My 27 movie A-Z film-a-thon: Day 3
My 27 movie film-a-thon continues. What I have seen so far:
13 Assassins (Takashi Miike, 2010) – 9/10
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson, 2023) – 7.5
In fear that my film-a-thon was getting a bit sleepy, I changed gears and chose a “real classic” this time. A movie I rather discounted without seeing for too long. Maybe this is really good, I thought.
As schlock, Blow Out may be the best B-movie ever made. It’s one of those “check your brain at the door” motion pictures. Nothing about it makes a lick of technical sense—you only need a rudimentary understanding of filmmaking to spot dozens of things that are objectively nonsensical.
So why do I like it?
Because this is trash. Questionably acted, extremely charming, beautifully filmed trash. It might as well wear a sash that says “TRASH” across its shoulder, like it’s competing in a beauty pageant. What’s not to love? It feels like it was storyboarded to perfection, but directed by someone who looked past the boards and saw the film that should exist. The camera glides through Philadelphia like no movie’s ever filmed a city before. The colors, the lighting—this thing pops.
Blow Out is a little of this, a little of that. Mostly: Blow-Up, The Conversation, and Chinatown. But what sets it apart is that it isn’t pretentious. It refuses to pretend it’s above the pulp it’s soaked in. Jane Fonda and Julie Christie have both played prostitutes—but have they ever been stiffed $30 after providing oral sex in a phone booth? Here, the villain entices his target by pressing a $20 bill against the glass. She smiles. (“Maybe this night won’t be so bad after all?”) They couldn’t even make it a $50?
Someone’s bound to be annoyed with me for seemingly dismissing this film’s artistry. But I don’t enjoy it ironically. I was disappointed at first—but by the end, I loved it. Because when a movie knows exactly what it is, and pushes that all the way to the edge? That’s the kind of movie that influences legends.
8.5/10
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