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Cast a Deadly Spell (1991)   Hollywood in the 1940s and everyone is practising magic… and this is supposed to be an alternate universe? Neither director Martin Campbell nor star Fred Ward were exactly riding high when they made this detour into the less than bewitching world of TV (HBO) movies. Cast a Deadly Spell is a curiosity, too lightweight to make the most of its Lovecraftian trappings and not raucous enough to revel in its more irreverent inclinations. Lovecraft: My name’s Lovecraft, and I’m the guy who knows. Ward was coming off a trio of cinematic failures that effectively

Body Heat (1981)   In retrospect, perhaps the most notable aspect of Body Heat is how stylistically distinctive it is from Lawrence Kasdan’s subsequent pictures. Admittedly, he was operating elsewhere in the drama or dramedy sphere most of the time – and occasionally in the “shit weasel” one: avoid Dreamcatcher – but even his westerns display little in the way of verve. Body Heat is precise and studied in its neo-noir flair, matching the screenplay’s studied dialogue and John Barry’s woozy jazz score with a hermetically oppressive mis-en-scène. Which makes it a curiosity, palpable in mood and atmosphere yet eccentrically heightened in sensibility. Kasdan

Heaven’s Prisoners (1996)   At the time, it seemed Alec Baldwin was struggling desperately to find suitable star vehicles, and the public were having none of it. Such that, come 1997, he was playing second fiddle to Anthony Hopkins and Bruce Willis, and in no time at all had segued to the beefy supporting player we now know so well from numerous indistinguishable roles. That, and inane SNL appearances. But there was a window, post- being replaced by Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan, when he still had sufficient cachet to secure a series of bids for bona fide leading man status. Heaven’s Prisoners is

Under the Silver Lake (2018)   I was aware that David Robert Mitchell’s shaggy dog amateur detective stoned-out neo-noir conspiracy movie had received very mixed reviews, to say the least, so I embarked upon it with limited expectations. Turns out, I liked it a lot, with some reservations. In much the same way that I liked the oft-reviled Southland Tales, admiring Mitchell’s ambition but not always where it took him. I’m dubious that Under the Silver Lake is rich and rewarding enough to warrant a dedicated subreddit pouring over interpretations of its themes and subtexts, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the dedication. And

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)   Sometimes, a movie comes along where you instantly know you’re safe in the hands of a master of the craft, someone who knows exactly the story they want to tell and precisely how to achieve it. All you have to do is sit back and exult in the joyful dexterity on display. Bad Times at the El Royale is such a movie, and Drew Goddard has outdone himself. From the first scene, set ten years prior to the main action, Goddard has constructed a dizzyingly deft piece of work, stuffed with indelible characters portrayed

Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)   The surprising thing about this sequel is that the reactions to it pretty much mirror my response to Rodriguez and Miller’s generally applauded 2005 original. I was nonplussed by Sin City but, while I wouldn’t get carried away with praise, I found Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (sorry, I mean Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) a superior and, for the most part, better scripted anthology piece. Perhaps some of that is down to William Monahan’s involvement, even if he doesn’t get a final credit. Unlike the first, the individual