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| Evelyn Keyes and Van Heflin in The Prowler |
Joseph Losey's
The Prowler is a very good B with the director's characteristic anxiety and hysteria. Throughout his career, Losey, when directing romantic scenes emphasizes the power struggles between the two lovers/combatants. Evelyn Keyes is evenly matched with Van Heflin, so much so you think she will turn out to be a femme fatale. Not for the last time, Losey subverts expectations by revealing Van Heflin's LA cop to be a psychotic villain. An especially dark vision in
1951.
On seeing the film a second time, I was struck by its resemblance to Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly: human scorpions facing off in the alternately swank and seedy settings of L.A.. Indeed, Aldrich was the second unit director on The Prowler.
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| Emily Blunt in Sicario |
Denis Villeneuve's
Sicario is a well made disappointment. Even with such fine thesps as Blunt, Brolin, and Del Toro, Villeneuve can't flesh out the plight of his female protagonist. The action and suspense is well handled, heightened by a throbbing techno score. Roger Deakins' photography is superb, but the plot goes nowhere. Blunt's FBI agent is unbelievably naïve when questioning the motives of CIA man Brolin and the even more shadowy Del Toro. Kathryn Bigelow handled bureaucratic rivalries better in
Zero Dark Thirty and Ridley Scott got more of a charge out of the macabre surrealism of the Drug War in
The Counselor.
Sicario is a facsimile of better movies. (2/29/16)
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