Mean Streets (1973) ★★★★☆

When watching Martin Scorsese's first film Mean Streets, it almost immediately occurs to the viewer just how talented the legendary director is at placing music in his scenes. The same deft touch that exists in Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver is seen in his first film in 1973. Starring Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro as two street toughs working numbers for a local bookie, we follow their journey as friends and colleagues in the rugged tight knit community of Little Italy. Charlie(Keitel) works and collects money for his uncle the bookie and his friend Johnny Boy(DeNiro) wants a job too. Charlie runs into different sets of problems surrounding his inability to date the women he wants to, because of his families judgment and the communities close tie nature. He struggles with the expectations those around him have of him and trying to find his place. He spends most of the film working around the screw-ups of Johnny Boy and keeps having to save him from tragedy. This is really all I'll say about the plot because Mean Streets is really about a great director's first attempt. It's rough around the edges regarding plot direction but shows great promise from a technical point of view.

Mean Streets is wonderfully shot and the fact that most of it was done on hand cameras forty two years ago speaks to the craft of the young director. Great shots of the New York skyline, communities, and naturalistic interactions between characters fill the scenes with authenticity and takes you away to that time and place. The dialogue is quick and at times muddled and tough to understand, this I feel was to add a realistic quality to the people living in Little Italy in the 1960's. We're shown Charlie's soft side in his romantic interactions with his girlfriend Teresa(Amy Robinson) who reminded me at times of Lorraine Brocco, and added a touch of vulnerability to an otherwise jagged and mania filled world. The atmosphere of Mean Streets is as prevalent as any Scorsese picture and fills the scenes with detail and vibrance and action. It's wonderful to see such a long history of work have a basis and foundation from which it was formed. There is an energy that he brings to the atmosphere of the picture and all of his work that followed that turned into his signature.

The film is technically well done but is rough around the edges, the editing wonderful and acting superb and on point. Mean Streets suffers from a lack of perfectionism and a crowded timeframe of like-themed films. It's a little sloppy, it's a little messy all that is to be expected of a first director's attempt at art. But Scorsese did a wonderful job showing the life of these characters in Little Italy, characters that in part he knew. There are just better films tackling similar subjects during the years preceding, proceeding and including the year it was released. But for what it was, in the context of all these years later, the film was made with great skill and heart and has stood the test of time in many people's minds.

Kids (1995) ★★★★☆

In the first minutes of screen time of the Larry Clark film Kids, the viewer is challenged by the actions taking place in front of them. Perhaps the most shocking thought racing through someone's mind is that this could be and likely is happening somewhere in America, in some city, some town, some place that has a loose restriction on access to excess. Filmed in New York City in the summer of 1994 and starring future successful actresses Chloe Sevigny and Rosario Dawson, kids is a look at a day in the life of multiple teenagers engaging in underage drug use and unprotected sex. The language is what grabs your right away and the coarse vocabulary regarding girls, boys, and the casual and somewhat obvious ignorant nature of sexual relationships. One boy in particular, Telly(Leo Fitzpatrick) is especially cavalier about "fucking bitches", Telly is 14. After deflowering a virgin to start the film, he brags to his friends that his plan is to deflower as many virgins as possible and so we follow him on his quest. We then visit a group of girls(including Sevigny and Dawson) who casually and openly talk about their sexual histories and experiences.

Following this group talk between the girls, we follow Dawson and Sevigny to a clinic so they can be tested for HIV. Coming out at the time that it did, AIDS was a really big deal at the time and something these kids were really dealing with when hitting sexual puberty. Jenny(Sevigny) tests positive for HIV. She has had sex with only one boy who we come to find is Telly, the boy who's vowed to sleep with as many virgins as possible. So now that we know how Telly is affecting his environment we see him meet girl after girl throughout the film, unaware of what he is doing. It's in this element that the film presents such a harrowing narrative, little demons let run amok not knowing what they do. As we follow Jenny, she effortlessly tries to track down Telly to let him know of the news that burdens her throughout the 2nd and 3rd act. Sevigny has a true vulnerability that really comes through and we understand her plight better than she does because of what we know.

Kids is energetically shot, the camera acting almost as a ghost who's drifting through the party scenes...watching the actions of undeveloped emotionally confused little people surrounded by the ever widening abyss. The film falls short because it only gives us surface insights into these people's lives, mostly not seeing their home life, scattered hangout with cigarettes and 40's...rolling a blunt in Washington Square park after dumping the tobacco to the asphalt. But that's the direction of these characters, all they have are the highs of the every day and it's all they care about even if it's at the expense of someone else. We see this mania reach it's peak at the end of the film where a soul crushing rape scene takes place and leaves you in that dark place that exists in your mind most people try not to go to. So there could of been more character substance, more of a directed plot but that's also staples of the independent film scene of the 1990's. Great art asks many more questions than it answers, and so that is what we're left with, a lot of questions.

