For a job with you he'll come.

Rififi

(1955)

Jules Dassin's French noir is justly famous for its wonderfully staged, silent heist sequence (indeed, until that scene, the film is merely diverting). But there's still almost an hour left after the robbery of the jewellery store safe.

The central figure is newly released con Tony Le Stephanois (Jean Servais), not so healthy and living by a criminal's code that quickly highlights that he isn't going to be earning our sympathies any time soon (he takes his belt to his ex-girlfriend's back on discovering that she has been seeing a rival gangster Grutter).

Following the robbery he is asked what he will do with his share and he responds that he doesn't know. We're unsurprised by this as he has already been looking for some sort of death wish showdown with Grutter. The post-heist disintegration of plans and escalation of threats to the team is grippingly played, as it becomes evident that all eventualities were only accounted for in the robbery, not the aftermath.

Beautifully shot by Phillipe Agostini, the film's been hugely influential on the crime genre; what impresses is how unremittingly brutal the characters are. The implied violence is far more powerful than the overt physicality of many modern equivalents. Dassin himself plays one of Tony's crew, the appealing Italian safecracker Cesar.

****1/2

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She writes Twilight fan fiction.

Vampire Academy (2014)
My willingness to give writer Daniel Waters some slack on the grounds of early glories sometimes pays off (Sex and Death 101) and sometimes, as with this messy and indistinct Young Adult adaptation, it doesn’t. If Vampire Academy plods along as a less than innovative smart-mouthed Buffy rip-off that might be because, if you added vampires to Heathers, you would probably get something not so far from the world of Joss Whedon. Unfortunately inspiration is a low ebb throughout, not helped any by tepid direction from Daniel’s sometimes-reliable brother Mark and a couple of hopelessly plankish leads who do their best to dampen down any wit that occasionally attempts to surface.

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Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
(SPOILERS) The cliffhanger sequel, as a phenomenon, is a relatively recent thing. Sure, we kind of saw it with The Empire Strikes Back – one of those "old" movies Peter Parker is so fond of – a consequence of George Lucas deliberately borrowing from the Republic serials of old, but he had no guarantee of being able to complete his trilogy; it was really Back to the Future that began the trend, and promptly drew a line under it for another decade. In more recent years, really starting with The Matrix – The Lord of the Rings stands apart as, post-Weinstein's involvement, fashioned that way from the ground up – shooting the second and third instalments back-to-back has become a thing, both more cost effective and ensuring audiences don’t have to endure an interminable wait for their anticipation to be sated. The flipside of not taking this path is an Allegiant, where greed gets the better of a studio (split a novel into two movie parts assuming a…

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Darkest Hour (2017)
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Jerry employs a cleaner, the boyfriend of an author whose book Elaine is editing. He leaves the apartment spotless, but Jerry is convinced he has made off with a statue.

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Hereditary (2018)
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A movie star vanity project going down in flames is usually met with open delight from press and critics alike. Even fans of the star can nurse secret disappointment that they were failed on this occasion. But, never mind, soon they will return to something safe and certain. Sometimes the vehicle is the result of a major star attaching themselves to a project where they are handed too much creative control, where costs spiral and everyone ends up wet (Waterworld, The Postman, Ishtar). In other cases, they bring to screen a passion project that is met with derision (Battlefield Earth). Hudson Hawk was a character created by Bruce Willis, about whom Willis suddenly had the post-Die Hard clout to make a feature.

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Despicable Me 3 (2017)
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Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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