Capital Celluloid 2015 - Day 257: Mon Sep 14

52 Pick-Up (Frankenheimer, 1986): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.45pm


This film, presented by the Badlands Collective, is a Canon Films tribute and is screened in a double-bill with Barfly. The evening is part of the Sacalarama season which runs through September and details of which you can find here.

Time Out review:
This is the one Elmore Leonard fans were waiting for, the one that lost least on the swings and roundabouts of translation to the screen. It has, damagingly, exchanged the precise economic placing of Detroit for impersonal LA, fiddled a bit with the plot, but courageously sticks by the unheroic tone of the book. Married Harry's passing fling with a young 'model' places him in the hands of a trio of extortionists. They show him the evidence on video, and when he refuses to pay up, execute his mistress with his gun, and play him the subsequent snuff movie. Harry's survival depends upon his ability to play the unstable trio off against each other. Excellent performances. Best of all is the casting of Clarence Williams III as Bobby Shy - as shamblingly conspicuous as the brother from another planet, golliwog hair and a too-tight raincoat that clings like a hobo's fart, this is a guy who wants a good leaving alone.
Brian Case

Here (and above) is the trailer.

No comments: