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Feature Screengem

Screengem: The Suspended Water Drop in Blood Simple

“Drip, drip, drip, drip … I shouldn’t laugh but I know I’m a failure in your eyes …” So sing mad Ayrshire rockers Biffy (f*****!) Clyro in their melancholic Black Chandelier, a dark song about light and shades. The celebrated Coen brothers’ much-darker-than-light first feature, Blood Simple (1984), ends with a character lying dying, gutshot […]

Categories
Feature Screengem

Screengem: Tom’s Fedora in Miller’s Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1990)

Inspired by the novels of Dashiell Hammett, and featuring corrupt cops, Tommy gun hits, and that typical fixation over loyalty, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Miller’s Crossing goes all out to embrace the mythology and imagery of the gangster noir. And what gangster’s image is complete without the iconic fedora? Though the story follows the war […]