HEART OF MIDNIGHT - This is a truly neglected film which is sorely in need of meaningful revival. I myself was unaware of its many pleasures until I stumbled upon it recently, and I can say that, with so many mediocre items from the same era being exhaustively refurbished, it's a crying shame that movies as interesting as this are being overlooked. 'Heart of Midnight' follows an incredibly hot Jennifer Jason Leigh as she goes about renovating a dilapidated nightclub she's inherited from a sleazy relative. Peter Coyote turns up as a cop who may or may not have her best interests at heart, and events unfold in a dream like drift. We're fed a few hints about what might've gone on behind the nightclub's closed doors during a build up which seethes with sub-Lynchian atmospherics. The pay off is pretty sickly. Yes, going back to the L-word I mentioned back there - 'Heart of Midnight' does rather seem to ape aspects of Lynch's mid-period stuff, but it was made in 1988, when his stock in trades were hardly established. Maybe it's a case of shared influence, or perhaps HOM might be seen more as a neo-noir, post-eighties MTV, post-Argento mash-up. Whatever, it's great. I saw it for the first time today, and I'll see it many more times - I rarely think that about new viewings these days, but 'Heat of Midnight' definitely had that kind of a hold on me. I urge anyone who's into slightly weirdo cinema to pick this up - as far as I know, it's only ever been released on DVD via the MIA region 2, which is an OK open matte and goes for peanuts on Amazon et al. Definitely recommended and infinitely in need of rediscovery.
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