Despite the fact that I originally reviewed them (glowingly!) almost eighteen months ago, Mesrine - Public Enemy Number One, and Killer Instinct, are finally opening in the States. They comprise an exquisite duet in a genre the French are excelling at lately (A Prophet was another winner). I urge anybody who appreciates solid cinema to support these movies with your dollars.
I often ponder what would happen to Quentin Tarantino's career if he featured as much sex in his movies as violence? I'd say the critics and audiences would turn on him. They've sure turned on the makers of the next little gem.The sequel to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, has been lambasted by most U.S. critics for reasons I'll get to shortly. It's smaller scale entry, sure, and it's not quite as glossy as its parent, but for fuckin fuck's sake, see this film! It's suspenseful, brutal, unrelenting, and downright deviant bullet train of moviemaking. On top of these honors, it boasts an incredible and unique villain.
If the series continues to head in this direction, the third and final installment will be a subversive masterpiece.
I'd say the high level of sexual content (consenting and non-consenting) is behind the majority of poor reviews the film is getting in the U.S. Let's face it, considerable portions of the U.S. are puritan to the core, and sex is considered more obscene than a human being having their head chopped off. When was the last time a non-porno film was charged with obscenity, eh? Gross discomfort with the sexual nature of the human animal sways the most intelligent critics (with some exceptions, and you know who you are!) in the U.S. Very few seem capable of shedding their puritanism so that they can fairly and objectively review films with high level sexual content. For some reason, all that flesh and sweat tends to overwhelm them.A classic example of puritan backlash (or is that whiplash?) was Giussepe Tornatore's exquisite The Unknown Woman, one of my favorite and most beautiful/brutal noirs of the last five years.
Ignore the puritans, listen to the audiences, and make a date with The Girl Who Played Played With Fire.
Also well worth catching this week is the excellent Hugh Hefner doco, Hugh Hefner - Playboy, Activist and Rebel. It's a pretty exhaustive look at the man and, primarily, his brave, lifelong campaign to fight official and unofficial racism in America. The Hugh many of us thought we knew is but one part of a fascinating gentleman and modest activist. Even an American hero.