Citizen Kane (1941) ★★★★★

Orson Welles and Citizen Kane are synonymous with classic film, cinematography, and being named one of if not the greatest film of all time. Much of the praise comes from the technical brilliance of Welles behind the camera, a film many years ahead of it's time for shot selection, cinematography, and lighting. Beautiful light and dark shadowing is performed expertly and does a wonderful job hinting at these themes found throughout the film. Citizen Kane is the story of Charles Foster Kane and his meteoric rise to power and his abrupt decline. The film starts out with the death of the newspaper icon Charles Kane, we start at the beginning of his life showing his childhood where he grew up poor only to be adopted by a wealthy man. This is where Kane inherits his money and good fortune and thinks it would be fun to open and run a newspaper. The plot is told in a nonlinear fashion, alternating between a reporter revisiting Kane's life by interviewing the players involved and the present inquiry of his last word: "Rosebud". Citizen Kane is about the very human nature of our personalities and the flaws that allow us to succeed and rise to power are the same ones that eventually are the cause of our downfall or shortcomings. Rosebud is that thing in which we cannot taste, touch, define or grasp. It is the unescapable emptiness that permeates our very souls, that thing we cannot buy, cannot get back, cannot escape from. When it's all said and done and final chapter is written, nothing changes the inevitable: we're all black smoke rising into an empty atmosphere.

Orson Welles dons makeup throughout many of the scenes as Kane and it is done remarkably well even for a film made in 1941. As he gets older we see the graying hair, the white mustache, we see the extra weight added on and it's quite authentic. One interesting note is that at the end credits it states that many of the actors are new to motion pictures and proudly promotes this. It makes you remember how good this film was when it came out and how it still stands up to time is pretty remarkable. Most noteworthy, is the scene where the camera is shooting from the floor, making Welles look like an absolute giant, towering over his domain. There are numerous shots of Kane showing his physical stature, his presence reflecting his projection. There are multiple shots of Orson Welles where I'm reminded of Brando and Tom Hardy, they seem to have the same well of deep emotional resources. The real currency of Citizen Kane is in it's empathetic masochism of it's main character and that he ultimately is the most tragic of all characters. He has everything except that which matters most. Love.

Rosebud. It's his sled when he was a child. A gift that he couldn't buy, a feeling he couldn't duplicate, a symbol of his inability to love himself or to obtain that thing which truly matters most to him. We all have our own Rosebud, I believe. That this film speaks to a larger human condition than just a look at one man who had all the material things anyone could ever want but not the thing that he needed. Kane's projection like Oedipus is completely without self awareness, it's all about being just and righteous and telling people what the right thing is. It's all about his infallibility as a "man of the people" he doesn't like criticism, he treats people like his sycophantic play things because it's all about what they can do for him. The only thing he loves is himself(ego), he loves being loved but only on his terms. At the end of the day he has nothing because he isn't even fully aware of his own reality, it is what he perceives it to be. This is what makes Kane such a classically flawed fool, didn't you know silly man? You're just a human, and we're all flawed, we're all carrying around some crevice from an old wound.  And then there's the last shot, his sled being burned with the other posessions. Rosebud. And that's it. Everything you've ever loved, anything you'll ever become, everything you ever were is just smoke and ash, drifting off into the horizon....just..gone.

Touch Of Evil (1958) ★★★★☆

Power, corruption, greed, and murder all intersect in Orson Welles 1958 film noir Touch Of Evil. The third and what many consider definitive version is Welles restored Director's cut, put together after his death upon the request of his last will and testament. Touch Of Evil stars Charlton Heston in the lead as Mike Vargas, a local narcotics officer who's working a case against a rather notorious mob patriarch. He's met head on during his investigation by local police Captain Hank Quinlan who is as slovenly as he is corrupt. Played by Orson Welles in an engrossing and idiomatic performance, Welles gives himself completely over to the role of a deeply hypocritical and insecure police official. Set in a California-Mexico border town, the film's plot is set after a dynamite explosion sends two people to their deaths and their car flying into pieces scattering across the night sky. The bomb we learn was meant for Vargas himself. This is setup brilliantly by a three and a half minute opening tracking shot that culminates with a murder investigation.

