A Million Bucks or Chunks of Meat?

Night of the Juggler (Robert Butler, Sidney J. Furie, 1980)

Robert Butler and Sidney J. Furie’s Night of the Juggler (1980) doesn't feature any juggling in it. Also, very little of it is set at night. What it is, however, is a tough, frenetic and very gritty crime thriller set in New York City during the late 1970s. Furthermore, it serves as a perfect snapshot of the urban metropolis and its people from this period, in a similar vain to The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), Ms. 45 (1981) and Wild Style (1982). All films which also received the 4K UHD treatment this year. 

In the heart of New York City's Central Park, a teenage girl is snatched by ruthless psychopath, Gus Saltic (Cliff Gorman). He's set his sights on a million dollar ransom for the city that he believes has wronged him. He refused to acknowledge the young girl he has abducted is not the daughter of a rich property developer, but of blue-collared truck driver and former ex-cop Sean Boyd (James Brolin). Boyd will do anything in his power to rescue his daughter from Saltic, including facing off with various seedy lowlifes and a cop who harbours a personal vendetta against him.

James Brolin’s wild mountain man look—shaggy hair, bushy beard and plaid shirt—seems intentional, almost designed to set him apart from the New Yorkers portrayed in the film. But since Night of the Juggler was shot in 1978, just before he starred in The Amityville Horror (1979), where he looked and dressed almost the same, I’d say that was merely Brolin’s fashion sense back then. His character, Sean Boyd is introduced as a bit of a cheeky Jack the Lad in the film. His early scenes show him decapitating a poor rat with a paper guillotine, saving the office secretaries from anymore distress. Following that, he purchases three hot dogs for breakfast for himself and his young daughter, Kathy (Abby Bluestone). The tough living of father and daughter is really touching, establishing the bond between the pair before the event of the kidnapping.

Boyd is almost unstoppable as he desperately tries to get his daughter back. The chase scenes both on foot and on wheels are exciting and thrilling. In one sequence, a sympathetic cabbie, played by a young Mandy Patinkin, seems to be having a blast weaving through New York traffic with Boyd. His Latin accent is like a sneak peek to his most famous line from his filmography.

In another scene, Boyd searches for a possible clue to find Saltic in a seedy peep show. It's delivered with comic effect as the desperate man has to feed coins into a machine to question a naked dancer, played by none other than the famous pornographic actress Sharon Mitchell, to chase a possible lead. A scene reminiscent of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood sequence from Body Double (1984).

Cliff Gorman appears to be having the time of his life as a racist psychotic antagonist. An odious individual, nicknamed by the South Bronx locals as The Moleman because he lives below the ruins of his tenement and lurks in the sewers. Saltic mistakes Boyd's daughter for the child of a wealthy property developer who he blames for ruining his area:

"All the rich bastards lie. That's how they get rich and that's how they stay rich. They're not putting anything over on me because I'm wise to their tricks with their taxes and bullshit and all the little games they play so good, huh? They're all in it together, juggling the books. Well now they're gonna pay. Now I'm gonna be the juggler. I'm gonna juggle the books my way and it's gonna balance out to me." Gus Saltic.

Gorman’s performance is incredibly menacing and deeply unsettling. His opening scene is him sitting at a diner, transforming his breakfast into a face and then ruining it with heaps of ketchup. You don’t need to be a psychiatrist to realise he’s playing a complete nutter. Another wonderful detail about Gorman’s madman is his giggle, which is reminiscent of Renfield’s iconic laugh from Dracula (1931). 

Ironically, he would play a polar opposite character as a compassionate detective in the part after-school special, part sleazy crime thriller Angel (1984).    

Richard Castellano, best known for playing Clemenza in The Godfather (1972), portrays Lieutenant Tonelli, the typical world-weary cop, who is both helpful and a hindrance for Boyd. He even keeps Saltic in the dark about the fact that he has kidnapped the wrong girl. Every movie cop has a little quirk or something odd about them; Tonelli’s is the headache from his daughter’s wedding plans. He talks about it all the time in the film, even using it as an excuse to call home while he’s conducting a phone tap.

Dan Hedaya plays Sergeant Barnes, the crooked cop who’s got a grudge against Boyd. Boyd snitched on him and destroyed his life. Thus, Sgt Barnes acts as a secondary antagonist in the film, and is quite possibly almost as unstable as Saltic. He recklessly shoots at Boyd with a shotgun on the busy streets, even though there are civilians everywhere. Plus, when he finally catches Boyd, he shows how little he cares about his former colleague’s daughter by refusing to send the police to her recently discovered location.

Finally, Maria (Julie Carmen) is a beautiful clerk at the dog pound who assists in locating Saltic. She feels for Boyd’s plight and joins him in his search for Kathy. This decision adds a further obstacle to the mix: the local Latino gang, who are not happy with a "gringo" on their turf with a Butter Pecan Rican. 

