Peter Strempel’s reviews of film, TV, literature, and other cultural artifacts.
Spellbound (1945)
Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound remains captivating, though contexts have changed for genres, subject, and artistic treatment.
Reviews
This Gun for Hire (1942)
Not the noir some claim, but an outstanding hybrid with a powerful performance from Ladd and impressive mises en scène.
Conspiracy (2001)
The recent emergence of furtive and overt neo-fascism in some Western nations gives this film new meaning and power.
Breaker Morant (1980)
A landmark Australian film made relevant afresh as we consider contemporary war crimes.
Kingdom of Heaven (2005): two very different films
This is Ridley Scott’s most significant film, deserving a re-evaluation after the disaster that was the studio edit.
Ray Donovan (2013–2020)
There’s a rare chemistry in the first few seasons of Ray Donovan that makes the series transcend its more mundane, soap opera storylines.
Fight Club (1999), 20 years later
Fight Club is not quite the celebration of toxic masculinity and anarchic revolt often assumed.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)
If I were pushed to nominate the best television fiction ever made, it would likely be the BBC’s 1979 adaptation of John le Carré’s 1974 novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Scorsese’s The Irishman: sad farewell to an era
Scorsese and the cast of The Irishman say farewell to each other and an entire era of gangster films.
This Storm (2019)
Does Ellroy’s This Storm prove he’s past his brilliant and manic prime? Or just that his editors gave him too much leeway?
Werk ohne Autor / Never Look Away (2018)
Von Donnersmarck explores the effect of tyranny on truth and beauty with some surprising conclusions.
Michael Caine & The Fourth Protocol (1987) … sort of
Not among Caine’s top ten, but Forth Protocol was nevertheless more entertaining than most contemporary dross.
A Prayer for the Dying (1987)
Mickey Rourke was pedestrian in Prayer for the Dying, but this Jack Higgins story about an IRA assassin resonates with my past.
Perfidia (2014)
In Perfidia we see a more mature James Ellroy, for the first time passing political judgement on his own society.
Ellroy bleeds for Hopkins
In the Hopkins trilogy, James Ellroy bled for his characters, the way Hemingway talked of it, even if it isn’t his best work yet.