#matthew chapman

[girlstevebuscemi]

Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Heart of Midnight (1988)

[sesiondemadrugada]

Heart of Midnight (Matthew Chapman, 1988).

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Heart of Midnight (Chapman, 1988)

This review contains mild spoilers about a major event that happens early enough in the movie, but there are bigger things in the movie I will only hint at. The idea is to create a sense of mystery and entice you into seeing the movie. Gee, these spoiler disclaimers sure can be long, can’t they?

Within the first few minutes of the movie, I was gonna considering making my review a throwaway comment about Jennifer Jason Leigh’s fashion sense, but before you know it, the movie as a whole hooked me and I think I ended up loving it. But first things first. In the earlier sections of the movie, we often see Leigh in a billowy shirt in a loud, green print paired with some high waisted trousers. This is an outfit not entirely unlike ones I’ve worn with some frequency, as I have a fondness for Hawaiian shirts (the collar on Leigh’s shirt didn’t look like the camp collar style those things traditionally have, but I could be mistaken) and for high waisted pants (for pear shaped gentlemen like myself, they offer practical benefits as they’re less likely to sag below the waistline, and I personally find the proportions flattering, especially if you’re wearing a jacket). So already the movie is off to a great start.

But I do think it’s worth noting the effect it has on a visual level, in that it gives Leigh a masculine or at least androgynous look, especially paired with her relatively short hair. This is something which becomes a bit of a theme in the movie, as Leigh’s appearance becomes more feminine as the movie progresses and she gets closer to unraveling the film’s mysteries. Leigh’s first real foray into dressing femininely is promptly followed by a horrific rape, and to the movie’s credit, I think it depicts the experience in harrowing but not sensationalized terms, and captures the glibness and skepticism of the cops on the case. (The lead cop is played by Frank Stallone, so you know you’re in terrible hands.) This is one area where the movie probably holds up well to modern conversations about the subject. There are other things in the movie that I won’t reveal that maybe do not, but I think the movie comes from a place of empathy. And I think the inability to reconcile certain things is kind of a recurring theme in the movie.

It also introduces the colour green, which is one of the two main colours we see in the movie. The other is red, which is on the opposite end of the colour wheel as green, and I’ll note that this movie does not take place during Christmas. Red has obvious connotations, and here is present in its boldest shades on the walls of the brothel/dungeon disguised as a hotel inherited by Leigh, as if to unsettle in its sinfulness. (Apples figure prominently in the movie as well, as an obvious visual metaphor.) So if green is its opposite, is it a source of comfort? Perhaps, like the jarring contrast between the two colours, the movie doesn’t reconcile so comfortably.

Enter Peter Coyote as a green-suited detective. When I was watching Sister, Sister, I was chewing over the kind of male presence that makes thrillers like this work. (This isn’t an erotic thriller like the other one, but it operates in similar surreal, psychosexually-charged territory.) Coyote would have been too old to play the lead in that movie, but I think his presence is perfect for this kind of material. Especially with his age and his tobacco-weathered voice, there’s something comforting about him, but there’s also a slight jitteriness, as if his ostentatious bomhomie is an act ready to fall apart at any moment. When he finds a gun with a live round and immediately plays Russian Roulette, it feels like the fabric of the film has been ruptured. A lot of the movie is in this mode, the milieu of the movie almost existing in our subconscious, the proceedings poking holes in our sense of literal reality.

When you think of movies that are dreamlike, it can be easy to cite some go to movies or directors. There are similarities here to The Shining and the work of David Lynch. (And a little movie called Corruption by the great pornographer Roger Watkins that maybe Lynch nor the director of this movie might have seen, but as far as I’m aware they’ve haven’t denied it either, so I’ll presume they’re guilty until proven innocent. Guilty of having great taste that is.) But in this specific case, I think what is most dreamlike about the movie is how it will present you with things, images or characters or plot points, that shouldn’t make sense together, that don’t reconcile easily. And the way it sits in that ambience and that emotional space helps it resonate long after it’s over and the mystery at the heart of the movie has been “solved”.

A few additional notes:

Leigh’s hair is impossibly blonde, Hitchockian blonde, simultaneously artificial and searing into your subconscious as if to become the very image you think of when blonde hair comes to mind.

I do think the dungeon setting and the eventual introduction of BDSM into the story is an interesting choice. On one hand, it is certainly played for sleaze and used to unsettle, as it often is in movies. But I think the fact that it can hold a certain allure, and can allow one to work through negative feelings, is a key motivation behind the choice, even if that might not actually be the case in the story. As a character asks late in the movie, “Would you rather be a victim or a participant?”

[pey0te]

I got a plan to get us out of here.

