To a lot of people, the term “melodrama” carries a bad stench. That’s too bad because not only are so many examples of melodrama legitimate classics, it’s an adaptable format that can still surprise and hit us hard. For example,...
Dogman starts out bearing some resemblance to a previous film from director Matteo Garrone, 2012’s Reality. That film’s lead was a fishmonger, well liked in his neighborhood; this time around, it’s a dog groomer named Marcello (Marcello Fonte), equally appreciated by the...
The fact-based Argentinian crime drama El Angel stars Lorenzo Ferro as real-life thief and murderer Carlos Robledo Puch, who was only twenty when he made headlines in his native country for a string of armed robberies and murders. Puch earned...
Title: Touch of Evil Year: 1958 Director: Orson Welles Cast: Janet Leigh, Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Ray Collins, Victor Millan, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Cotten Synopsis: Mexican narcotics agent Miguel Vargas is entangled in a case rife with corruption and scandal...
It’s kind of surprising that Felix E. Feist’s The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) has gone neglected for so long before its recent restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and subsequent Blu-ray release by Flicker Alley. I don’t say that...
Title: Mad Detective Year: 2007 Director: Johnnie To, Wai Kai Fai Cast: Lau Ching-wan, Gordon Lam, Kwok-Lun Lee, Choi-ning Lee, Andy On, Kelly Lin Synopsis: A rookie cop, Ho Ka-Un (Andy On), enlists the help of former detective Chan Kwai-Bun...
Title: Nuits Rouges aka Shadowman Year: 1974 Director: Georges Franju Cast: Josephine Chaplin, Jacques Champreux, Patrick Prejean, Gert Frobe Synopsis: The “Man Without a Face” is a masked super criminal whose mission is to find the mythical treasure of the...
There are surprisingly few movies about Leopold and Loeb, the 1920s Chicago rich kids who murdered a teenage boy just to prove to themselves that they were smart enough to get away with it. The jaw-dropping cold-bloodedness of the crime...
