THE DANMAN CAN

Jonathan Demme 's  Married To The Mob  (1988) is one of those '80s comedies that doesn't take itself too seriously and isn't too deep but also isn't dumbed down to the lowest denominator. It's just a fun, cute gangster farce/screwball comedy in the vein of  Some Like It Hot  (1959) ( review ). Mob  has a strong cast featuring a lot of name and character actors in roles of various sizes.  Michelle Pfeiffer  is a joy as Angela, the vulnerable widower of a mafia man who just wants to start over with a normal, honest life.  Dean Stockwell  is charmingly sleazy as over-amorous mob boss Tony "The Tiger" Russo who pursues Angela, despite his territorial wife Connie (wonderfully played by  Mercedes Ruehl ) threatening both of them. Matthew Modine  is genuinely affable as an earnest FBI agent, keeping tabs on Pfeiffer and (naturally) falling in love with her. The score by  David Byrne  is very non-intrusive and the  ...

The Silence Of The Lambs  (1991) is an all-time classic and one of (if not  the ) greatest psychological thriller(s) ever made (one of my  Top 100 Films  and #1 on  Top 10 Horror Films (1990–Current) ). Its influence cannot be understated. It's a film that offers new discoveries on every viewing. Note the parallels in the violent demise of a character in the endings of  Silence  and  Taxi Driver  (1976) [ review ]. In both films  Jodi Foster  looks on, horrified—in one as the instigator of said violence and in the other as a bystander. Jonathan Demme   was a diverse director, responsible for what many consider the greatest concert film ever (1984's  Stop Making Sense   [ review ] ).   While  Tak Fujimoto 's cinematography is what might be considered a bit bland in tone for a large majority of  Silence , his camera movements are assured, and his use of close-ups striking, bringing  Hannibal Lecter '...

"And all of a sudden I realized I was gonna be very sick. And I pulled off into a far corner of the beach and up it came like a wretched Thai dog. (Retching) And as the vomit came up, I covered it over with sand. And the sand turned into a black gauze death mask that flew up and covered my face. So it'd be: vomit, cover sand, mask. Vomit, cover sand, mask. Vomit, cover sand, mask. Until I looked down and saw that I'd built my entire corpse out of sand, and my face was staring back at me. And my teeth were cutting through the rotting lips. And my ribs were coming through the decomposing flesh of my side. And Renée was standing over me going, 'What's wrong, hon?'" Jonathan Demme Feature Films Ranked

Jonathan Demme 's  Married To The Mob  (1988) is one of those '80s comedies that doesn't take itself too seriously, isn't too deep, but also isn't dumbed down to the lowest denominator. It's just a fun, cute gangster farce/screwball comedy in the vein of  Some Like It Hot  (1959) ( review ). Mob  has a strong cast featuring a lot of name and character actors in roles of various sizes.  Michelle Pfeiffer  is a joy as Angela, the vulnerable widower of a mafia man who just wants to start over with a normal, honest life.  Dean Stockwell  is charmingly sleazy as over-amorous mob boss Tony "The Tiger" Russo who pursues Angela, despite his territorial wife Connie (wonderfully played by  Mercedes Ruehl ) threatening both of them. Matthew Modine  is genuinely affable as an earnest FBI agent, keeping tabs on Pfeiffer and (naturally) falling in love with her. The score by  David Byrne  is very non-intrusive and the  so...

Something Wild (1986) is an interesting film—it starts out as a neo- screwball , becomes a road movie, and eventually turns serious when violence ensues. With the sad news of Ray Liotta 's passing a few days ago, I was looking on IMDb to remind myself which movies I've seen that he starred in (outside of obvious ones like 1990's  GoodFellas  ( review ) and 1997's  Cop Land   ( review ) that easily come to mind). I had completely forgotten that he was in Something Wild . I remembered liking the film but not being blown away by it from my first viewing nearly 11 years ago (when The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray ), so it seemed like as good a time as any to revisit it. I definitely enjoyed this viewing more. Tonally I do think  Something Wild  is a bit of an odd duck but the progression of the storyline felt a bit more natural to me this time, in line with Melanie Griffith 's character's personality. She and Jeff Daniels are both de...