Reviews

Sorcerer

William Friedkin’s tense remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classic Wages of Fear (1956) is one of the great works of the New Hollywood movement. However, it remains relatively obscure, despite its towering ambitions.This is probably because it’s such heavy going. The mood is one of relentless torment, so not really a date movie unless one or both of you are mental.

Mickey One

Often dismissed as a failed experiment, this oddity from Penn is a constantly surprising and enigmatic classic. Two years ahead of Bonnie and Clyde, this New Hollywood prototype is ragged and frantic, a skewed but thrilling attempt to rewrite established narrative form.

Seraphim Falls

Carver (Liam Neeson) leads a band of men, hunting down the deadly, enigmatic figure of Gideon (Pierce Brosnan). They track him doggedly, from isolated snowy mountains to the arid, dry flats. Gideon picks off the bit-part players one-by-one, distilling the story into a dry kick in the throat. The two characters are tightly bound by a mysterious, horrific incident from the past, the power of which continues to flow through their bodies, driving them on further and further, one in escape, the other in pursuit.

Apocalypto

Apocalypto is the story of young Jaguar Paw and his run. Jaguar Paw is a sort of primeval crown prince, first seen leading the young men on a hunt in his father’s Mesoamerican jungle circa 1500, last seen turning his back on the coast and leading his wife Seven and their two boys into what he hopes is the safety of the deep interior forest.