There's a lot of comfort watching going on in this casa lately and tonight you'd really need something to hit the spot. Brian De Palma's 1993 masterpiece will do just that.
Why this film hasn't the acclaim other gangster films have is beyond me. It's perfect. Fun, perfectly paced, brilliantly acted, insanely suspenseful, full of deadly De Palma touches like long takes, dutch tilts and split diopter shots and all built around a character far more likable than your Henry Hill's or Michael Corleone's. Pacino is on fire here. From the very start you know he's doomed yet still throughout, no matter how many times you've seen it, there's still that glimmer of hope that he'll survive. And he never does and it's a killer.
And yeah that makes it an odd choice for a comfort watch but everything leading up to it is just perfect. Sean Penn's ridiculous hair, that poolroom scene, rooftop flower duet, the cheesecake seduction, murder on the east river and the ending, one of the best chase scenes ever committed to film.
I'm wrapped in a fleece blanket watching this now and I'm sipping a cold cherry pepsi max and feeling way too comfortable about facing into a 6 week level 5 lockdown. Movies got us through the last one and they'll get us through this one too.
Stay safe motherfuckers.
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