Night of the Juggler, based on William P. McGivern’s 1976 bestseller, had a rather bumpy journey to the screen. James Brolin got hurt on a stunt prop, which left him with a limp and a plaster cast. Sidney J. Furie wasn’t happy with how things were going and left after filming about a third of the movie. Robert Butler then took over. Filming begun in the summer of 1978, yet the finished product would not be released until two years later. The fast-paced chase in the first act isn't repeated for the rest of the film. But don’t worry, there are still some amazing moments too, like Boyd’s final showdown with Saltic.

Lieutenant Tonelli’s constant complaints about his daughter’s wedding feel a bit forced and predictable. Thankfully, they are not annoying enough to be irritating.

Seargeant Barnes might seem a bit out there in the film, though. Having a secondary antagonist among all the other challenges Boyd has to overcome to find his daughter is a bit much. Still, Hedaya’s performance is really memorable, no matter what.

Night of the Juggler is a film that really has earned its cult following. It’s a fascinating blend of sleaze, violence and a delightful nod to unapologetic film making seldom made today. Plus, its reputation really took off as a title that wasn’t given a proper home on physical media, other than being only available on VHS. Thankfully, this changed thanks to Kino Lorber in the US and Radiance’s new Transmission imprint in the UK.

I really enjoyed this. It's essentially "What if Taken was a Seventies film?" It felt like a trip down memory lane and it truly lived up to its reputation, even with a few obvious flaws. Night of the Juggler will definitely find appreciation by anyone who loves gritty crime thrillers from the 1970s and early 1980s. It’s packed with a dark and cynical atmosphere and keeps you on the edge of your seat with genuine suspense and tension. I’d definitely recommend it.

Relive Kill Repeat

Triangle (Christopher Smith, 2009)

Decided to check out Christopher Smith's nun themed chiller, Consecration (2023) recently. Turned out to be a failure, just like Jenna Malone's British accent in it. I also noticed Smith recycled certain elements from his far superior film, Triangle (2009). Hence, the time was right to give this mindbending film a revisit.

Although it essentially spells things out for attentive viewers by the end credits, Smith's Triangle is a rewarding viewing experience for anyone who might consider themself an aficionado of head scratcher movies. Much like Aolus, the greek god of the four winds, the film runs at a breezy pace thanks to its perpetual time loop concept and all its glitches keep the film feeling fresh throughout.

Deja vu themed films will obviously incur comparisons to Groundhog Day (1993), but Triangle is a very different breed of film; its effects overlap with a past, present and future protagonist co-existing in the loop. There's also the overall tone of the film being much darker completely fixated on the psychological horror of its twisted concept. Smith's film also draws from greek mythology (the legend of Sisyphus) rather than a sci-fi concept that might have been alluded to by its title. Triangle's protagonist, Jess, a struggling mother to a young boy with autism, behaves very strangely from the onset, and things get even weirder for her and her sailing party after a freak storm leaves them adrift on their capsized yacht. A mysterious ocean liner becomes the main location for the oncoming surreal events to follow. Are Jess and her party caught in the legendary Bermuda Triangle? Who is the sackclothed psycho with a shotgun resembling The Phantom Killer? How did Liam Hemsworth land the role of Victor over his brother Chris? Most of these questions will be answered by the finale.

This nautical, noughties enigma is spearheaded by a killer performance from Aussie actress Melissa George as Jess. This was her decade since she progressed from bit part film roles after her stint in the Australian soap opera Home & Away as Angel Parrish, to becoming a bonafide scream queen with a spate of horror films in the 2000s: The Amityville Horror (2005), Turistas (2006) and 30 Days of Night (2007). To break it down by today's hack media, if they're female and in a horror film, they're automatically granted the moniker of scream queen by default. Them's the rules, apparently. Nevertheless, Melissa George's performance in Triangle is the major reason why she is honoured with Dada Debaser's coveted Best Scream Queen of the 2000s title. Her ability to act automatically makes her one of the better ones, which works to the film's advantage since she realling gets to flex some serious emotional range in the film while still looking great in her daisy dukes. She's phenomenally good in portraying Jess as a fractured and morally grey individual.

Never really noticed the plot holes that some critics have pointed out. My only real gripe; which is minor, are the references to The Shining (1980). The inclusion of the number 237 for both Jess's house and the cabin room felt completely unnecessary. Like some other films from this period, I was also worried the film's visuals might have dated it. Surpringly, the harsh lighting, which was so synoymous with that particular era, served the film incredibly well. Huge fan of the scenes shot on deck which highlight this since they're a prime example of daylight horror done right, in my opinion.

