Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

This gory Jaws copycat has far more character development than I expected. Richard Jaeckl is underrated. The Neal Adams poster artwork is pretty phenomenal as well.

I watched another film from the 2022 Sight and Sound Critics' poll: # 52, Chantal Akerman's 1976 documentary, where she reads letters from her mother in Belgium over footage of her new home, New York City. The distance between them feels more palpable with each letter.

So I made the crazy goal of watching 365 films in 2017 and writing a capsule review of each. My only rules are that I have either not watched the film before or it has been at least five years. I just subscribed to TCM's FilmStruck, a streaming service that will give me plenty of artsy, foreign and independent films to choose from, including many films from The Criterion Collection. I'm also thinking about subscribing to Warner Archive Instant for more classic Hollywood options. I've been meaning to watch more movies for awhile, and Netflix is just not cutting it. 1. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Director's Cut) John Cassavetes' 1976 crime film starring Ben Gazarra is a quiet triumph. What it lacks in plot, it makes up for in atmosphere and shaky hand held camera work. However, the camera work makes for a very personal and idiosyncratic experience. A cabaret owner, Cosmo Vittelli (Gazarra), who has a gambling problem, pays off his final debt to a loan shar...