Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is a two-bit Brooklyn private eye hired by a shady lawyer (Dann Florek) on behalf of an even shadier client (Robert De Niro) to track down a singer who went missing after WWII. The trail leads Angel from New York down to New Orleans, where old money meets Jim Crow and Southern charm covers dark magics.
Okay. This movie is wildly racist and conflates voodoo with Satanism which is offensive to both. It is definitely a product of its time and if that is a dealbreaker for you, that is perfectly reasonable.
However. It is also a shockingly good metaphor for PTSD and a fairly decent noir until it careens headlong off the rails into horror. It makes me so mad. Because if either one of those things weren't there, I would have no problem telling everyone that this is an exploitative trash fire. But it's not. Argh. It has just enough good qualities that it would make a really fun group watch with a bunch of your drunk friends.
It is streaming on Tubi and PlutoTV for free, but if you're going to watch it, use your library card and get Kanopy. Ad breaks are going to ruin the immersion and you'll need it for this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment