EXPLOITATION DOUBLE FEATURE #7

This is the first of a couple of Ozploitation double bills I’ll be posting.

TRANCE

2013; directed by Danny Boyle; adapted by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge; 97 mins

When Trance came out, it seemed to garner mediocre reviews, which was a surprise in light of the ongoing Danny Boyle love tsunami that had started with Slumdog Millionaire and continued on through 127 Hours and that incredible Olympic opening ceremony. I love this movie! Not only that but this is my favourite of Boyle’s movies from the last decade*, alongside T2 Trainspotting. It’s just enormous fun! It’s proper, naughty, violent, sexy, twisty, turn-y entertainment for grown-ups and what’s wrong with that?

Q

1982; written and directed by Larry Cohen; 93 mins

Unexpected. You wanna see the unexpected when it comes to movies and while Hollywood plays it safe, lower budget exploitation movies have revelled in and sold themselves on the promise that you ain’t seen this before! Well, on the one hand, I haven’t seen a flying Aztec god lizard terrorise New York before but I did expect it because it’s on the poster. What I didn’t expect was a John Cassavates movie disguised as a crime-horror-fantasy B-movie starring Caine from Kung Fu and Shaft.

PUBLIC ENEMIES

2009; directed by Michael Mann; adapted by Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman and Michael Mann; 140 mins

Having recently turned around on Once Upon a Time in America, it’s interesting to revisit this movie and realise that I’ve gone the opposite way. When Public Enemies first came out, I felt nothing for it. With those words comes a suggestion of contempt, so I should clarify: I felt absolutely nothing. It was as though I hadn’t been to the cinema for two hours, so nonexistent was the film’s impact on me. That was a strange sensation to get from a Michael Mann film, particularly one that looked so much like a period piece Heat.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA

1984; directed by Sergio Leone; adapted by Franco Arcalli, Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Franco Ferrini, Stuart Kaminsky, Sergio Leone and Enrico Medioli; 251 mins

[spoilers. Sorry]

Four hours is a long time to spend realising that you don’t really like something as much anymore. Sergio Leone‘s swan song is a non-linear, slow-moving gangster epic that was infamously slaughtered by the studio and thence butchered by critics, some of whom were lamenting what had happened to the masterpiece they saw at Cannes. Sergio Leone’s work is the reason I got obsessed with movies but Once Upon a Time in America, whilst hugely admirable in many respects, is a long movie that doesn’t say an awful lot, gets it’s relationships muddled and is morally rather unpleasant.

THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT

1972; written and directed by Wes Craven; 81 mins

One of the most unpleasant movies it’s possible to watch but a fascinating case study in horror. Wes Craven‘s debut is a film with a brutal, uncompromising point to make and yet his lack of moviemaking knowledge almost completely sank the message. A remake of (Mr. Arthouse himself) Ingmar Bergman‘s The Virgin Spring, The Last House on the Left is an exploitation movie ripe for discussion now in an instantaneous-reaction era when there is no margin for error.

THE IRISHMAN

2019; directed by Martin Scorsese; adapted by Steven Zaillian; 209 mins

I have not been that enamoured of Scorsese’s work this decade. It started strong with Shutter Island and the George Harrison doco but the rest was not his best stuff, as far as I’m concerned. You wouldn’t know from the reviews though. I’ve said this with Tarantino but there are critics who just won’t say no to him. It’s good to be a fan and I would consider myself as such but even Ken Loach makes movies I’m not so hot on. Among other things, my problem with most of his work recently (The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence and Rolling Thunder Revue) is that they’re all too long. It’s funny then that his longest film is my favourite since 2011.

STRANGER BY THE LAKE

2013; written and directed by Alain Guiraudie; 100 mins

A gay, French, arthouse, crime, thriller-but-not-exactly. Before I say this next thing, believe me, there is no covert judgement from me as my knowledge of gay cinema is limited and I cannot, in all good conscience, pretend that it isn’t in part because of an ever-decreasing but extant, shameful “Jesus! It’ll turn me gay!” attitude. However! If you only see one gay movie in your life – make it Stranger by the Lake! What a fucking awesome movie! One of the best of the decade, easily.

EXPLOITATION DOUBLE FEATURE #3

A double bill of Italian sleaze which I knew absolutely nothing about going in. Part of the Exploitation Double Feature strand is to make me go outside the comfort zone more and more.

BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99

2017; written and directed by S. Craig Zahler; 132 mins

If you’re a film fan, then in the last year, you cannot help but have heard the fevered reviews of S. Craig Zahler‘s apparently morally ambiguous police brutality buddy movie, Dragged Across Concrete starring avowed right-wingers Vince Vaughn and Mel Gibson. Reviews ranging from suspicious to annoyed. I don’t know that I’m that fussed about sitting through 3 hours of trolling (if that is what so many people have said it is). However, his movies have consistently raised eyebrows and I’ve been increasingly curious to see what he has to offer…