A review blog of highly recommended films that you won't normally find at your local multiplex. Cult, camp, schlock and the underrated are what you'll find here.
"Proving that good movies still exist...you just have to know where to look."
The best movie of 2011, Hobo with a Shotgun will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 5th and if you don't buy it I'm gonna sleep in your bloody carcasses tonight!
You can check out my original review of the unapologetic refreshing homage to exploitation films here:
I apologize for my lack of reviews for the past couple weeks, but I was recently laid off from my job and needed time to lay around and watch more movies. So without further ado, I give you my review of Reb Braddock's Curdled.
Curdled began as a student film that was screened at a film festival in Italy. The film caught Quentin Tarantino's eye and with his help, was made into a feature-length film written and directed by the original writing/directing team of writer John Maass and director, Reb Braddock. The original 30-minute student film starred Angela Jones, an unknown theater actress whom Quentin loved so much that he wanted to star in the feature length film. After seeing her in this film, Tarantino cast Jones as the cab driver, Esmarelda Villalobos in "The Gold Watch" segment of Pulp Fiction. Curdled was released through Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures banner in 1996. Here's the plot: Paul Guell (William Baldwin), nicknamed the Blue Blood Killer whose Modus operandi is to seduce and murder the wealthy women of Miami by decapitation. Murder intrigues Gabriella (Angela Jones) and she is especially interested in the Blue Blood case. She takes a job at PFCS - a cleaning service that cleans up murder scenes, including some of the Blue Blood scenes. She becomes very fascinated with the work, making some of her co-workers suspicious of her morbid curiosity with the crime scenes. Paul's last victim has left a clue to his identity at his last crime scene - Which is Gabriella's first Blue Blood cleaning job. She is immediately obsessed with how it happened and begins taking her work home with her in the form of stolen files and diagrams from PFCS so she can study every aspect of the killer's actions.
This of course, leads her co-worker and trainer, Elena (Mel Gorham) to suspect that Gabriella is not mentally stable or well suited for the job. While Gabriella cleans a bloody disgusting crime scene, she talks to Elena about growing up around a bakery and how she loves the children's story, "Hansel and Gretel" all while blowing and popping her bubble gum. Gabriella's friend, Eduardo (Bruce Ramsay) who would like to be more than friends, is also taken back by Gabriella's obsessive interest in the murders but pursues her anyway. Meanwhile, Paul tries to figure out how to remove the evidence that would convict him before Gabriella or anyone else sees it. Now, as usual, I will stop talking about the plot because ruining films by giving you the whole plot isn't my style, although I will say that Gabriella ends up having a run-in with the Blue Blood killer.
For a low budget film, Curdled works well on a number of levels. The premise is simple; there are good levels of humor and suspense, not to mention enough plot and character development to keep the viewer interested. Most importantly, Angela Jones' performance is stellar. She brings a childish curiosity to murder that makes you wonder about her psyche and at the same time, accept her as a real character that I can see why Quentin Tarantino loved her so much and fought to keep her. Jones gives you enough to like Gabriella, fear for her and even question her motives at times.
The supporting cast is great, especially the crew of PFCS who lend a great hand in helping us believe the seriousness of what the do for a living. Barry Corbin (of TV's Northern Exposure) plays Gabriella's boss at PFCS and does a good job of lending some dry humor as does Mel Gorham as Elena who lends an over-worked cynical hand in training the eager and overly excited Gabriella. Daisy Fuentes, Lois Chiles (Moonraker, Creepshow 2) have small roles, as well as Kelly Preston who lends some brief satirical moments as she hosts an America's Most Wanted rip-off complete with a small blip referencing the Geko Brothers (George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino from From Dusk til Dawn).
William Baldwin is decent enough as the Blue Blood killer, even though he does deliver some lines with a little too much tongue-in-cheek. When he tells a victim, "Don't stop looking at me" I wondered if his delivery was to intentionally make the viewer to laugh or if it was unintentional; to this day, I believe it is the latter. That isn't to say that his entire performance is laughable or even bad. Baldwin portrays his debonair serial killer role in such a way that allow the viewer to hate him as well as times where the viewer can even generally like his character. I have never been a fan of William Baldwin, but in his scenes with Gabriella, their characters bounce so well off of each other that there is a noticeable chemistry and an obvious tension between the two. While both actors shine in their own ways, Jones still remains the standout.
Don't get me wrong, the plot, screenwriting and pacing of Curdled are utterly fantastic, not to mention there is a lot of dark humor and all of the supporting characters do their jobs well, however I cannot stress enough how good of a performance Angela Jones gives. I'm very surprised that her film career hasn't taken off because she is a terrific leading actress who can really carry the viewer through a story. I am also amazed that writer/director Reb Braddock hasn't done much with his career as well because he can tell a good story and keep the viewer interested and entertained.
This is a great independent film that is very underrated and should have gone a lot further than it did. Thankfully, this is why home video and this blog are great because hopefully now Curdled can reach a bigger audience. If you aren't a Quentin Tarantino fan, don't let that stop you from watching this film because the only thing you see of him is his picture for about six seconds. If you are a fan of black comedy and/or interesting characters you owe it to yourself to watch Curdled at least once.
The DVD has a plethora of special features including the original 30 minute film, a shorter test version, deleted scenes, director/producer commentary, behind the scenes special, Quentin Tarantino intro and outro, promotional material and the full versions of the commercials, movie and TV show seen within the film. All have introductions by director, Reb Braddock.
4 Knives (Out of 5)
NOTE: I could not find a trailer online, however I have found a good scene to watch that will leave you thirsty for more!
