Sang-froid

Tarantino presents this little gem, which he caught at an Italian genre festival while promoting Reservoir Dogs (he relates the fateful anecdote in an epilogue after the movie on video.) It shares with that director the nervy, hip black-comedy attitude, an absolute command of cinematic techniques, and a post-modern approach steeped in b-movie history. However, where QT's films (and similar triumphs like Go) are explosive, this one is insidiously subtle and dead-pan; so much so that the gradual recognition of the filmmakers' intentions will give you the shivers. The creeping revelations of the themes, the dark pastels, self-referential script and straight-faced performances are reminiscent of earlier successful dark comedies, like Parents and I, Madman. Jones (her solo dance is a knockout) and Baldwin are both dead-on, and the director and editor never miss a beat. This is one of the best films of the 90s. (by the way, did anyone notice that this film opened about the same time as Headless Body in Topless Bar? quite a coincidence.)

It's surprisingly hard to make fun about serious subjects, like murder. Curdled succeeds in it: it's a hilarious film about a girl obsessed with murder, with a nicely twisted vision of the world. Yes, it has it's faults, but there are some irresistibly funny moments in it as well.

Jones does an excellent job in this black comedy, it really is a shame we haven't heard more of her. Even Baldwin fits in his role! The soundtrack is spicy and quite excellent. Braddock has extended this from a short film, and unfortunately it shows in some places. A few scenes feel, well, boring, and dialogue isn't as sharp as it could be.

Tarantino is often linked to this film, although he was only the producer and wrote a very little piece of script. However, there are connections to his movies in Curdled and they are fun to catch.

My score: 3/5

This film was originally a 20 minute short by Reb Braddock. Braddock extended this after seeing the success of his short. Angela Jones plays the lead character superbly. For those of you not familiar with Jones, she is the Taxi Driver in Pulp Fiction. William Baldwin plays the killer. Angela Jones' character is mesmerized by murder scenes and gets a job with a company that cleans up after murders. She soon comes in contact with the murderer on the job site and the suspense begins to build. Great performance by Angela Jones and a brilliant story and dialogue provided by Braddock.

Gabriella (Angela Jones), a Colombian immigrant, is obsessed with understanding violent crime. The current string of murders by the Blue Blood Killer of affluent Miami socialites provides her with fodder for her scrapbook of death. She lands a job with a post-murder cleaning service and during a Blue-Blood clean-up job, discovers evidence that police have overlooked.

While this is not a perfect film, it is a fun dark comedy that should appeal to "gore hounds" and fans of Robert Rodriguez. Apparently this exists in the same universe that "From Dusk to Dawn" does, plus features Billy Baldwin as a killer. That is pretty sweet.

I would need to see this a second time to really get a handle on it, but I think I was pleasantly surprised and hope this film somehow makes a resurgence on people's to-see lists.

When Curdled was in the cinemas I missed it, but now I rented the VHS and I'm happy, having seen it. I had a couple of hours of pure fun. This is a very good "black" movie: in Europe we'd rather say "noir with a touch of sophisticated humour"or "black comedy". The actresses are impressive and the plot unique. Just follow my advice: if you loved Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs don't miss it, Curdled it's even better!