Reviews
The Shining (1980)
Just a single point...
I watched "The Shining" again tonight, as part of the saddest, but most satisfying, personal video retrospective I've every decided to watch. Reading the comments here, I must take exception with some of what others say about Shelley Duvall's performance. Yes, she plays Wendy as a dim bulb, and dim bulbs are usually annoying. But her face is the last 30 minutes of the film is the most unnerving mask of terror I've every seen. It is like Munch's "The Scream" come to life.
Remember that one of the directors who Kubrick emulated was Eisenstein, the master of type-casting. Though from comments I've read elsewhere I'm sure Kubrick wished that Duvall had bothered to learn her lines before the scenes, I think that Kubrick must have been satisfied with the shaky way Duvall lights her cigarette as she suspects she will have to cover for her bullying husband once again, with the way she stares at the larder door containing the raving madman who she knows will kill her, every nerve in her body straining to move forward and open it... it is certainly the best performance of hers I have ever seen.
Spike of Bensonhurst (1988)
Not what it seems.
This is an odd movie. The script and acting are toned-down John Waters, the plot structure is no more than it has to be (and sometimes not even that), but the look of the film, especially the composition of shots, is beautiful, careful, and coldly objective. Morrissey has a unique eye, demonstrated on the cheap in "Trash" and displayed here in surreal, over-saturated color.