Laura Del Sol Kicks Gangster Butt in THE HIT

Just watched the Criterion release of Stephen Frear's THE HIT, a sly 80's gangster flick shot in Spain. The Criterion liner notes comment on the many future films and directors that borrowed from this little gem (most notably Sexy Beast, another great gangster flick shot in Spain but with some wonderful music video inspired moments by director Jonathon Glazer). However, being a female film watcher what impressed me about this flick was the unmentioned (at least in the liner notes) performance of Laura del Sol. Del Sol bites, scratches, and kicks her way out of gangster harm's way in a way that I haven't seen repeated on the screen except for Patricia Arquette's performance in True Romance (some of which was reportedly edited out of Hollywood Video's release of the dvd). Del Sol doesn't play the smartest study of the group, but she does play the fiercest. While Terence Stamp's character waxes philosophic about how he's ready for and accepting of his impending death (his gangster past has caught up with him), del Sol's character fights for her life with gumption. There are many other reasons to check out this film besides del Sol's performance. If you are searching for some solid filmmaking entertainment, this should be the next one on your list.

Two New Godard Films to Hit the Citizen Shelves Soon!

Judging from the posters on other video store windows, Citizen Video should be stocking Year One. Since I am blissfully ignorant to the theme of that movie, I'll be investing our hard earned citizen dollars on two Criterion titles I missed this past summer: Jean Luc-Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her and Made in the U.S.A. Although they may not be one the latest movies in theaters they seem oddly appropriate as both films deal with consumer culture (and we are currently dealing with a crisis from consumer culture). Made in the U.S.A. is a chaotic crime thriller starring Anna Karina "as the most brightly dressed private investigator." Criterion calls it a "Looney Tunes rendition of The Big Sleep gone New Wave." It sounds like it may be reminiscent of William Klein's Mister Freedom (another film to check out if you want to make a triple feature of anti-consumer culture). In Two or Three Things I Know About Her Godard uses the story of a housewife from the Paris suburbs who prostitutes herself for extra money to spin off into provocative philosophical tangents and gorgeous images..... this one I'm calling a WAY sexier version of Weeds.

If you're like "enough already with the foreign films," then you'll be glad to know there are a lot of great new independent movies coming out this November which we feel are worthy of shelf space at citizen, notably 500 Days of Summer, Humpday, The Limits of Control, Food Inc, and Thirst (the last one is foreign, but it deals with vampires which seem to be a universal theme these days).

Finally, we don't want you to always watch movies alone at home and for this reason we always plan great events in the 'hood. Don't miss our FOURTH ANNUAL HORROR TRAILERS FESTIVAL at the Whistle Stop this Thursday, Oct 29 at 9pm (see the trailer below). Also on Saturday, October 7th we'll be screening the newly-released-to-dvd FOOD INC at Velocult Bicycles. We hope to see you there!