All in all, Triangle was already a great film to begin with, and seeing this again reinforces it as a perfect candidate to my belief that 2009 was an incredible year for cinema. Triangle ought to be considered as the climax to both Australian and British genre during the noughties renaissance. Despite enjoying some of his other movies, Christopher Smith never reached this level of quality again, therefore I consider it his magnum opus. Highly recommended.

Heroes and Villains of 2022

Decided to list five heroes and five villains that summed up my film world of 2022. They left an impression on me - be it positive or negative.

Heroes

Damien Leone: Terrifier 2 might not be one of Dada Dada's best films of 2022, but it's definitely amongst the most respected for what it's accomplished. Other than flossin' his dope Class of 1984 poster for his Zoom interviews, Leone, a self-taught make-up expert and film maker, delivered what was arguably the greatest success story of the year. An unrated and ultra gory slasher that managed to rake-in approximately $11.5M at the worldwide box office on a miniscule budget of $250K. Little wonder a number of film studios have approached Leone since then. In an interview, Leone dreamt of rebooting the Friday the 13th franchise, or helming a Romero-esque zombie film with Sylvester Stallone. That boy is the golden goose, let him make them.

Hanna Bergholm & Siiri Solalina: Two of the best debuts this year were by director Hanna Bergholm and her young lead, Siiri Solalina for the body-horror fable Hatching (2022). Bergholm claims inspiration from Luca Guadagino's Suspira (2018) remake, but I won't hold that against her as Hatching is an incredible debut film; thanks in part to Solania's strong performance and Bergholm's wonderful eye for visual splendour. Also, props to Bergholm for not letting Hatching be another cliched horror film that's a metaphor for puberty.

S.S. Rajamouli: Hollywood is like cunnilingus: for anyone who won't; there's somebody who will. It's tragic that the epic action movie has mostly become appropriated into superhero flicks, while the traditional action forumla has been mostly relegated to straight-to-video, B-movie hell. When Rajamouli delivered a stellar, Michael Bay-esque, bromance of a blockbuster which ran for over three hours, heads weren't ready for this spectacle from India. It came immediately after the Covid lockdowns and sated the appetite of many nostalgic action anorak pining for something with more real heart than Tony Stark's. Netflix took note of the film's success which ushered in a potential new audience opening  eyes towards action cinema from the Indian subcontinent. One of those rare times I won't shit on Netflix. Props to Rajamouli's success.

Joseph Winter & Vanessa Winter: This husband and wife team are also graduates from the Class of '22. Newbies who not only managed to breathe fresh life in a tired old format we know as the found footage subgenre with Deadstream, but also managed to rescue V/H/S/99 (2022), an excrutiatingly dull horror anthology, with the short story, To Hell and Back; which does exactly what it says it does on the tin. The Winters are relative unknowns in the game, but their work this year has me interested in whatever further films they might be working on.

Peter Bradshaw: More often than not, myself and Poncey Pete never crossed the streams since he seemed happier than Larry Clark at a youth centre covering pretentious film shite, or mourning over an overrated hack; however, I've enjoyed reading some of his reviews this year, like his belated Robocop review for instance. His pièce de résistance is undoubtedly telling it like it really is regarding the massively, overrated Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). The clapback that ensued in the comments section for his review from hive-minded morons, who were incapable of accepting a difference of opinion, was way more entertaining to me than the actual film. 

Peter Bradshaw after posting his Everything Everywhere All At Once review.

Villains

Mark Kermode: How the mighty have fallen. One of my favourite critics now suffering from a latelife crisis. His increasing tendency to discuss issues irrelevant to his film expertise became more apparent this year. From March 2022, Comrade Kermode was no longer under the watchful scrutiny of the BBC, thus his petulant, political tweets (foreign and domestic) began to manifest more bluntly into his professional film reviews. The Quiffed One is from Chipping Barnet and blessed with a very privileged educational background; thus, whenever he rides his moral and ideological high horse, championing some shitty slacktivist's film, because it has the right politics rather than it containing any genuine artistic merit, it smacks of every elitist, crusty performer preaching their sermon on stage to the trustfund masses at Glastonbury. If only he was self-aware enough to see how at odds he appears. Allegorically at odds with himself in the same way his quiff serves as a combover to his bald patch.

Jordan Peele: Film makers tend to have a habit of failing up in Hollywood. Peele is a good example as he's only had one genuinely great movie in his catalogue and has been producing slop ever since. This swill has been lapped up by both critics and gullible simpletons with the misguided belief he’s the next Alfred Hitchcock. Having to slog through one hundred and thirty minutes of Nope (2022), which I found so terribly dull that even Daniel Kaluuya looked bored out of his skull in it, was a task I never want to repeat ever again. To add further salt, Peele, the writer and producer, has been to existing intellectual properties what Dr. Harold Shipman has been to his patients; writing and producing The Twilight Zone (2019 - 2020), and one of the worst films I watched from last year Candyman (2021), has been lethal.

