Well, I guess they made a couple of good films in the nineties as well. This is one of them: One False Move. Billy Bob Thornton is a ruthless killer. Him and his girlfriend and his partner are headed back to his hometown in Arkansas. What they don't know is that the town sheriff, Bill Paxton, and two cops from LA are waiting for them. Co-written by Thornton, directed by Carl Franklin.
It's a small masterpiece, a mix of modern film noir and a variation of High Noon. The story follows the two cops and Paxton, but also the killers and the woman as they are travelling south, slowly building tension. All of the characters seem real, none of them simply clichés. In the beginning Paxton plays the kind of happy go lucky-guy he is very good at, but with a dark secret, and gradually becoming more somber. It's a great, layered performance. There is some violence in the film, and it's not pretty, but violence shouldn't be. The film ends in a calm, strangely poetic scene, that could easily have been too sentimental, but that like the rest of the film finds the right tone.
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ReplyDeleteThanks.
Evi
I thought for a second there you were all wrong. Now I realized the movie I was thinking about was "A simple plan", another great movie with Paxton and Thornton as brothers. Have you seen it?
ReplyDeleteHello Palle, yes, A Simple Plan by Sam Raimi is pretty good as well. It might be another 90s film I'll re-watch.
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ReplyDeleteStrange. I rewatched both One False Move and A Simple Plan just a couple of weeks ago, and think they stand up very well. I also watched Chrystal, a Billy Bob Thornton-movie I hadn't seen before. I didn't think it was as good, but still worth watching.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to Billy Bob? Why isn't he making interesting movies anymore?
Good old Billy Bob. He got dumped by Angelina Jolie and decided to become a country and western singer, no? Sling Blade was very good as well. Might re-watch that one.
ReplyDeletej'ai cru au premier abord que vous parliez de "un plan simple".. mais non apparement... je ne connais point ce film... étrange ..
ReplyDeleteOther great 90's movies: Reservoir Dogs, JFK, Heat, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys. And while it's probably not great, I have a weakness for The Crow. Fight Club! Just made it to the list, 1999. Favorite Billy Bob moment; Playing "Twister" all by himself as the mechanic from Hell in U-Turn, another good 90's movie.
ReplyDeleteI forgot Unforgiven. Shame on me.
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