Carl Franklin made his directorial bow with the story of three LA drug dealers who, after committing a rather messy murder, hide out in a rural Arkansas town. Assuming that the local “rubes” will offer them little interference, the criminals have not reckoned with sheriff “Hurricane” Dixon (Bill Paxton). Despite the arrogance of the LAPD agents sent to Arkansas to collar the crooks, it is down-home Dixon who puts the final bloody showdown into motion (the fact that the thieves have been falling out throughout the film doesn’t hurt things either). Carl Franklin knows where he’s going in every frenetic frame of One False Move, and his movie was one of the most acclaimed independent releases of 1991.Read More »
Crime
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Carl Franklin – One False Move (1992)
1991-2000Carl FranklinCrimeDramaUSA -
Constantine Giannaris – Apo tin akri tis polis AKA From the Edge of the City (1998)
Constantine Giannaris1991-2000CrimeDramaGreeceQueer Cinema(s)A group of Pontian Greek immigrant teenage dreamers dwelling marginalised in the notorious and lustreless wild suburbia, witness the city’s repulsive face and an unrelenting world defined by prostitution, drugs, and inevitably, loss.Read More »
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James Foley – At Close Range (1986)
James Foley1981-1990CrimeDramaUSASynopsis
One of the overlooked films of the 1980s, perhaps because it is such a downbeat tale of an amoral family. Sean Penn plays a kid whose small-time criminal impulses are stoked to a new level when he falls in with his father (Christopher Walken), a vicious career criminal for whom no problem is so large that it can’t be solved by a murder. At first exhilarated by the attention from his father (and the jobs he gives him to do), he gradually catches on to just what a bad guy Dad really is. But when he tries to extricate himself, he discovers that Dad now has him squarely in his sights. Penn is terrific in a role of emotional complexity, while Walken, king of the creeps, is positively frightening as this soft-spoken but highly lethal patriarch. Read More » -
Ulli Lommel – B.T.K. Killer (2005)
Ulli Lommel2001-2010CrimeDramaUSAThe B.T.K. killer harasses a news reporter with threatening letters as he ponders about the murders he committed 30 years ago.Read More »
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S. Roy Luby – Race Suicide AKA Victims of Passion (1937)
1931-1940CrimeDramaS. Roy LubyUSAA district attorney goes after an illegal abortion ring that preys on desperate young girls.Read More »
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Karel Reisz – The Gambler (1974)
Karel Reisz1971-1980CrimeDramaUSAAxel Freed is a literature professor. He has the gambling vice. When he has lost all of his money, he borrows from his girlfriend, then his mother, and finally some bad guys that chase him. Despite all of this, he cannot stop gambling.Read More »
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Jack Bernhard – Decoy (1946)
1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirJack BernhardUSAA fatally shot female gangleader recounts her sordid life of crime to a police officer just before she dies.Read More »
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Michel Deville – Eaux profondes AKA Deep Water (1981)
Michel Deville1981-1990CrimeDramaFranceJean-Louis Trintignant’s sinister yet subtle performance as a man who gives the most insane proof of love to his wife enlivens this adaptation of the novel Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith. In public, Vic Allen (Trintignant) puts up with his wife Mélanie’s (Isabelle Huppert) amorous games, showing an outward attitude of acceptance. However, he scares away one of her prospective lovers by telling the poor guy that he killed one of his predecessors. In fact, he did not, and soon the actual perpetrator is found. Later, when Vic feels that Mélanie is becoming too seriously involved, he actually resorts to murders. Despite her ever-increasing suspicion, Mélanie finds it impossible to prove his guilt.Read More »
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Jan Batory – Spotkanie ze szpiegiem AKA Rendezvous with a Spy (1964)
1961-1970CrimeJan BatoryPolandThrillerQuote:
On the Koszalin coast, secret agent Bernard is about to land information on the deployment of Polish missile bases.Read More »