Street of No Return opens on a dark, grimy street where we witness Michael (Keith Carradine), a grizzled street bum, who is intoxicated by the allure of the liquor store across the street. Standing in his way of his dreams of drunken bliss is a barrage of street violence, which seems to be heavily race related. Samuel Fuller's last film as a director is a low-budget film about Michael,a rockstar, who experiences a fall from grace after entering in an affair with Celia, a woman who happens to be the mistress of a ruthless crime boss (Marc de Jonge). Fuller's raw style of filmmaking is apparent, but this film has an added element of surrealism and experimentation which isn't all that typical in his work. It definitely has its fair share of 80's cheese, but if you can get past that, it's really a well-made film that has some interesting things to say about race and urban living, though not incredibly deep. The visuals are very expressive with lots of good examples of visual storytelling through compositions, positioning and camera movements. Anyone familiar with Fuller's work will know that subtlety isn't exactly his strong suit, and this film is no different. A few of the smaller character's performances are borderline bad, but the lead performance of Carradine is solid/strong and it's fun to see Bill Duke as Lieutenant Borel, a headstrong, no-nonsense captain whose very driven to clean the scum off the streets. Low-key but quite effective in it's imagery, Fuller's last film provides an adequate send off to one of the brashest filmmakers of all time. 8/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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