Adam Solomons
, April 30th, 2021 08:40
Released 40 years ago this year, Michael Mann s debut Thief offered a prototype for the neo-noir action thriller about the American city – and it remains one of the best first features ever, finds Adam Solomons
In her essay for the Criterion release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s
Punch-Drunk Love, writer and director Miranda July observed that a crucial aspect of the film’s atmosphere lies in its depiction of the world’s inherent scariness. “Anderson does such a good job of describing that perpetually alarmed feeling – the trucks literally roar by like
Jurassic Park dinosaurs; the warehouse door rolls up and down, blinding and blackening like the wrath of God”, she wrote. “Life really is terrifying.”