Smashbomb

"One of my favorite mini-genres is the B crime movie from the late fifties and early sixties. It was a unique period in American cinema that gave birth to these half-cocked, no-budget movies that were made by some visionary filmmakers. They’re all super raw and gritty, very existential, and absolutely innovative in technique. It’s no wonder that the French New Wave filmmakers all discovered them and ripped them off (I’m looking at you, Jean-Pierre Melville). Movies like Don Siegel’s The Lineup and Irving Lerner’s Murder by Contract (both of which have popped up on the new Criterion Channel recently!) embody this subgenre, but the high point for me is Allen Baron’s Blast of Silence, which seems to grow in stature every year. It’s hard to describe it. Imagine if Orson Welles was a crazed junkie on the Bowery in the late 1950s and somehow conned someone out of $20k to make a bleak movie about a hit man. It’s sorta part Point Blank, part Taxi Driver, part Shadows, and it’s as hardboiled as they come. It’s also one of the great New York City movies, with amazing time-capsule photography in all the boroughs and near pristine documentary coverage of streets. The Criterion disc also unearthed another absolute gem: a 1990 documentary in which Baron visits all the locations from the film. Oh, and the Criterion cover art, by comic artist Sean Phillips, is maybe my favorite cover! And the edition also includes a graphic novel based on the film! (Damn, should I have put this first?)"

Source

Kudos

ClareR (6074 KP) rated Afraid of the Christmas Lights in Books

Dec 1, 2020

I don’t like Christmas books. Usually. I like A Christmas Carol, but I tend not to read many modern Christmas books - unless they’re children’s ones at work, or when I used to read them for my own children when they were little. Which is probably why I liked this so much. Usually in anthologies, there will be a few standout stories that make reading the collection as a whole worthwhile, but I’ve really struggled to single out one or two - I enjoyed them all far too much for that.

Most of the stories are set around Christmas with only a couple of exceptions. That didn’t cause me to like them any less though. The real standouts for me (if I absolutely HAVE to choose!) were: Phoebe Morgan’s Unexpected Present - the gift wrapped so nicely in expensive M&S paper being the main protagonists husband; The Switch by James Delargy had a Stephen King vibe to it (and I should add that it wasn’t because of The Green Mile!); Fresh Meat by Elle Croft gives new meaning to a raw meat diet for your cat; and The Vigilante by Clare Empson was a sad story of a Charles Dickens look-a-like who tries to save victims of crime in the dead of night.

If you need an excuse to buy this, then the proceeds go to ESDAS and Rights of Women, both domestic abuse charities.

Many thanks to The PIgeonhole for serialising this book, and to the authors who joined in. As always, it was a great experience!!

Kudos

Kristina (502 KP) rated Sick Fux in Books

Dec 7, 2020

Sick Fux

Tillie Cole | 2018 | Crime, Erotica, Horror

8.7

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Alice in Wonderland meets Bonnie and Clyde in this dark, twisted, disturbing tale of two victims who come together to exact revenge on their abusers. <br/>I've only read A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie - it was a bit sweet for me, so I didn't bother looking up any other books she might have written, which was a HUGE mistake! I accidentally stumbled across Sick Fux thanks to a fellow Bookworm through a group on Facebook; she said it was dark and disturbing, but good, so I thought I'd give it a try. I was not disappointed.<br/>From beginning to end, Heathen-turned-Rabbit and Ellis-turned-Dolly had me enthralled. Their adventures, their suffering, their madness... All of it drew me in, further and further down the rabbit hole (lame pun totally intended). With each murder, this question became increasingly urgent: what is going to happen to the two of them? I couldn't help but wonder if they'd succeed in their mission; if Rabbit would accidentally kill Dolly during one of their intense, raw, animalistic episodes; if they would get caught and thrown into an asylum; if they would die in each other's arms amidst gunfire from police. The ending eluded me and made me nervous, because pretty much either one would suit the twisted theme. As terrifying as it is, I found myself cheering the both of them on, grinning madly when they came out of a situation alive, despite being covered in blood. Sick Fux was definitely different and I definitely loved it!