A Shock To The System (1990)

A very minor thriller and yet an exceedingly enjoyable one thanks to the star-power of the two leads (Caine and McGovern), this 1990 release adapted from a Simon Brett book has Caine playing an upper manager almost on the way out -  old and overlooked for a plum promotion - when he discovers a new magic way to reinvigorate his work and private life: murder dressed up as accidents.

★★★☆☆

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The Green Knight (2021)

 

I read The Quest of the Holy Grail once, and this adaptation of a related tale about the nephew of King Arthur, Sir Gawain, journeying to see a Green Knight to pay a due, brought that book back to mind, perfectly evoking the dreaminess and painterliness of the book's chapters, with some, like the episodes in the movie, ending without obvious point while others thrill with chivalrous exploits, all taking place against a beautifully realised medieval time steeped in magic and religion, albeit in a movie with two or three scenes, clanging attempts at modernity, which jolt the viewer out of the otherwise mesmerising fantasy.

★★★★☆

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Apartment Zero (Conviviendo con la muerte) (1988)

In this "apartment thriller", as in Single White Female (which has the same homoerotic undertones and is about as deep), apartment doors (and masks, sunglasses and wigs) hide potential dangers (satan, psychopathy, or death, say) and certainly as Colin Firth's neurotic, introverted moviehouse owner Adrian Le Duc takes into his apartment a new tenant, the James Dean-like (or really very Tom Cruise-like) Jack Carney (Hart Bochner), there are brutal political executions taking place, and I suppose in a city like Buenos Aires in the mid-80s, so soon after State-sponsored terrorists have disappeared thousands and brutally killed artists and intellects, it is hard for the residents of an apartment complex to know whom to open their doors to.

★★★★☆

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