Blast of Silence, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Easy Living, & Wallander

Blast of Silence is a short little film noir, made in the early 60s, and released by Criterion. As a fan of film noir, and reading the mostly positive reviews back when Criterion released it, I wanted to know how it would be. The writer-director-star moved in the same circles as Peter Falk, and he was going to star in this had he not gotten a paying role. I kinda wish it had been made with Falk. The acting in this is amateurish and could have used a stronger central performance to bring a little bit of range to the film. It's a good plot, and certainly could have been better with a little more. Also, the narration was overbearing. Still, I kinda liked it.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead has talent in it and behind the camera (and Marisa Tomei naked), but it's just a depressing film and I never really liked it. I think I'm less willing to give any credit to films that have good people involved and disappoint than films that I never have any hopes for. Just an overall eh film.

Easy Living is an early Preston Sturges screwball comedy script, about a young office worker who gets hit by an expensive fur when a rich banker tosses it off a building. A series of comedic scenes follow, leading to silly scenes of mistaken identity and the like. It's pretty funny, but not up to Sturges's directorial efforts.

Wallander is based on a series of Swedish mystery novels, set in Ystad, southeast of Malmo. There have been a series of Swedish movies based on the books, but this was a new series of adaptations by the BBC with Kenneth Branagh as Wallander, the drunk detective. He is, as you would expect, excellent, and the movies just made me feel like I was watching Insomnia (but without the actual insomnia). I am really looking forward to see if they would make another series of it, but it all depends on whether Branagh can do Thor and still work on other stuff.