Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

The critics back in 2003 really gave this erotic thriller from Jane Campion a thumbs down - a wretched 35% on Rotten Tomatoes tells its own story. Whilst there was acknowledgement of the superb cinematography by Dion Beebe, the story came in for a lot of flak.  And there was widespread disapproval of ‘America’s Sweetheart’ Meg Ryan trying to move out of her romcom lane and indulging herself (so it was seen) in graphic sex scenes.  Plus it was too arty and pretentious, a criticism which I would go along with a bit (Ryan's character, Frannie reading out aloud bits of poetry off posters on the subway for example). The film (for reasons not clear to me) is clearly intended to evoke the 1971 classic ‘Klute'.  Both are psychological thrillers set in New York about a woman at risk from a murderer who gets herself involved with a detective. 'Klute' was a commercial and critical success, and Jane Fonda picked up an Oscar, even though her playing a prostitute was potentially as b...

This film about a real-life serial killer (from the 1960s) suffers from a huge handicap in that it is bound to suffer in comparison with the masterpiece that is 'Zodiac'. On the other hand I figured it should have a couple of things going for it. Firstly, whereas the Zodiac killer was never caught, the Boston Strangler was , so at least there should be a satisfying conclusion to the police investigation (spoiler alert, as per usual I was completely wrong in thinking this) Secondly, the hunt for the Strangler is shown here from the viewpoint of a woman journalist, so we get the added dimension of the misogyny she suffers is trying to pursue the story, because (shock horror) women weren't meant to do that sort of thing then.   The journalist in question is Loretta MacLaughlin, played by Keira Knightley.  For some reason I always struggle to lose myself in any of her performances, which is certainly the case here because throughout the question was nagging away at me as to w...