The Friends Of Eddie Coyle - Probably one of my top ten films of all time with arguably one of Robert Mitchum’s greatest performances (and boy is there some competition). Mitchum plays the titular character, a down on his luck figure on the fringes of the Boston Irish mob who is looking at a stretch inside and is working his hardest to provide some cash for his working class family and perhaps avoid his sentence. Peter Boyle also pops up as a character in a similar position, although his head is slightly more above water. Cracking stuff. 9/10
ExistenZ - While I’ve always considered ExistenZ a minor work from Cronenberg, it’s a film I’ve always enjoyed... until last night. For some reason it really irked me. I found the dialogue clunky and too on the nose and the performances range from poor to adequate. Still, thematically it’s interesting and there’s still enough there to keep you interested. It hasn’t aged well though which is odd as most of Cronenberg’s work has aged like fine wine. 5/10
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