[crosseyedcricketart]

MET Gala 2024, "The Garden of Time"

[doublebilldave]

Triple Bill Number One (Halloween Special):

The House (2022) + Wendell & Wild (2022) + Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Three really good, weird, creepy and fun stop motion animated movies that all came out in the year of our lord 2022.

[shoot-i-messed-up]

Green Lantern upcoming TV show FanCast

yes I realize this is extremely early. do I care? no.

Note: some of these actors and characters I am more familiar with than others.

Hal Jordan - Matt Bomer

John Stewart - Leslie Odom Jr.

Kilowog - Kevin Michael Richardson

Aya - Imani Pullum

Razer - Asa Butterfield

Carol Ferris - Jameela Jamil

Sinestro - Matthew Goode

Saint Walker - Chibueze Ihuoma

Arisia Rrab - Kiawentiio

Jessica Cruz - Gina Rodriguez

Kyle Rayner - Michael Cimino

Laira Omoto - Yvonne Chapman

[bonniehooper]

Top Picks of 2024

My Top 12 Favorite TV Shows - #3: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Show Premiered: February 22nd, 2024

Started Watching: ^

[brokehorrorfan]

Mondo will release Creature from the Black Lagoon 24x36 screen prints by Matthew Allison tomorrow, October 19, at 1pm EST. The standard version is limited to 215 and costs $80, while the black-and-white variant is limited to 115 and costs $110. It's expected to ship in February.

[buddiebeginz]

99X Live III - RAINN Songs (1997)

01 - Tori Amos - Silent All These Years - 00:00 02 - Goo Goo Dolls - Name - 05:31 03 - Dave Matthews Band - Satellite - 10:02 04 - Melissa Etheridge - I Want To Come Over - 15:34 05 - Better Than Ezra - Desperately Wanting - 21:22 06 - Joan Osborne - Ladder - 26:00 07 - Paul Westerberg - Love Untold - 31:48 08 - Tracy Chapman - Fast Car - 36:32 09 - Jars of Clay - Flood - 43:03 10 - Dishwalla - Counting Blue Cars - 46:46 11 - Jewel - You Were Meant For Me - 52:33 12 - Bush - Comedown - 56:08 13 - Barenaked Ladies - The Old Apartment - 01:01:20 14 - Fleming & John - Love Songs - 01:05:05

Includes my fav acoustic version of Tracy Chapman singing Fast Car.

[richardarmitagefanpage]

Think you recognise the cast of Red Eye? 🤩

📷: itvxofficial

[thirst-for-boys]

[thenerdsofcolor]

A Los Angeles Theatre Review: 'Macbeth'

Andi Chapman's rendition of Macbeth at A Noise Within is an refreshing work of art with a stunning ensemble cast comprised mostly of Black & global majority actors.

I do have a sincere (and most likely minority) belief that Shakespeare plays need to be retired as more often than not, it just does not need to be done. It is however an often safe and boring choice for many PWI theatres and a guarantee to hire mostly white actors dishing out their favorite monologues to varying amounts of success. But Andi Chapman‘s rendition of Macbeth at A Noise Within…

[donospl]

LONDON EYE by UK JAZZ NEWS: Misha Mullov-Abbado

Ubuntu Music, 2025 Artykuł opublikowany premierowo w języku angielskim na UK Jazz News This article originally appeared in English at UK Jazz News Od najmłodszych lat Misha Mullov-Abbado czuł, że ma w życiu jedno przeznaczenie. Urodził się w rodzinie dwóch międzynarodowych gwiazd muzyki klasycznej – rosyjskiej skrzypaczki Viktorii Mullovej i słynnego dyrygenta Claudia Abbado. Muzyka wypełniała…

[marcogiovenale]

numero doppio di 'utsanga', appena uscito

utsanga.it, nn. 39 e 40 (marzo/giugno 2024), con opere diLamberto Pignotti, Carlo Belloli, Lucia Sapienza, Anna Guillot, Nadia Cavalera, Francesco Muzzioli, Daniel Barbiero, Francesco Aprile, Cristiano Caggiula, Dixie Denman Junius, Gianluigi Balsebre, Fernando de Filippi, Fernando Miglietta, Cecelia Chapman, Alfonso Lentini, Tim Gaze, Gian Paolo Roffi, Egidio Marullo, Shadi Fathi, Ninfa…

[insidecroydon]

Grant to Park Hill church helps it have Easter gifts in the bag

In the bag: Rev Ruth Chapman (back row, centre) and parishioners at St Matthew’s, ready with their Easter gifts St Matthew’s Church in Park Hill has been awarded funding from a church charity, the Benefact Mission Money Grants, which will allow it to continue running weekly cafés where helping people’s mental health is a core mission, and which has helped it prepare hundreds of small Easter gifts…