Considered a classic for being ahead of it's time in lighting and cinematography, Touch Of Evil is wonderfully and expertly handled cinema done by one of the finest film directors' of our time. Welles sets the tone in a dusky, quiet town where dread is waiting to be located around each corner. There are some interesting philosophical themes at play especially in regard to the role of the police in society. Welles character represents the establishment, using the law as a function of his will to punish evil. Whereas Vargas(Heston) believes the law is there to protect the guilty and the innocent and that police work should be hard, it should be nuanced and dissected. The idealist eventually becomes the establishment, it takes consistent vigilance to serve true justice. White and black film lends itself to the cinematography and beautifully shot scenes leave the landscapes either drenched in sunlight or moonlight converging with shadow reflecting the mood and tone of the underlying narrative.

Touch Of Evil is a great film about character, cinematography, and taking you away to a specific place and time. It does this very very well and it is even more impressive when it was done and how it's narrative challenged the current, rising police state and how that is still a relevant topic today. It addressed the rights of the individual and why they are important, how power can corrupt and absolute power can corrupt absolutely. When you consider yourself the absolute law, how can you ever hope to serve justice? The one flaw that was a little glaring to me while watching the film was the performance of the night manager played by Dennis Weaver. I'm not sure what type of performance he was supposed to be given, but I found him to be absolutely irritating and annoying. To the point I didn't care what he was saying or what function he served to the plot. It's why I'm taking a star away, his performance took a little something away from what was otherwise a terrific film.

It Follows (2015) ★★★☆

The horror genre has been lacking for quite some time, occasionally revitalized by a new filmmaker or a specific vision that is so striking it requires the world to stop and take note. It Follows is one of the few movies as an adult I've viewed and inspired such an endless sense of dread. Set against the backdrop of suburbia, our film revolves around a group of teens and specifically one girl, Jay(Maika Monroe). After sleeping with her date, Jay is kidnapped and relocated to a remote part of town where she is haunted and stalked by a fully naked woman. We learn that this stalker has been passed onto Jay through sleeping with her date and the only way to rid herself of it is by sleeping with someone else. This ghoul can resemble a total stranger or someone that the person loves, whatever will help it get near its prey. So we have somewhat of the conventional "rules" of horror films that these are the parameters by which the story or plot is told. I've never been a fan of this because it seems to inhibit creativity, but in this case it is done so expertly and with nuance, it's quite refreshing and engrossing. The filmmaker does a great job with the score, electronic music filling the scenes with dread and terror, ramping up the frenzied nature and tone of the picture. The film is beautifully and expertly shot, set during autumn, we see the rich detail in the changing of the seasons. 

The lighting is gorgeous in almost every scene, and the shooting environments are so varied and different. Shots in the pool, in the sun, by the beach, a school and inside of various houses. It really speaks to the craft of filmmaking and how skilled some of the young directors working today truly are. One of the more notable visual cues from the film is not being able to place the story in a specific timeframe or decade. The clothes, houses, cars could all be anywhere from the late 80's up until today, which gives it a sort of classic appeal and aesthetic. It Follows does a wonderful job reeling you into the absolute dread and mania of the haunting, setting up an inescapable scenario where no matter what, it will come for you. There's an inevitability to the horror here, something you can't really stop, something that will keep coming no matter what. You can delay, but you're just delaying the inevitable. Which may sound unsexy and and not scary, but it's executed so effectively captured through the score, camera work, and genuine horror on the face of Maika Monroe(who really has to carry the picture, acting wise) that it ends up working. The achievement is in captivating the audience, keeping them from looking away, the balance of the super quiet moments and the frenzied terror of the haunting.

It Follows is probably one of the best horror films of the last ten or fifteen years, with absolutely gorgeous cinematography, sure handed camera work, and a truly inspirationally terrifying story. It does fall short in the wrapping up of the plot. The film keeps us engaged nearly three quarters of the way through and runs out of gas near the pool scene. This is where the story is wrapped up and given some sort of conclusion. We don't really get that per se, so we're contemplatively haunted by the notion we may be visited. It is an interesting narrative though, what would you do to survive? Would you just keep affecting people with the hope that you can outrun time? Or would you face that horrible oncoming train, knowing you would never wish this on another being? That's why the film is so good, because it stays with us...continuously haunts us. The execution was nearly perfect, but that pool scene was a mess. Three out of four stars. 

