Thursday, January 18, 2024

The Days of Dastardly Deeds

Five Corners is a movie made in 1987 and set in the 1960s but feels like it was written for a 1930s melodrama. The Bronx set story stars Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, and John Turturro in a world of misfit hoods and damsels in distress. It's entertaining.

I'm so used to seeing John Turturro playing pathetic losers and weirdos in Coen brothers movies, it was surprising to see him here as the bad boy whom pretty young Jodie Foster can't resist. That is until the film's most interesting scene when Turturro kidnaps some penguins from the zoo for her and kills one of them when she tells him he shouldn't have done it.

The characters in other scenes talk about an incident where Turturro's character saved her from a rape. There are several instances of girls almost being raped, even two girls who wake up naked in a strange apartment, but this isn't the kind of movie where such a crime actually occurs. This is a movie where a guy instead carries an unconscious girl to the top of a building in apparent reference to King Kong.

Needless to say with a cast like this, the performances are pretty good. Five Cornersis available on The Criterion Channel as part of a playlist of Handmade Films.

X Sonnet #1809

The Devil's wax is dripping down again.
Perverted jailers tempt the bird to flee.
But once provoked, the fight must needs begin.
From Doom would Jones ensure the captives freed.
As vengeful mirrors line the school with brains,
We hearken back to lizards sleeping late.
For ev'ry dream, the nightly music gains,
We fill a wretched zombie's grieving pate.
A dingy star explains the hand of dirt.
For clothing points, record a second tape.
If meaning floats, the paper's getting hurt.
The crowd is ever asking 'bout the ape.
A stylish set removed to diff'rent decks.
Assorted plaids were doomed to pair with checks.

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