'Loophole' (1981) - John Quested.

This excitingly off-beat, unfairly overlooked, intelligently crafted British heist thriller has a loot to shout about! Not least being the engagingly written, tautly plotted screenplay that clearly attracted such a wealth of sublime acting talent! John Quested's dynamite crime thriller about a seasoned, tightly-knit crew of experienced blaggers planning and executing an audaciously lucrative heist has demonstratively lost none of its fascination! Alongside the razor-sharp filmmaking by Quested, the nuanced performances are irresistible, and the driving, atmospheric score by maestro Lalo Schifrin is a defining factor in elevating this engrossing narrative's dramatic intensity. 

It's always a rare treat watching a finely honed, artisan genre feature starring so many supremely gifted actors! Another pleasing aspect of 'Loophole' is that the credible dramatic elements are no less robustly expressed than the frantic, thrillingly tense heist itself. The gifted director's lean, no-frills approach is remarkably effective, drawing the viewer deep into the protagonists increasingly precarious, unrelentingly harsh subterranean environment, thereby giving their pragmatic actions a stark authenticity so frequently absent in Loophole's glossier, hyperrealistic counterparts. There's one especially evocative interlude wherein the cool master thief Mike (Albert Finney) and the plainly anxious architect Stephen (Martin Sheen) silently take tea together before finalizing their fateful partnership which proved most eloquent, and for me, rewarding subtleties like this separate the cinematic wheat from the chaff!      

    

 

 

'Eye For An Eye' aka 'The Poison Rose' (2019) – George Gallo.

Granted, the egregious-looking poster art looks faker than Travolta's leonine locks, but George 'Midnight Run' Gallo's surprisingly slick retro-Noir thriller is actually quite an entertaining, old school private eye mystery. Certainly not in the same refined league as 'Laura' or 'Farewell, my lovely' et al., but the appetizing fact that the frequently lively text adheres so respectfully to the forties archetype of dangerously duplicitous, distractingly leggy femme fatales, and the amusingly labyrinthine plot is generously garlanded with nefarious dope deals, no less corrupt business practice, and a master Machiavellian supervillain; this terminally toxic nest of vipers proves troublesome for likeable, but questionably lugubrious   ex-football star, turned dipso, private dick Carson Phillips (John Travolta) to stoically circumnavigate. 

To be entirely objective, Gallo cannily assembled a jolly fine cast, and, somewhat unexpectedly, the fuzz-faced Travolta is on pretty decent form here, plus there's some delightfully playful shtick at the beginning of the film which may, or may not be a sly reference to Altman's skewed noir 'The Long Goodbye', but the wholly unexpected treat proved to be Brendan Fraser's outrageously camp, deliciously deviant turn as the eminently despicable Dr. Miles Mitchell, unleashing a winningly eccentric, convincingly perverse performance of bombastic, Ollie Reed-like intensity! Okay!! Okay!! this 'aint exactly 'L.A. Confidential', but, for me, as a left-field, totally blind, undemanding B-Movie watch, 'The Poison Rose' had a sweeter bouquet than I initially expected!

 

 

 

'Deceit' aka 'Where is Kyra?' (2017) – Andrew Dosunmu.

Andrew Dosunmu's devastatingly downbeat, unnervingly unsentimental 'Deceit' aka 'Where is Kyra' is stylistically, visually, and emotionally blackened melodrama, almost stifling in its uncommonly frank depictions of crushing existential despair. A melancholy, middle-aged woman Kyra (Michelle Pfeiffer) succumbs to depression with an alarming rapidity after her terminally ailing, greatly beloved mother dies. Consumed by grief, debilitated by anxiety, crippled by mounting debt, frustratingly unable to find regular employment, wholly alone, Kyra fatefully makes a monumentally poor decision that will severely compromise her life. 

Observing this desperately fragile, disenfranchised, increasingly needful human being so pitilessly disassembled by the ill tempered hand of fate is uneasy viewing, and for all its aesthetic flair, there's an ugly, brutalist reality to Kyra's relatable misfortune. Quite unexpectedly, the film's languorous pace has a stark, mesmeric quality, you don't really want to see how bad it gets, but you just can't turn away. Michelle Pfeiffer's livid angst is distressingly convincing, the desperation deeply etched into her iconically beautiful visage heartbreaking to behold. Even her fledgling relationship with fellow sufferer Doug (Kiefer Sutherland) ultimately offering her little succour. There's no catharsis, no final act redemption, and no karmic repayment for good deeds done, Kyra is just another unfortunate soul smothered beneath the murderous gravity of capitalism. While I can readily appreciate that the unleavened gloom of 'Where is Kyra?' may not be a universally appealing prospect, Pfeiffer's bravura performance got me where it hurts, and that happens all too rarely these days. 

 

 

 

 

'The Toxic Avenger' (1984) – Michael Herz / Lloyd Kaufman.

With the monotonous Marvel Chronic Universe heading inevitably towards creative entropy, it's high-time for humanity to set an upliftingly chucklesome course for the stellar celluloid constellation of Tromaville!!! I've ALWAYS got time for the timelessly traumatic, tastefully tawdry thrill of 80s schlock titan Toxie! With our ailing planet becoming increasingly more toxic, a vote for mythically mutated mop boy Melvin, the dweeby ex-janitor turned chemically-enhanced crusader is a winning vote for freedom!!! The cumbrous creature's malign countenance belies a generous, unconditionally loving heart and saintly, incorruptible soul! This neighbourly, selflessly city cleansing, unconventionally handsome, head-knockingly heroic, sin-slaying super-citizen actively remains the ultimate proactive eco-warrior! An evergreen, bulletproof B-Movie icon, wholly impervious to the evil environmental chicanery of party politics, Troma's legendarily lurid champion of the downtrodden denizens of Tromaville will most manfully mop up the criminal underworld, and courageously clean up all those darkly duplicitous subhuman dregs stinking out the White House!