Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

On-again-off-again director Wise at one of his high points, a deeply unsettling spookathon of
repressed sexuality and vibrating wallpaper. Shot in austere monochromes, it features a
magnificent cast of fragile female players - notably Julie Harris and Claire Bloom.
Haxan
(Benjamin Christensen, 1922)
A documentary that aims to debunk witchcraft but goes for a cake-and-eat-it scenario by
showing recreations of demons and arcane, supernatural rituals. However muddled the
message may be, the delivery is undeniably stunning with scenes of black masses and
airborne witches that utilise almost every cinematic trick available at the time.
Head
(Bob Rafelson, 1968)
Bob Rafelson's psychedelic harbinger of the New Hollywood (co-written by Jack Nicholson)
jettisons the madcap vigour of the Monkees' TV show for a more surreal tone, and as a result
their career soon came to an end. Pondering how Sonny Liston, Timothy Carey and Victor
Mature's dandruff ended up here is all part of the fun.
Head On
(Fatih Akin, 2004)
Heartfelt shout of rage from the Turkish-German film-maker, this is the German answer to La
Haine. Two damaged individuals - both Turkish immigrants - come together after ending up in
the same Hamburg hospital; their near-psychotic love affair is doomed practically from the
start. There's a sense of urgency here that can't be ignored.
Hearts and Minds
(Peter Davis, 1974)
A daunting double-bill partner for Emile de Antonio's In The Year of the Pig, this less radical,
more humanist Vietnam war-denunciation snagged the best doc Oscar in 1975 and producer
Bert Schneider read out a congratulatory telegram from the North Vietnamese government at
the ceremony. Has much to teach us even, and perhaps especially, today.
Heat
(Michael Mann, 1995)
Michael Mann's love of ultra-macho face-off dramas between two alpha males is sometimes
misjudged, but not here. Al Pacino is the cop who must take down Robert De Niro's career
criminal, a man who specialises in armed robbery, conceived by Mann with almost operatic
grandeur. The two men's tense summit meeting in a coffee-bar is a tremendously staged
moment of testosterone and cold sweat.
Heathers
(Michael Lehmann, 1989) Winona Ryder is the odd girl out in her cruel, well-coiffed clique of
high school friends, but she gets more than she bargained for when she aligns herself with
Christian Slater's juvenile delinquent in this dead-on satire. A generation before Mean Girls,
this was the darker and nastier genuine article.
Heaven's Gate
(Michael Cimino, 1980)
An $11m western that spiralled up to a $44m epic and sank a studio - United Artists, who
were subsequently bought up cheap by MGM after this legendary flop. It is by no means a
bad film - long and meandering but there are certainly worse crimes, and the stunning
camerawork and huge sweep of the story absolve such sins. Butchered by a panicking UA,
the longer versions available play well and suggest that Cimino might have actually known
what he was doing all along.
Heavenly Creatures
(Peter Jackson, 1994)
Kate Winslet's debut performance in a film that seeks to explain a notorious 1950s New