Favorite films

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Pinned reviews

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  Death Laid an Egg 1968

  ★★★½ Watched by Scott Kelly 22 Jul 2020 3

  For films set in the world of agriculture, here I thought Michael Ritchie’s 1972 pulpy neo-noir Prime Cut was twisted and depraved - then I come across this Italy/France co-pro oddity. Most commentators seem to quibble on the right genre sub-category for this film but this chicken farm set mystery/horror, giallo or not, is deeply unsettling (if not oddly funny). The super aggressive Euro 60s art house stylistic tics assembled by director Giulio Questi (Django, Kill....If You Live Shoot!), editor…

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  The Crook 1970

  ★★★½ Watched by Scott Kelly 06 Nov 2006

  The colourful musical opening (the film within the film) almost suggests a gangster spoof; but there's a rather serious and foreboding undercurrent that runs throughout this entertaining caper flick starring Jean Louis Trintignant as master thief Simon "the Swiss" Duroc (a surname borrowed from the more famous Trintignant/Claude Lelouch collaboration A Man and a Woman). The film has some significant (and sneaky) narrative ellipsis, but the non-linear approach is so imbedded you'll miss it if you are not on your…

Recent reviews

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  Night River 1956

  ★★★★ Watched by Scott Kelly 24 Jun 2022

  Kōzaburō Yoshimura‘s 1957 Night Butterflies is a spectacular looking colour film but this measured and sensitive romantic melodrama is at whole different level with its exceptional use of colour. Enough to inspire me to create this list: Japan 1950s Top 25 Colour Films

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  The Strangling 1979

  ★★★ Watched by Scott Kelly 19 Jun 2022

  I’m a sucker for a film that starts with urgency and mystery and this one featuring a father strangling his teenage son to death in the opening moments certainly fits that bill. Yet, knowing director Kaneto Shindo’s often Oedipal themed films, this might not have been the best Father’s Day selection. If nihilism and Japanese films are your bag - make this a 1979 double bill with Shohei Imamura‘s equally twisted Vengeance is Mine.

Popular reviews

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  Corvette Summer 1978

  Added by Scott Kelly 2

  How big a Star Wars fan was I at ten years old? Let’s just say I bought the novelization of Corvette Summer.

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  The Incident 1967

  ★★★½ Watched by Scott Kelly 14 Mar 2018 3

  This post Kitty Genovese murder (1964) and pre-Bernie Goetz vigilantism (1984) take on NYC urban dread and bystander indifference is a rather stark and mean affair. The black and white, low-budget, gritty location shot elements of it all is suggestive of NY set 60s films like Blast of Silence, Something Wild, The Young Savages (all 1961), The Pawnbroker (1964), or even the British made subway car set Dutchman from the same year. One on-line commentator suggested the film is strange…