The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

Film noir often ends feeling inconsequential - why did anyone need to know that grubby little crime story? - but this 1946 classic, featuring the debut film performance of Kirk Douglas and another perfectly-cast sneering, icy performance from Barbara Stanwyck in the title role, in a story of guilt, fear, shame, and love spanning decades, is not just cynical and dark but elicits strong interest in the fates of a trio of kids, two of whom harbor a murderous secret.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

From (Season 1 and half of Season 2)

LOST didn't dig itself into its hole this quickly and its set-up allowed its characters quiet, contemplation, and the ability to tend gardens and read literature under the shade of a plane fuselage on the beach and so generally characters had time to give thought to the inexplicable things happening around them, but From characters have just the short period of daylight hours in which to scream at each other about those inexplicable things (the night creatures and impossible tree tunnels, nightmarish visions and holes in basements), making "From" a shouty, distressing LOST experience, one more cheaply made than LOST, with characters certainly not as charismatic or likeable, with worse writing and patchier - not excellent - acting, so it's a tv series that often comes across, given the inescapable religiosity of it's story, as a badly thrown together church community announcement.

★★★☆☆ (so far/subject to change/probably down)

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS