1981 - THIEF - outstanding crime drama.

Michael Mann at the peak of his abilities as a filmmaker with this film.  Thief is an excellent crime/noir film.  James Caan is a top professional thief trying to go straight and even adopt a more normal life as a married man with a family.  Tuesday Weld is his girlfriend/wife.  The actor Robert Prosky is the Chicago mob boss who thinks he has Caan under his thumb.

The film was photographed in Chicago with lots of Chicago actors.  The photography by Donald Thorin is very dynamic especially the night scenes.  Thorn did a lot of work in the 1980's and 90's but is probably his best effort.   

 

Besides Mann's stylish direction Thief has an interesting score by Tangerine Dream before they became kind of a music cliche.

 

Mann wrote the screenplay the film runs 123 minutes.

2001 - THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE

Well made, well acted and well photographed in black and white by Roger Deakins, this is another typically quirky Coen Brothers film.

The plot is right out of a James M Cain novel with the very heavy hand of fate coming down hard on a barber and his wife trying to pull together money to open a dry cleaning business.

 

I hate to criticize such a well made film, but this story seems even colder than usual for the Coen Brothers. It's just very hard to work up any sympathy for any of these extremely unlikable characters.

 Probably can't recommend this one although I usually enjoy their films.

Written by Joel and Ethan Coen as usual the film runs 116 minutes.

1930 - THE BLOOD OF A POET

The poet Jean Cocteau shot this avant-garde film on a rather small budget but he got some interesting visual ideas and effects across.

 

As with any artist,  try getting a straight answer about what the film is saying is virtually impossible especially when you read the interviews with Cocteau. 

 Just sit back and enjoy the interesting visuals and afterwards try to put some meaning to what you have just witnessed.

The film was written by Cocteau who was smart enough not to push it with this fascinationg weirdness,  it only runs 55 minutes.

2015 - BLACKHAT, a techo thriller (whatever that is?)

 Usually a Michael Mann film is a rigorously made story with excellent visuals and tight controlled performances.  This film seems less effective than his previous efforts.  His lead Chris Hemsworth seems to restrained in the role of a brilliant computer hacker and frankly all the computer double speak he proclaims doesn't really help his performance.

The film follows some cyber criminals who plan to destroy a large dam in Malaysia by flooding that country's tin mines thereby raising the price of tin or something like that.  This just happens to be the same plot of the James Bond film A View To A Kill.

 

The compensations in this film are the action scenes which Mann films with his usual intensity and the on location filming in Asia.  Otherwise, the film is somewhat of a disappointment considering the talent involved.

Screenplay by Morgan Davis Foehl, running time 133 minutes.