This was a video store staple back in the day, I must have spotted it on every bottom shelf of every thriller section I pored over. But there was something oddly surreal about it. A minimalist video box that looked like a 70s made for tv drama? In 1987, by Paramount? It just seemed to be hiding in plain sight. None of my film-geek friends had seen it, it wasn’t mentioned in any magazine I’d happened on… exept for one short Fango review…
So I obviously rented it. If ever there was a true meaning to the words ‘hidden gem’, this movie was it. With zero-expectations given, I was blown away, good and proper. I needed a rest afterwards.
If you haven’t seen it a while, or you think you’ve seen enough Grindhouse psychodramas, feast on those eye whites.
I’d wager this neglected masterpiece of genre-bending cat-and-mousery is one of the decades’s best and most underrated thrillers. It’s a tour-de-force by director Donald Cammell, but much of the credit goes to David Keith and Cathy Moriarty – their performances are an actor’s masterclass.
This was well worth the price of a rental. -Pop