[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

ANGEL – One of those eighties movie serial killers is stalking the hustler haven of downtown LA in ‘Angel’, a tonally bizarre film which is about what I’ve just described, but is actually more about a teenage hooker trying to find her long lost daddy. You get to see a lot of neon drenched shots of city streets at night, and I’m always a sucker for that kind of thing, particularly if it’s from the eighties / nineties, with that filmy graininess about it. It feels gritty and real, but it’s a total hallucination, a look, an aesthetic. ‘Angel’ pushes the unreality boat out even further by inserting into all that what is basically a feelgood plotline. Angel’s life on the streets has a Cinderella harshness about it, but she’s surrounded by a gang of supportive fellow sex workers. The cops give the hookers a hard time, but then the lead investigator becomes Angel’s father figure. There are no awful pimps, just a kindly Widow Twanky-ish den mother. It could be a pantomime. I’m not knocking it, I’m just saying that the film’s weirdly saccharine unreality is what makes ‘Angel’ special, especially in combination with this whole sleazy business of prostitute murder. Speaking of which, you don’t get any kind of window into that whatsoever – the evil dude is basically just that, a killer without backstory or motive… “it hurts…!” is about the only thing we hear him say, an impressive waste of the talents of the great John Diehl. All in all, if you’re looking for an insight into the realms of real-life exploitation and the societal abuse and neglect that ends with a life on the streets… look somewhere else. But you may already have figured that out. If you want to watch a bizarre fantasy that’s about as real as a plastic christmas tree, step right up.

You and me both. If you haven't seen it i recommend Last Night in Soho for neon drenched sixties London.

I really like Angel (And it's sequels). The fact it's a kind of ensemble of likable characters means it's a bit different to the norm of this genre.