Hollywood Cinema
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THE ROARING TWENTIES (Dir. Raoul Walsh, 1939, US)
* * * * Arguably a quintessential Warner Bros gangster pic that zips along with so much charm, style and Jimmy Cagney at his smarmy best. Circling back to this one from having seen so many contemporary gangster films it becomes evidently clear the film’s mighty sway on the genre, and that is a given Continue reading
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MASTER & COMMANDER: FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (Dir. Peter Weir, 2003, US)
* * * * Peter Weir is both a skilled craftsman and great storyteller. Now retired, Weir’s last film was back in 2010. His body of work is water tight and encompasses films made in Australia expressly the classic Picnic at Hanging Rock, and later in the US when he made the leap to Hollywood Continue reading
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FERRARI (Dir. Michael Mann, 2023, US) – Time & time again
* * * A project on Enzo Ferrari seems so natural for someone like Mann who is pretty much the most stylish filmmaker of the past thirty years or so. His films ooze an unwavering stylish elegance. A trawl back through his films and it becomes evident how well so many of his characters dress, Continue reading
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THE TWO JAKES (Dir. Jack Nicholson, 1990, US)
The Two Jakes is less a sequel and more of a flamboyant continuation and expansion of the sun kissed noir universe of Los Angeles that Polanski brought to life in Chinatown. Everyone knows a project of this type had no chance of working without the creative involvement of Robert Towne, Jack Nicholson and Robert Evans, Continue reading
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JOSHUA (Dir. George Ratliff, 2007)
The Yuppies are back (did they really ever go away?) in this expertly crafted psychological thriller that fuses the ornately technical sensibilities of Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby with the bombast of The Omen. The result is one very claustrophobic work, visualising the descent of a family into ruin who become increasingly imprisoned in their high-class New Continue reading
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