David Gordon Green: Not content with helming the absolute turd that was Halloween Kills (2021), David Gordon Green capped off his rebooted sequel trilogy with an even worse offering, Halloween Ends (2022). For any self-respecting horror fan, the writing was horrendous since Michael Myers played second fiddle in his own climactic movie. What was even more farcical, was the fact that it took four awful writers (including Danny McBride) to come up with a plot that they knew would piss off a large contingent. Subversion is one thing, but not to the detriment of a franchise that is beloved by many. Can't respect it, then leave it be! Too bad Green feels the need to tackle another reboot sequel trilogy; this time The Exorcist, no less. Perhaps this will finally give Kermode his mojo back.

Sight and Sound's G.O.A.T films poll: Expected this once in a decade, overrated film poll being a shitshow time ago; what I didn't predict, however, was just how much worse it would be. Hats off to all of those esteemed plebians who voted for the sake of being edgy and managed to piss off even the ponciest of film snobs with the likes of Ingmar Bergman only getting one film in, while P.T. Anderson stans were all in a tizzy on Reddit when their god had no film listed. The uproar was almost worth the poll's villainy since it got Paul Schrader to post a thinly veiled "fuck you!" post on his Facebook. Still, the orchestrated controversy might have backfired and killed the only prestigious aspect about S&S, proving just how toxic many of its voters really are in the wake of this predicatble travesty.

Kier-La Janisse's followers: One of the greatest film related books published over the last ten years was Kier-La Janisse's House of Psychotic Women: An Autobigraphical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation, largely because I liked all the glossy pictures. That book made Kier-La a popular figure for journo-types and hipsters; one that has turned her into a pied-piper of genre cinema.  Imagine my horror recently when I spotted Queen Kier-La this year wearing a Massacre at Central High T-shirt - one of my favourite exploitation films from the seventies, I knew then that the kulcha vulchas would have a field day ruining one of the best kept secrets in seventies cinema. R.I.P!

Kier-La Janisse's followers. The pits.

Some Like It Hotpoint

Brian and Charles (Jim Archer, 2022)

Based on a short film, Jim Archer's captivating adventure set in the idyllic Welsh countryside revolves around the friendship between Brian, an oddball, reclusive inventor and Brian, his robotic creation, possessed with an infantile mind and a washing machine torso, is a wholly charming affair. The beauty of Brian and Charles is its focus on a childlike innocence exhibited in both man and machine. The result is a heartwarming tale that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Not really down with the millennial stoner type detritus that passes as "teh funny" ever since Seth Rogen became a thing, nor any of that inescapable political shite mistaken for humour  (The Mash Report), thus, it becomes salutary whenever a down to earth comedy of Brian and Charles calibre breezes along. It feels positively invigorating. Love the awkwardness of it, without it feeling forced nor contrived.

The plot has a fairly basic premise. Within the first act, it's easy to second guess how the film will unfold. Predictability isn't a negative in the film, it's a refreshing plus as it works in two distinctive ways: it allows for more time and effort invested with the bromance of Brian  (David Earl) and Charles (Chris Hayward), which is the main drive of the film; and the other is we don't have to endure the utterly played out concept of film creators thinking they're being smarter than the audience by subverting elements all while forgoing any organic progress within the film. This is an overworked trend which has become a bigger cliche in itself over recent years. Seeing both Brian and Charles develop over the course of the film is a real delight. All the eccentric humour would mean nothing if there wasn't some effective emotional bond between the two. Brian has an almost paternal love for the unwary and full of wonder, Charles. It's wonderful to see how Charles instills confindence in his introvert friend, Brian; helping him make that first step in finding love with Hazel (Louise Brealey), a fellow introvert from the local village. In the case of Charles, he grows from an inquisitive like child to a stroppy teen wanting to make a go in life away from Brian's protective umbrella. Felt so invested in the film, I wound up being genuinely enthralled by Brian and Charles standing up to the film's antagonist, Eddie the bully and his miscreant family. At one point toward the end of the film, I was hoping for Charles to go into a full robot rampage to save himself.

One very minor gripe I had with the film which could have been worked on a little better, would be the faux-documentary treatment being somewhat lost and forgotten within the film at times. Hardly a big deal, but it is noticeable.

Overall, this is a film that's a refreshing alternative to all that hackneyed, humourless, bullshit around these days. It oozes oodles of that quirky British charm, where even a jaded cynic like myself can't help being spellbound by it.

Shout out to The Martorialist for putting this on my radar.

Dada Debaser Bonus:

Glad I'm not the only one out there drawing the comparison between the striking resemblance of Charles Petrescu and Jim Broadbent. A number of other people have also mentioned it in the comments section for Kermode's video review of the film.