Aug 13, 2021
Black Rainbow (1989)
"Get somebody else to cover it, will you? Like you said, I think it's all bullshit."
"That's what makes you so right for this assignment, Gary. Your qualifications are impeccable."
"What?"
"You're an agnostic and an asshole."
#black rainbow#1989#mike hodges#american cinema#films i done watched#rosanna arquette#jason robards#tom hulce#Mark Joy#Ron Rosenthal#John Bennes#Olek Krupa#Linda pierce#Ed grady#Marty Terry#Jon Thompson#Helen Baldwin#Mary ratliff#Voytek#John Scott#Hodges' last film as both writer and director (he'd direct a few more times) is frustratingly close to masterpiece whilst never quite#Reaching it. Visually‚ it's stunning: a rainwashed‚ electric noir in deep blues and reds and greys‚ like petrol in a puddle of water. The#Design (by the great Voytek no less‚ perhaps someone Hodges had come across in his early days in UK TV) perfectly reflects the mix of#Supernatural weirdness and grungy real world thriller that makes up the plot. The film is at its strongest when it leans more into the#Former: scenes of Rosanna Arquette naming the dead in a clairvoyance meeting‚ none of whom are actually dead yet; a subtle insistence on#Doubling and the idea of bilocation‚ or being in two places at once; the point at which science meets the unexplained and the twilight that#Exists between them. The conspiracy thriller aspect is slightly less developed and the plot is somewhat muddled in places but I'll forgive#It almost anything for the beautiful look of this film and for such brilliant performances from the likes of Arquette and the ever superb#Robards; but there are some real faults here too that keep it from true brilliance (not least a totally redundant '10 yrs later') part#Before and after the main action of the film which does nothing except spoil one major twist and set up one lesser one)
