges as the guy who is either a good samaritan trying to help her out of a conspiracy or pulling the shots (Raul Julia is also around, so there's another well-known actor who might or might not be behind it). The Morning After is quite lousy as a thriller, hardly exciting, and has a bad script, but as…

  • Power

    Power

    ★★½

    Sidney Lumet taking a look at the corruption involved in political campaigns in the 1980s. Most reviews at the time compared it negatively to Network and while there are a few similarities, this is far less over the top and the general cynicism about how broken the political system is gets at least a little pushback as it is structured around one of those “sleazebag in a corrupt world finds out he has some morals left” plots. Screenwriter David Himmelstein…

  • RocketKitKongoKit

    RocketKitKongoKit

    ★★★½

    Imperialism and the cold war through Baldwin natutal knack to spin a tale and bring together history, varied footage and paranoid fiction.

  • Movie Dementia

    Movie Dementia

    ★★★★★

    One of the great São Paulo movies and such a perfect snapshot of the time through its very distorted personal lens.

  • The 11th Commandment

    The 11th Commandment

    ★★½

    Hamlet as an 80s psycho movie. The conception is quite strong, the execution not so much. Too much going on and the narrative throughline gets lost on Paul Leder's hand far too often. I like the murders are more sad than violent. Final reckoning act like most of everything in it is better as an idea than as filmed.

  • Dream Lover

    Dream Lover

    ★½

    Pakula tried to updated his 70s thrillers with a mix of 80s themes and aesthetic choices with very turgid results. It is too silly but not trashy enough to remainig engaging despite that. Sort of a very boring late 80s New Line movie that really wants to be respectful De Palma.

  • Defence of the Realm

    Defence of the Realm

    ★★★

    Pretty good British potboiler with good sense of ever growing conspiracy and rich cast to throw over the narrative seams. I enjoy good newspaper stumbles into plot story and this one navigates it very. It is very cynical and downbeat. It is all plot and Tv-like direction is fo once put to good use.