Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987)

oh God!
oh man!
oh God!
oh man!
oh God!
One can say one thing about Norman Mailer's Tough Guys Don't Dance and it's that this is one hell of a weird movie. Is that a good or bad thing? Well, you decide. The script seems a mess, and the acting is sure ... a league of its own. So is the development of the story. And oh, the lines - the LINES! This film was made in that glorious period in which the genre of film noir was revitalized in a sleazy, moody way. There are a few great examples of this version of 80's noir, but this is hardly one of them, even though I would say that it has its indubitable value as a bad-good film where one never knows what will come next. The main character, in a classical way, suffers from amnesia. Of course, gruesome things have happened and in its own very peculiar way, the film sorts out what has been going on. If you can follow this film without having read the book, my congratulations. As Ebert writes in his review - many scenes play out like comedy but when you think about the film afterwards, there seems to be some kind of sadness in it that no element of the narrative seems to explain.