Best New-to-Me: May 2025

 For a variety of reasons, I've been struggling to get a new post up for a bit - but I'm finally back in the saddle for another BNtM update. I wound up skipping April as I had already written long posts for MSPIFF and my film viewing began to trail off a bit after that. May started off somewhat slowly as well but things picked up as I made a second NYC trip for the year and I did both some writing for Perisphere and appeared on the Trylove podcast in relation to the Trylon's screening of The Friends of Eddie Coyle. I've also been catching press screenings as I can and trying to start knocking out potential films for the second volume of Apache Revolver. I still have a few copies of the first issue so do not hesitate to reach out if you're interested in one. June arrived with heat and wildfire haze  and then transitioned to rain and still more smoke. The prospect of staying close to home and mainlining esoteric genre film is very appealing to me and I normally participate in the F This Movie! Junesploitation film challenge. This year I decided to sit out of themed challenges and focus on zine related viewing - all the while balancing the onslaught of summer new releases. Anyway, let's chat about what I watched last month.

New to Me!

The Drop (2014) - One of a few posthumous James Gandolfini films and one that quite honestly flew well under my radar. Written by Dennis Lehane (based on his short story that he then novelized after the movie?) and featuring Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace alongside Gandolfini, I found Drop to be a totally worthwhile entry to working-class, bottom of the heap crime operative oeuvre. This isn't the masterpiece that something like Coyle is but that's okay. Hardy does another weird accent, but his character is a bit of an oddball so it seems fitting. Gandolfini does a terrific job embodying a criminal archetype totally dissimilar from the one he's best known for. Worth checking out!

The Lady in a Black Dress (1987) - An absolute stunner of a neo-noir with an insanely gorgeous opening sequence. This is largely the story of Reiko (Tomoyo Harada) who is part drifter, part innocent, and ultimately a kind of femme fatale for anyone drawn into her orbit. It's a deeply atmospheric, almost art-film take on the hardboiled Yakuza story. It's filled with gangsters and violence (the always amazing Bunta Sugawara plays a fascinating character constantly at odds with the yakuza stereotype) but also fueled with fashion, neon, and music. I was really taken with this one and will undoubtedly give it a full write up in the next zine.

Station (1981) - I keep coming across these oddball Japanese crime films from the early 80s when the hyper-violent Yakuza film craze had run out of steam and everyone was looking how to refresh the genre. I'm not sure Station gets there or if it even remotely courts the same audience, but I have to admire its audacity and scope. The plot stretches out over a decade - detailing the life of a police officer who finds himself repeatedly torn between personal obligations, patriotism, and his professional duty. It's punctuated with moments of palpable violence and involves a serial killer mystery but Station operates more along the lines of a drama than it does a genre picture. Ken Takakura is tremendous in the lead and I can't help but love the series of bleak, snowy locales featured throughout.

The French Detective (1975) - Pierre Granier-Deferre seems to specialize in the kind of mid-tier French thrillers that you watch when you've seen the others and The French Detective/Adieu Poulet probably fits that bill. Lino Ventura plays the veteran doing a quasi-Harry Callahan bit of bucking against a system riddled with corrupt politicians, connected crooks, and apathetic authorities. He will absolutely bend the rules in pursuit of justice but pulls short of abject brutality because he's still Lino Ventura and we need to love and respect him at the end of the day. Patrick Deware plays the younger, hot-headed rookie and does a fine job at it - though this is Ventura's film through and through. I found it entertaining and filled with charismatic screen presences even though it lacks the hardboiled intensity of my favorite films in this mode. It's never really outrageous (though Ventura has a scene of physically throwing a series of Hare Krishna devotees out of a police station) but its political cynicism and lower budget hijinks reminded me more of Years of Lead Italian crime films than the French conspiracy thrillers ascending around the same time period.

Streetwise (2021) - Part of the Criterion Channels Chinese crime film collection featured on their streaming service. Absolutely stunning film that reveals a cinematic beauty despite eschewing the neon nights of larger cities for a crumbling, grimy small town. Streetwise is fueled by neo-noir bleakness but also funny and quite heartfelt at times with an ensemble of engaging characters. So far, this is the only feature directorial effort from Na Jiazuo, but I will absolutely keep my eyes peeled for his next film.

Highway Patrolman (1991) - A genuine cinematic oddity as Alex Cox (Repo Man) headed south of the border to direct an unflinchingly melancholy look at law enforcement in Mexico. The film is a Mexican production and in Spanish. It stars Roberto Sosa as an irrepressibly eager rookie patrolman who soon learns to navigate and then participate in corruption and abuses of state power. It's funny at times, rather lovely in a desolate way, but ultimately deeply tragic. I'm glad to have finally made time for this one.

