Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

It’s not like this movie is boring. I do enjoy noirs. I’ve watched a good few and I know their pace is slow, calculated, and rewarding. This film’s reward is an impressive last 20 minutes, which makes the rest of the film going through the motions pale in comparison. To not spoil the twist, its switch into a different form of genre fiction, which reminds me of how Twin Peaks also plays with genre. But what makes Twin Peaks’ twists and turns more engaging is how soon the corrupting force that causes this eldritch shift is introduced. While it doesn’t come out of nowhere, in Kiss Me Deadly, the twist separates itself from the body of the film to become its own thing. If it was subtly implied throughout the film, I would’ve enjoyed it more.

On a more positive note, one of my favorite parts of this film was how the antagonists were portrayed. Like many other noirs, the main threat is organized crime. Said mob is often portrayed as a shuffling pair of pinstriped legs, that is until a fight scene erupts where I’m fully entertained by how these actors put their entire bodies into physical stunts of might. It adds an air of surrealism with how they choose to obscure the identity of who was assaulting our protagonist.

-written by Aliana Preciado Higgins

Robert Butler's Night of the Juggler (1980)

Jeez, they don't make movies like that anymore and for good reason. Aside from the outstanding action, car chases in Manhattan, shooting out windows, car crashes, and so much more, the filmmakers sure do love to make Puerto Ricans and black people the scourge of society. They blamed every problem of New York on the two groups. It was exhausting listening to that bullshit. Definitely of the 1980's and for a white audience of New York, who I watched the film with. It's like that "subtle" racism is so commonplace in media and that's the reason why it's still with us today. People who grew up with that kind of attitude in an otherwise normal movie thought it was normal. All black and Puerto Rican men were terrible, but a few women were okay, if they were beautiful.

James Brolin

Despite all that, it did capture so much of New York City in the 1980's, all kinds of transportation. It seems 1/2 of New Yorkers were running in this film, in their work clothes and whatever, which I also found odd. James Brolin is a delight and with a heavy beard looking like a lumberjack in Manhattan, he did feel like an unusual lead in a good way.

David Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)

It’s a great study on experimental movie making and sound in cinema.  There are many jokes that Lynch seems to think are funny. I rather enjoy the slower silent sound scapes and less enjoy his visual effects most of the time. The many versions of agent Cooper don’t do it for me, and they actually distract me from the show. There are great actors in here who sometimes fit very well.

Mikhail Kalatozov's The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

Beautiful cinematography. Fitting score. Melodramatic acting that works, especially due to the cinematography and framing choices. Incredible new visual elements such as when Veronika (Tatyana Samoylova) is running past the fence in the short emotional montage.

It almost pulled a tear out of my eye with the last few shots. My only quibble is the rape that resulted in the wedding I think was left ambiguous just out of conservatisms. By being ambiguous and not facing the difficulty story point head on, the film confuses and clouds and otherwise incredibly devastating and critical scene to tell a believable story.

Female focused films are fresh.

Jean Vigo's L’Atalante (1934)

I have to say, I was disappointed in the movie. I enjoyed the scene of the drunken sailor showing the woman his things. But everything else is just a day in passing.