REVIEW: Nightmare Alley [1947]

It takes one to catch one. We always envision ourselves becoming successful. We dream of the big payday. We work towards elevating our status even if it might mean intentionally leaving those who helped us through the process behind. Such aspirations are always attainable because we need to believe our lives can be improved. And then we look at those who are suffering with an upturned nose, quizzically wondering how they could have ever let themselves fall so far as if they had a choice in the matter. Maybe some…

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REVIEW: The Killing [1956]

Just a bad joke without a punch line. After test screenings left audiences confused and frustrated, writer/director Stanley Kubrick and producing partner James B. Harris decided to return to the edit bay and turn The Killing‘s overlapping, repetitious structure into a more linear A-to-B narrative. You can’t blame the former for wanting to do everything possible to make the film a hit since it was his first project with a real budget positioning his career forward (he’d disavowed Fear and Desire as amateurish and sophomore effort Killer’s Kiss proved almost…

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