Nick Hyle Reviews

Circus (2000)

Twisted, dark, and very funny, IF you can keep up!

[9/10 · 16 January 2002]

I bumped into this randomly on HBO, and loved it! It's like a modern, wicked Hitchcock - it twists, and twists, and twists again.

How shall I put this delicately - this is not a movie for people who have trouble keeping up with a plot. If you're always the one asking "what's going on NOW", you aren't the target audience.

Gangsters, loan sharks, bad girls and legbreakers - all the staples are here. Easier on the American ear than Guy Ritchie's twisters, this one is even harder to predict. If you only know John Hannah from the Mummy flicks, prepare for a small surprise, and the small Fred Ward part is excellent. And the movie is hysterical - but in a VERY dry, very black, gallows fashion.

Pretty When You Cry (2001)

Twisty, turny, kinky and very, very dark

[8/10 · 30 November 2001]

I liked this, but it's VERY dark and more than a little confusing. Carlton Elizabeth is beautiful in a way reminiscent of a young Sonia Braga - every bit as sultry, plus voluptuous in an over ripe, Angelina Jolie fashion. Lots of very kinky sex and nasty language (not one for the kiddies), and a great Sam Elliot performance.

The plot is not as deeply convoluted as say Red Rock West, but takes a number of psychological twists and turns. If you want something black but not horrific and twisted but not impossible to follow, served with moody visuals and flavored with lots of not quite gratuitious S&M and B&D, it's a good one for a late night with like minded freaks. But if you watch it with your parents, don't say I didn't warn you.