BLOOD SIMPLE

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This is a labyrinthine neo-noir, an impressive debut film from the Coens that offers the sort of pleasures you would expect: a combination of black humour and violence, superior dialogue and cinematography, and an array of flawed characters.

Add to this a memorable and promising screen debut performance by Frances McDormand, and you have an above-average homage to film noirs.

And yet because the characters are an unsympathetic bunch (to put it mildly) the increasingly convoluted plot failed to hold my interest, so that the violent climax left me cold.    

RATING: ✓ Cheers

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