I like everything on your list but have never seen True Romance.
Last night we rented and watched Stranger Than Paradise and Blood Simple.
I had forgotten that the first half hour of Stranger Than Paradise was shot using 40 minutes of black and white film that were donated to him. He made a short entitled The New World, a series of vignettes, one take, one camera. He showed it around and eventually got the money to complete the film.
The cinematography is awesome.
If you like movies because you like action or inspiration or being made to feel cathartic emotions, you won't like Stranger Than Paradise. If you like looking at things from an original point of view that is probably different from your own, you may well like it. I think Jim Jarmusch fans probably know who they are by now, anyway.
Blood Simple has more of an emotional pull. It's just plain horrifying. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might want to watch it but it is a lot like Fargo, only set in Austin. Frances McDormand is the protagonist, married to Dan Hedaya, who does evil very well. He hires M. Emmett Walsh as a private detective, first to trail her, and then to kill her. Walsh also does evil very well. McDormand does good very well. In the middle is John Getz, her lover, who is at first good, but turns evil at the end.
Classic film noir, set in benign suburban Austin, which makes it very quirky and off kilter, just what you'd expect from the Coen brothers, and a real gem. Much better than Fargo, in my opinion. |
