Willie Nelson, Lionel Richie, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Kim Carnes, Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen during the recording of “We Are The World’‘1985
Thiefis one of the loneliest films ever made. The peak of Michael Mann’s pulsating vaporwave crime thrillers, it’s a film of longing, trances, and nights on the edge of the word. Frank (James Caan) is a thief, and like all Mann protagonists to come, is a wounded, emotionally unavailable dreamer crushed by a cynical world kicking him out and forcing him to adapt to a life of crime. His luck is poor, but his aim is unmatched as he attempts to blow his way out and finally be free of this dangerous profession. The thunderous, reverb-drenched Tangerine Dream score dictates the mood of every scene, letting Frank’s world come to life, as his own demise will eventually follow. Caan’s performance is extraordinary, but the real shining star of the piece is Willie Nelson (!) as a prison-bound lifer with a moral compass and a heartbreaking subplot. He gets a handful of scenes but makes his mark in a pathos-laden part right from the school of Greek tragedy. Mann’s color palette is dark blue in almost every scene, as Frank wanders through car parks, diners, and rainy Chicago skies that proffer the washing away of his many sins. There’s not too much plot at work here, and modern viewers will be reminded of the tone and style of Refn’s Drive, but this is an absolute masterpiece of a tone poem and it’s hard to believe this is Mann’s debut! A beautiful gem in the crime genre.
Honeysuckle Rose (1981). Buck is a country singer on the road caught in a romantic triangle with Viv and Lily, the daughter of his longtime musical sidekick.
The music’s great, but the plot is thin and generally pretty sexist. I mean, Amy Irving has to apologise to literally everyone in their extended life about having the affair while he gets to lick his wounds in the desert and then get forgiven in a song? Please. 4/10.
The Electric Horseman (1979). A rodeo star past his prime steals his company’s horse and rides into the desert, with a feisty reporter accompanying him.
I mean, I’ll watch Jane Fonda in anything, but of the two movies she played journalists in that were nominated for an Oscar in 1979, The China Syndrome is infinitely better. This is just okay. It never quite finds it’s footing or roots you in Robert Redford’s character, but there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half. 6/10.
Willie Nelson appears on the cover of our Weed Issue. Sixty-five years after he smoked his first joint, he is America’s most legendary stoner and a walking testament to the power of weed. “I’m kind of the canary in the mine, if people are wondering what happens if you smoke that shit a long time,” he says. Read the full story here.
