Kevin wrote:
"Recent HB-ish films, say, post-Pulp fiction, worth watching
include, just off the top of my head, Twilight, Payback,
Jackie Brown, The Zero Effect, Copland, L.A. Confidential,
and the Coen Bros. one about the bowling doofus turned
temporary private dick with Jeff Bridges."
That last would be The Big Lebowski. I'd drop the awful
Payback and add a bunch of smaller films like Usual Suspects,
Palookaville, Underneath
(recently saw its source Criss Cross, great Burt Lancaster
film), Bottle Rockets, La Haine, Last Seduction, The Set Up,
Phoenix, City of Industry, Thick As Thieves and the not as
good, but still appealing Suicide Kings (mainly for
Christopher Walken's performance), Romeo Is Bleeding and
Deadfall, among many others. For all of the complaining about
Tarantino-wannabes (and a lot of bad straight-to-cable films
have been made in his wake, some starring him) he certainly
led to an increased market for crime films, many of which
have been good.
Brad replied to Kevin:
"Two of the biggest rules: have a sympathetic hero and have
an upbeat ending. The original "Get Carter" has neither.
Although I agree with Kevin that the below films are good or
great, all have sympathetic (if marginal) heros and in the
end, the good guys always win."
Now that is a problem. The Way of the Gun is the only recent
film I can think of that really breaks those rules (the last
was probably Reservoir Dogs; even Pulp Fiction ended upbeat,
with Travolta again alive at the flashback end following his
death in the middle of the film). And I'm all too afraid that
this amazing film didn't do well enough to convince the suits
that there is indeed a market for this kind of downbeat film.
It certainly didn't seem to stick around the theaters very
long.
Finally, this talk of Get Carter has reminded me to
re-recommend Hodges's latest film, The Croupier, a very nice,
low-key, character-driven noir.
Mark
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