For a lot of last year, I was on a crime/mystery novel kick and I subscribed to the Hard Case Crime Book Club (reprints of "classic" pulp tales and original works inspired by them). TBLPoCNO, for most of its run time, feels like a skewed (Herzogian) take on Hard Case Crime.
For comparison, Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is too self-aware and clever to truly succeed as an evocation of the seediest of pulp crime fiction. TBLPoCNO isn't clever at all. It's just plain nuts. Finklestein deserves credit for keeping things pure pulp. Herzog gets all the praise, though, for crafting something wildly compelling out of it all. Cage, too, plays every depraved note just right.
Ultimately, TBLPoCNO is as disposable as the pulps that inspired it, but it's also just as naughtily thrilling as the best of them.
I missed TBLPoCNO when it played at Cinemapolis. I caught it at the last 10:15 showing of its 7-day run at Regal here in Binghamton. I was surprised that two other people showed up. I'd love to know what the local box office totals were for the entire week.
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