6. Red Rock West (1993) 6f582j
John Dahl’s film didn’t even get a proper theatrical release in the U.S., but thankfully in some parts Red Rock West is now rightfully seen as a cult classic. It’s a neo-noir wrapped in a Western, ripe with mistaken identities, bad choices, and one of Nicolas Cage’s finest performances (and films for that matter).
Cage plays Michael, a man at the end of his tether when a job in Wyoming falls through, leaving him with five dollars to his name which he promptly spends on petrol to make it to the town of Red Rock, in a last-ditch attempt to find work. Upon walking into a bar, he is mistaken for a hitman (who later turns out to be Dennis Hopper’s Lyle) but with the promise of $5000, agrees to murder the wife of a man who also turns out to be the town’s sheriff.
Cage’s presence reminds you of his performance in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990); and almost ten years on from Blood Simple (1984) there’s a lot going on here that could have been from the house of the Cohen brothers.
Dahl’s film hasn’t really seen the light of day, but its Blu-ray release a couple of years back will hopefully afford it the distribution it deserves; as well as being a highly effective black comedy it’s also genuinely thrilling; one sequence in which Michael attempts to escape the town on the roof of a delivery truck after exiting a bar via its roof. is a particular standout.
7. The Last Seduction (1994)
Linda Fiorentino is unforgettable as Bridget Gregory, a sharp-tongued, morally bankrupt woman who steals a bag of cash from her husband and vanishes into a small town, seducing and manipulating everyone she meets. If this sounds like Red Rock West (1993) at first glance, it might not surprise you to learn that John Dahl is once again at the helm here, but The Last Seduction is a very different film.
Fiorentino owns the screen—scathing and utterly without remorse; proving a more than worthy successor to Sharon Stone’s iconic femme fatale Catharine Tramell in Basic Instinct (1992) a couple of years previously.
Her performance is so good it should have netted her an Oscar nod, but it’s no surprise that the Academy wouldn’t have touched a film entitled ‘The Last Seduction’ with a barge poll. It’s a shame, because The Last Seduction is a masterclass in control—of tone, of pacing, and of men who think they’re smarter than they are.
8. Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
Carl Franklin’s adaptation of Walter Mosley’s novel brings 1940s Los Angeles to life with rich period detail and a serious noir aesthetic. Denzel Washington stars as Easy Rawlins, an out-of-work war vet turned reluctant private eye, hired to track down a missing woman with ties to city hall.
Somehow falling by the wayside on release, with some lukewarm reviews, Devil in a Blue Dress is staggeringly underrated. The simple set up is all we’re given; we don’t know who the woman is, we know as little as Washington’s Easy Rawlins, meaning that the audience is with him every step of the way.
The feel of the film is beautiful, the mise-en-scene is wonderfully captured by Tak Fujimoto and often reminds you of L.A Confidential (1997), and although L.A Confidential might well be a more rounded piece of film making, Devil In A Blue Dress encapsulates its time period even more impressively.
We’re reminded of pulp fiction tales of old, the worlds of Elmore Leonard, and classic noir stories, as the film makes its way through tropes of the genre without ever feeling cliched. As for the performances, it’s one of Washington’s finest, and there’s plenty to choose from in that regard. Tom Sizemore is wonderfully rotten as the man who initially hires Rawlins, but the rug is pulled from under all of them by Don Cheadle’s stunning and hilarious bit part.
The film touches on themes of race, power, and class without ever dipping into banality, and Franklin’s direction is smooth and assured. Sleek, stylish, and simmering with tension, it deserved far more love than it got.
9. Arlington Road (1999)
Arlington Road takes paranoia and weaponises it into a gripping domestic thriller about terrorism, a mere two years before the events of 9/11. Jeff Bridges plays Michael Faraday, a widowed professor whose new neighbours—Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack—might not be as all-American as they seem.
The film taps into what was, at the time a post-Oklahoma City anxiety around homegrown terrorism, presenting suburbia as a facade for something far more sinister. Mark Pellington unleashes the film with a brooding intensity; he’s hugely effective behind the camera here, and yet Arlington Road was his only major feature film of a career containing mainly music videos.
The film never lets you go, the performances are electric, and Arlington Road keeps you guessing and on the edge of your seat right until its genuinely shocking climax, one that doesn’t pull any punches. Arlington Road isn’t just underrated—it’s still chillingly prescient.
10. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
Jim Jarmusch’s philosophical hitman film is far from your traditional thriller, but there’s no denying its pull or efficacy. Forest Whitaker stars as Ghost Dog, a contract killer who lives by the ancient code of the samurai, communicating with his employer via carrier pigeon and drifting through an unnamed city like a spectral avenger. Well, I did say it wasn’t traditional.
Ghost Dog is part gangster film, part meditative character study, scored by RZA and peppered with moments of absurd humour and sudden violence. Whitaker is quietly mesmerising, his performance nuanced and serene (and a far cry from his questionable display in The Crying Game [1992]).
Jarmusch disposes with plot mechanics in favour of mood and meaning; a risky move that brings just reward when the film digs deeper into Ghost Dog’s character rather than offering a by-the-numbers hitman feature. It might veer into absurdity at times, but if you choose to go with it, Ghost Dog: The way of the Samurai is one of the finest minimalist thrillers of the nineties, and one which undoubtedly deserves a reappraisal.