Director: Brian De Palma
Year Released: 1984
Rating: 3.5
Arguably De Palma's most complex and underrated film: it manages to sew Hitchcock's Vertigo and Rear Window together (along with countless other references) and yet still remain a unique entity with twists that it earns: the ending, in particular, is telegraphed well ahead of time (to avoid cheating), most obviously when the movie's 'real' camera crew is shown in a mirror. De Palma's approach doesn't always work - Dressed to Kill and Blow Out never quite add anything to their borrowed source material - but in this case, the coupling of pornography, metaphorical power drilling, voyeurism, the fear of death (seeing the light at the end of the tunnel followed by panic - claustrophobia) and the nature of "performance" as being schizophrenic (Method acting being a form of unhealthy identity-transformation) into one offbeat package is simultaneously sly (the credits are done with the most obnoxious 'horror'-themed font they could find; De Palma's interest in camp is on full display) and unnerving. It's also uncomfortably fun.
