There's something super TV about this movie, in the most charming way, until the end, where they clearly saved up the money for some actually awesome special effects work. Good stuff.
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Dead Ringers 1988
Really couldn't tell Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Irons apart. That moment when the twins actually synchronize, walking through their office while shooting up at the same time... that's the movies.
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The Dead Zone 1983
Stephen King has a way of getting in over his head narratively, but Cronenberg and Boam wisely trim and rearrange this movie down to the essentials in such a perfect way. The episodic structure gives it the feeling of a real journey, which always centring the character and his emotions and his psychology in subtle but effective ways. It’s not so much Cronenbergian, as it’s too guided by both King and Boam to really fulfill that, but Cronenberg’s direction is…
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Melvin and Howard 1980
Finally crossed my last Demme blind spot off the list thanks to a Neon Dreams screening at the Revue. Total fucking delight. One of the most good natured movies I’ve seen. Funny, charming, moving, loving, deeply skeptical of capitalism, the whole bag.
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Fast Company 1979
On the one hand, it’s clearly work-for-hire type stuff, not really Cronenbergian as it were. At the same time, it’s fetishistic about cars and mechanics, and it’s got a young Nicholas Campbell pouring motor oil on a girl’s tits.
Is it good? I dunno, define good. But watching it on a Thursday afternoon, it’s got a pleasant feel about it. Languidly paced for a sports-action drama, but sometimes that’s just the sort of thing you wanna catch some night on CityTV in the ‘90s when there’s nothing else good on anyway.
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Secret Weapons 1972
It’s so odd going back to Cronenberg’s very early work and finding all the pieces there, but arranged in ways that simply don’t work. This one is actually the closest to working, and you can feel he figured something out here that he’d finally bring properly to fruition with Shivers and the especially with Rabid.