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Obviously, this is my new favorite thing in the world. Watch her get the upper hand on a mobster in a subway car (who I believe is a young Sonny Landham from PREDATOR and 48 HRS.)
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For my money, this actually bests the "Do you feel lucky, punk?" speech from DIRTY HARRY.
All of this is set among a sleazy 1980, pre-Giuliani NYC––from deep in the Bronx to deeper in Queens––a gritty world where Lawrence Tierney's the bartender
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young Tom Noonan (MANHUNTER, ROBOCOP 2) is a lanky mob henchman,
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and there are bit parts by a desperate Buck Henry (THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, THE GRADUATE)
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and a nervous Julie Carmen (probably best known to readers of this site for IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS).
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This whole thing is set to a deliciously melodramatic score by Bill Conti (ROCKY, THE KARATE KID). I'd long heard GLORIA written off as a "Cassavetes goes mainstream" sort of project (although Akira Kurosawa ranked it among his favorite films), but it's truly a master's class in acting, as intense as any of his more highly regarded masterpieces (THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, etc.), and I can't recommend it enough.
2 comments:
"[Julie Carmen]...probably best known to readers of this site for IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS"
No way, if more fellow fans of this site don't know her from Fright Night II I'll eat my hat.
jj,
That's fair. Never let it be said that I give the short shrift to Tommy Lee Wallace-directed horror sequels!
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