The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (Nicolas Gessner, 1976)

8/10
A local film centre (a loft space with a projection screen, really) was showing a 16mm print of this 1976 Canadian thriller and I decided to check it out...and was very glad I did. This is a movie that, for all its weirdness, is a lot better than anyone should expect it to be. Jodie Foster plays a 13-year old girl named Rynn who just moved in to a new house with her perpetually absent father, and she quickly becomes terrorizes by the neighborhood pervert Frank, played by Martin Sheen, clearly relishing the role.
Given the premise, one might expect a typical "girl in peril" movie involving lots of chase scenes, disturbing phone calls and powerlines being cut, but it's actually not like that at all. The film is very theatrical, with the living room of Rynn's house being centre stage, and much of the action (consisting of chilling conversations face-to-face between Rynn and Frank) taking place therein. The movie takes an unexpected detour into the relationship Rynn forms with a slightly older teenage magician, and while this would have been a distraction in many other similar movies, it actually works really well here. Their budding relationship is dealt with far more respectfully and with more maturity than any number of 70's camp horror flicks would have done.
It's not a perfect movie - there is some laugh-out-loud cheese, some bizarre editing, and an ill-fitting soundtrack, and anyone expecting bravura shocks and scares will be left bored, but I found it very entertaining.
Apparently Foster isn't quite as big a fan of it (she was given a rough time in production, from what I read) which may explain why it was buried for so many years, but I think it's finally out on DVD now. Worth investigating if you're a horror fan into something a bit different.

In a Better World (Susanne Bier, 2010)

6.5/10
It's strange how a movie can ask strong, interesting questions and challenge a viewer's opinion and preconceived notions...but then take the easy way out in every way when it comes to concluding things. The acting is solid and the movie is beautifully shot (and never boring) but this is a movie that had me and then lost me by the end. Way too "shiny and happy" for me, and for the material too - I thought it was a little ill-fitting and inappropriate to end a movie that asks tough questions about the nature of violence and reaction with such a Disney-ish conclusion. Disappointing.

Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)

9/10
Finally got around to watching this the other day; it definitely delivered. Probably one of the best depictions of male friendship on screen that I've ever seen...both Hoffmann and Voight are incredible, especially Voight. I'd never really cared for him (or seen much of his stuff) but in this movie he conveys an amazing amount of emotion, even when he isn't saying anything.

Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)

8.5/10
Not much to say that hasn't already been said - the movie is absolutely, almost unfathomable, gorgeous. Every scene is eye candy and some of them you never want the camera to break away. The story is simple and understated (though the narration is a bit heavy-handed and unnecessary at times) and the acting is great. It was really lovely, another movie I look forward to revisiting.

Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)

9/10
The more I think about it, the more I like it, and the more I want to return to its dank, seedy portrayal of New York. I didn't find Travis Bickle to be quite as fascinating a character as he's hyped up to be (although he's been copied and parodied and watered down so many times since 1976 that it's not the movie's fault) but everything around him - the other characters and especially the city - was tremendous.

Chandmani Sum (Rowan Lee Hartsuiker, 2009)

7/10
This was a short (half-hour) created by a user on a movie torrent website I visit, and it was a ratio-free download, so I grabbed it. It was nice enough to look at, shot in extremely sharp digital black and white, and featuring a Herzogian soundtrack of throat-singing which I'm always a fan of. Couldn't tell you what the hell the point of it was, but it was pretty.

Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)

7/10
I haven't seen a whole lot of Hitchcock (just this, Psycho, Vertigo and Rear Window, I think) but this was the first one that failed to really blow me away. Unfair considering its competition, perhaps. I thought the premise was very interesting (two men committing each other's murders) but the execution didn't really stir me. There were some absolutely classic scenes though - the murder of Guy's wife shown as a reflection in the lens of her fallen eyeglasses, the climatic showdown on a merry-go-round, etc, but I was a bit underwhelmed on the whole.