8MM (EIGHT MILLIMETRE)Â (18)
D: Joel Schumacher
Columbia (Gavin Palone, Judy Hofflund & Joel
Schumacher)
USA 🇺🇸 1999
119 mins
Â
Thriller
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W: Andrew Kevin Walker
DP: Robert Elswit
Ed: Mark Stevens
Mus: Mychael Danna
Â
Nicolas Cage (Tom Welles), Joaquin Phoenix (Max
California), James Gandolfini (Eddie Poole), Peter Stormare (Dino Velvet), Anthony Heald (Daniel Longdale), Catherine Keener (Amy Welles)
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A huge disappointment from the writer of Se7en (qv). This
exploitative thriller follows Nicolas Cage's histrionic detective investigating the authenticity of a snuff film and the shady characters behind its existence, all while being constantly
bugged by his hysterical wife wailing down the phone at him every five minutes.
All the impact of the film is ruined with an unconvincing,
unsatisfactory ending when it's revealed that the true villain is just an average Joe (who likes to play the music of Aphex Twin very loudly, like all nutters would).
The film would have been more powerful if the hamminess of
the performances were reeled in and the investigation uncovered a deeper kind of corruption in the underground of suburbia in a way that David Lynch seems to relish when he tackles films on
similar subjects.
4/10