FATALE is a densely plotted and devilishly twisted erotic fantasy of a noir. Filmed with self-conscious style, it offers a variation on FATAL ATTRACTION that is not without merit, yet with a bemused view of womanhood that gives one pause. We are firmly ensconced in the, admittedly noir Madonna/whore paradigm here, but making a woman… Read More »
THE ASSIGNMENT
The subject matter in Walter Hill’s THE ASSIGNMENT will make half the audience cringe in a way that the other half, no matter how empathetic, won’t be able to fully understand. And that’s sly. This brutal exercise in gender studies, masquerading as a biting action-noir fable, is rife with irony and with bald truths designed… Read More »
William Friedkin Takes on KILLER JOE
William Friedkin has made few movies over the last five decades or so, and when I spoke with him on July 11, 2012, he explained his reasons. The man who made THE EXORCIST, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and SORCERER is not a man to compromise what he wants to achieve in a film. His preferred subject,… Read More »