Let Him Rest in Peace (1985) - Lady in a Black Dress piqued my curiosity so I tracked down another 80s crime flick from Yoichi Sai. Let Him Rest in Peace exchanges the lights of Tokyo for a blighted seaside town. Tatsuya Fuji plays the enigmatic protagonist who persists in hanging around the town despite nearly all the residents being unfailingly hostile towards him. This is kind of a slow burn and comes off as initially perplexing though the underlying story is satisfyingly revealed by the end. I found myself easily drawn into the right headspace for this and was especially taken by Mitsuko Baisho's performance as a hardnosed local madame. This and Lady seem like no-brainers for a company like Radiance to take on and release in a nicer format.

Theatrical Screenings!

A New Leaf (1971) - A film I absolutely adore and playing on 35mm at The Trylon, it doesn't get much better. I initially saw all of Elaine May's films on my own at home so I'm never quite sure how her thorny, uncomfortable approach to comedy will play with an audience. New Leaf positively destroyed with the crowd I watched it with - the Grecian nightgown bit nearly brought the house down and it's one of those deeply cathartic experiences that keeps your love for public moviegoing alive. As an aside, I took my mother to this and she thought it was the best thing she'd seen in quite some time.

The Howling (1981) - We caught this at the Prospect Park Nitehawk theater while we were in Brooklyn. This was a screening co-hosted by the Brooklyn Horror Society and The Twisted Spine. We'd been to other BHS screenings before and The Twisted Spine is a horror lit. imprint that will be opening a brick & mortar horror/dark lit. bookstore sometime in the near future. This particular screening featured an introduction by actor and horror author Nat Cassidy who we got to meet briefly afterwards. All of that is cool and one of the many reasons we prioritize getting out to films while we're in NYC. The Howling is also very cool with a fantastic cast and brilliant creature effects. I hadn't seen in a decade or more so this was a terrific way to revisit.

The Legend of Ochi (2025) - We returned to the Nitehawk to catch this family-friendly(ish) A24 title that I wound up missing at MSPIFF because of schedule conflicts. I'm not going to pretend that this is a masterpiece of narrative filmmaking but the puppetry is remarkable and the Ochi is insanely cute. I've found myself recommending this to more people in my life than I recommend deeply obscure Japanese crime films - it's got a winning formula reminiscent of 80s fantasy adventure films and who doesn't love a story about how your parents are kind of stupid?

Drop Dead City (2024) - We made it out to the IFC Center (which I haven't been to in ages) to catch this intrinsically New York story while we were still in town. I was introduced to Drop Dead City via a podcast interview with the directors and I was fully aware that one of those directors was the son of Felix Rohatyn. So I was prepared that there may be some bias towards Rohatyn or the wisdom of the Municipal Assistance Corporation. However, I was also aware that access to the personalities populating the talking head segments of Drop Dead City had at least something to do with co-director, Michael Rohatyn, having grown up around them working with his father. Regardless, if you look at the film as a primer or an overview on the financial crisis facing New York City in the mid-70s and not an exhaustive treatise on the subject, I think you'll be both informed and entertained. By necessity of form, some stories are not told, some angles are not explored, and I'm sure there is some bias intentional or not. Still, this is an easy recommendation for NYC enthusiasts due to the extensive archival footage. It's also something that sickos like myself who are obsessed with city-level governance will find interesting. I'm hopeful this will hit streaming and find the right audience. I'm glad to have seen it with a NYC crowd so that I could groan along with everyone else when Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney made and appearance and while I don't love talking during movies, I will grant a shout out to the woman who kept repeating how "disgusting" Milton Friedman was during his brief cameo.

Thunderbolts (2025) - The initial press screening for this latest MCU chapter was cancelled due to tornado warnings and I initially had written this off. I finally caught it on my own dime because I kept hearing so many glowing things about it. Instead I was treated to shockingly tepid stuff that I suppose serves as an example of where are standards are for superhero blockbusters. I did appreciate that it wasn't three hours long.

Karate Kid: Legends (2025) - I wasn't sure how I would feel about another entry into the Karate Kid franchise (I dropped out after part III) but I find it hard to resist a New York set martial arts coming of age tale even if it was shot in Montreal. Maybe I was swayed by the pre-show demonstration from a local karate school, maybe it was the generous theater cocktail I was enjoying, but I thought Legends did a surprisingly pleasant job evoking 80s and 90s combat tournament adventure films while adding a dose of fighting video game and comic book energy. It's probably too frenetic - throwing everything and anything into the mix as it whizzes by - but the kid in front of me could not have been more engaged which is probably the true test of its appeal. The fights are pretty cool and Ben Wang is a charmer. Put him in a live action TMNT movie with actual dudes in turtle suits and I'll go see it. Also it's only 94 minutes!

Black Tight Killers (1966) - I've been meaning to catch this for a while so I was stoked to see it scheduled as part of the Genre Brain Melt series at Emagine Willow Creek. There are some astounding bits of framing (Hasebe's apprenticeship under Seijin Suzuki is apparent) and some outrageously cartoonish gags that kept me on board with Black Tight Killers. There are also a staggering number of fight scenes and plotty dialogue sequences - not one of them is great and many of them are pretty lame. Still, glad I caught it and got to see it such a nice restoration as well.

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