Tangerine (2015) ★★★★

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North By Northwest (1959) ★★★★

I'm still coming down from how exuberant I feel after viewing this great piece of cinematic history. North By Northwest might very well be one of the best films I've ever seen. The film is nearly flawless from start to finish, Hitchcock grabbing your attention not three minutes into the picture with Roger Thornhill(Cary Grant) a madison avenue advertising executive, being kidnapped by a pair of men and not told what they want with him. He is delivered to a mansion outside of the city where what appears to be a wealthy man(James Mason) tells him he is some kind of agency operative. At this point Roger tells the man at great length he is mistaken and has no idea what he is talking about, which of course devolves into disbelief and disregard for his "story". The plot that continues is winding and convoluted, though Hitchcock expertly shows a firm grasp on his storytelling abilities juggling multiple characters, events, and narratives. The plot of North By Northwest weaves us from New York to Chicago to Indiana to South Dakota, ending at Mount Rushmore. The one classic scene that stand out in terms of cinematography and reference points for cinephiles, the crop dusting plane in the field in Indiana. The plane running down Cary Grant, we feel the doom closing in, and the hopeless dread.
















North By Northwest is a very suspenseful, mysterious, and engaging thriller in the first 40 to 45 minutes, all the way up to Roger getting on a train to Chicago where we meet Eve Kendall(Eva Marie Saint). This is where the tone and atmosphere changes and as their scene continues together, we're sucked in by the romance, the melancholy of the violin score, soaring and taking us with it. It's so moving and beautiful that we almost forget how much of a wanted man our protagonist is, we truly forget. Though as in any suspenseful thriller nothing is what it seems and the film seems to borrow quite a bit from noir. And then we are pulled back into the conspiracy of the plot, that the men chasing Roger, Phillip Vandamme(Mason) and Vincent(a very young Martin Landau) are secret operatives of nefarious means and that the identity of the man they're after is a red herring and he's now caught in the middle. Believing he is a secret opposing operative named Caplan they continuously hunt Roger with several assassination attempts being unsuccessful. Playing the female lead Eve Marie Saint was absolutely wonderful in her role as Eve Kendall playing a double agent that Roger doesn't find out until the last act. Their romance complicated but poignant, reaching a level that makes her question her own objectives. She plays a conflicted, warm, and witty young woman caught in the middle of this clustered web of deceit and misinformation. The note of sadness and melancholy below the surface is truly stunning. 

This is one of those films that is on everyone's list and actually lives up to the classic film hype. It's suspenseful, mysterious, exciting, adventurous, romantic, beautiful, and has absolutely breathtaking cinematography and visuals. Some of the shots even by today's standards are just phenomenal, the entire end with Mount Rushmore and having a daring cliffhanging action climax. Shooting the plane running down Cary Grant in the field in Indiana. The film has an even keel all the way through keeping the audience engaged and captivated. The romantic/love scenes between Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint are absolutely wonderful as I spoke to earlier in the review, so much so that they literally take you away from the anxiety and fear of the ongoing plot. But even as you are taken away, events are in motion and nothing has stopped you've been merely looking in the other direction. Such is the skill of a great director, much like a magician. And even though they are tricks, they are beautifully done and executed with precision. This is Hitchcock's third film in a series that I call his obsession films. Dial M For Murder, North By Northwest, and Vertigo all deal with obsession and specifically romantic obsession. I can't tell you how good it felt seeing Roger pull up Even Marie Saint and fall back onto the train car bed, heading for that happy ending. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't speak to how iconic Cary Grant's performance as Roger Thornhill truly was. I kept seeing Don Draper, and as a huge fan of the TV series Mad Men, I really took notice. The gray flannel suit, the haircut, the look. Not to mention the madison ave advertising executive occupation, it was really great to see where some of Matt Weiner's influence originated. What is so impressive about Grant's performance is half of his acting is done with his face, reacting, reflecting, thinking and observing having just the slightest movement in his forehead, nose, or the twitch of a brow. It's pretty incredible to see and take in, the kind of attention and ability to lose yourself in a character. He's a twice divorced bore of a man who just so happens to reach through to a double agent femme fatale, and as crazy as all that sounds, as ridiculous of a premise, Hitchcock brilliantly weaves the story for us. It is truly a beautiful thing to see, and probably why it is still considered one of the greatest films of all time. Iconic performances, excellent direction, phenomenal editing and cinematography, North By Northwest absolutely exceeds all expectations from the viewer and makes you wonder where you've been the last 136 minutes. 

