Film Forum Roundup

At $6 a movie for members, and that gets you a double feature if your ass can sit it, this is still one of the best depression remedies around. Recently, I've seen:

1947’s Brighton Rock, fine for its location shooting in tawdry Brighton, but overall too Catholic for my tastes. Graham Greene Catholicism, that is, which seems to hold that faith is a useful delusion for the little people. A very young Richard Attenborough good as the sociopath “Pinkie Brown.”

Attenborough returned in 1971’s 10 Rillington Place to excellent affect in this creepy, clammy, claustrophobic look at an English serial killer. Never was an offer of “Tea?” so chilling.

Food, Inc., should be seen by everybody, since we all eat. But, as per the old story, its distribution is limited, so most likely only the converted will see it. Which is a pity.

Alien: Still ten little indians in space. I remember seeing it when it first came out in 1979. I was very much a s-f nerd then, and Sigourney Weaver made a big impression on me, especially in that last scene in the escape pod.

1963’s Bye Bye Birdie rolls around as an end of the 1950s and feels like it. If only Frank Taslin had been in charge! Ann-Margret wasn’t yet the Elvis-killer she became, but Paul Lynde, the hippest of the Hollywood Squares, is as sharply droll/camp as ever. He’ll always be the voice of Templeton the rat to me...