Dial M For Murder (1954) ★★★★

Twists and turns, mystery and suspense, and the fate of a beautiful woman are all at the center of Alfred Hitchcock's brilliant film, Dial M For Murder. We enter the scene with a unfaithful woman and the man she loves hiding this secret away from her husband. Little does she know, her husband is fully aware of her activities and plans to set her up for murder and make away with her inheritance. Grace Kelly playing the beautiful Margot Wendice as the lead role and target of Ray Milland(Tony Wendace) well thought out plan to bump her off. John Williams plays the inquisitive inspector Hubbard who tenaciously pokes and prods the minute holes in Tony's plot. This film is an absolute classic and because of this it has been reviewed many times over by critics greater than myself, but I was absolutely glued to the screen. The shooting is tight and controlled, the scenes have crisp action and acting, not a movement wasted or without import. 

Mark Halliday(Robert Cummings) is Margot's not so secret lover, and through several revelations is the film's moral compass and emotional center. Tony, discovering the affair, persuades Captain Lesgate(Anthony Dawson) a former college classmate, through blackmail to murder his wife therefore reaping the benefit of her will upon her death. Of course the act goes wrong and the rest of the film Tony tries to jump from one rock to the next, trying to avoid the inevitable. Ray Milland is absolutely wonderful as the obsessed, conniving, believably manipulative, husband. He meticulously plans each step and move out to such a degree that he nearly isn't discovered and we see how long he must have agonized over each moment and action. And as we close things out, it's sort of beautiful to see the stoicism of the British and acceptance of one's fate. Obsession is a theme of Hitchcock's that is touched here as well as in Vertigo. Obsessed over the intricate execution of a well laid plan, of ridding yourself of a tiresome problem, of outsmarting all of them and laughing all the way.

Dial M For Murder is a classic film because it keeps us engaged for the entire one hundred and thirty minutes that it's on the screen. Hitchcock's sure direction and hand keep us enthralled wanting to know how it will end, a murder mystery with intelligent and captivating players. Margot is played with such vulnerability by Kelly and we feel so much for her disadvantage and disposition. The dynamic of her trying to figure it all out and the shock of being told her own husband set her up to be murdered. Despite the serious tone there are moments of levity throughout and as a whole the film is superb in every way. Hitchcock has us all the way until the credits role, not sure if there is one more surprise in store hiding in the shadows. 

The Maltese Falcon (1941) ★★★★

 "It's the stuff dreams are made of". As Humphrey Bogart delivers this classic line at the end of the film, bars slam shut, lights go out, and we wonder just what we would do for the promise of our desires. Directed in 1941 and penned by now legendary icon John Huston, The Maltese Falcon is film noir mystery set in San Francisco surrounding a private investigator named Sam Spade(Bogart) and his partner Miles Archer. The film opens with a femme fatale named Brigid O'Shaughnessy(Mary Astor) weaving a tale about a missing sister who's in a trouble with a new beau. Archer is shot and killed while investigating, and Brigid's story comes apart. This is where the movie really takes off and we're in and engaged from thi point. This film has been talked about and reviewed to death so I won't waste time delving into plot points and all the technical tools used that have been the foundation of countless great films. This film is dark, everyone has a play, everyone has an angle, you can't trust anyone, and you've got to keep on your toes. While navigating through this seedy world even the hero, Sam Spade, he's got to play it close to the vest and not show what hand he's got.

Humphrey Bogart is one of the few quintessential icons of the classic movie. Marlon Brando, James Deen, Orson Welles and Humphrey Bogart make up a pretty short list of men that were purely iconic in the way they were and still are perceived by so many. The Maltese Falcon is the best we see of Bogart. As Spade, he is in command, he doesn't take anyone's shit, he's sure of himself in what he needs to do, he has a strong moral compass that doesn't falter even when he's manipulating another character. He's whatever he needs to be in this world, but ultimately never falters from being righteous. Cher chez la femme informs us for what to look for from the start, but nowhere along the way does this deter the excellent performances from Bogart, Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet as Gutman. The film is shot in a tight, claustrophobic manor that adds tension and focused nuance to the plot and overall feel of the film. 

Taking in all of the action, performances and technical brilliance behind the whole of the picture it's easy to see why this film has remained a classic among so many seasoned movie watchers. A sense of romance, danger, and dread fill the sets with a wonderful atmosphere and tone while the actors cooly deliver their lines, acting within acting. Mary Astor in playing the femme fatale gives off such desperation, such remorse, she makes you want to believe, even if in doing so you're signing your death warrant. She sings a song that you long to hear, and even as you hear it knowing where it will lead...you're still tempted to follow it, to sing that song too. It's not an unfamiliar feeling to have, to see what's really not there, to see what you want. Beautiful, tragic, haunting, the Maltese Falcon is a great piece of cinema that still stand up 74 years later.