Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

Jurassic Park
(Steven Spielberg, 1993)
Jaws' greatest strength might have been hiding the shark, but Spielberg displayed no such
coyness here: the panoramic sweep of a dinosaur-filled prairie represented an early-1990s
quantum leap for SFX. Whether blockbuster narrative evolution has since dwindled to a
useless stump is questionable; what isn't is that Jurassic Park shows Spielberg on impressive
form.
Kanal
(Andrzej Wajda, 1957)
Wajda cannibalised his own experiences as a resistance fighter for his tough, intense tale of
the Warsaw uprising. Kanal is a dark movie, both literally and figuratively, as it chases its
desperate fugitives through the city sewers. All of them, we suspect, are destined to end up in
a hole.
Kandahar
(Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 2001)
An enigmatic movie from the Iranian arthouse master: part documentary, part parable. An
Afghan woman who has grown up in Canada receives word from her sister in Kandahar that
she is about to commit suicide: she makes a dangerous journey through Afghanistan to find
her. The film became notorious for featuring Hassan Tantai (formerly David Belfield) who is
wanted in the US for the 1980 murder of a pro-Shah Iranian diplomat.
The Karate Kid
(John G. Avildsen, 1984)
Ralph Macchio stars as a bullied kid who needs to toughen up. Luckily, a martial arts expert is
the local handyman, and Macchio becomes his student. After months of training he is ready
for the local hardass. The action climaxes at the All Valley Karate Championship with
Elisabeth Shue in a cracking pair of knee-high socks.
Keane
(Lodge Kerrigan, 2004)
The ghost of a missing child haunts Kerrigan's spare, extraordinary tale, shot in the concrete
outskirts and transport inter-zones of New York City. The camera sticks closely to its mentally
disturbed protagonist (played by Damian Lewis), who forges a fraught bond with a little girl
and her troubled mother.
Kes
(Ken Loach, 1969)
In the absence of an industry, Ken Loach means British cinema ("Mike Leigh" is the other
shorthand), and the much-loved Kes is a big part of the reason why. An unaffected tale of a
lonely Barnsley boy who finds a taste of freedom when he gets to train a kestrel, it's in the
best of spots for British naturalism: halfway between the gutter and the stars.
Kids
(Larry Clark, 1995)
Larry Clark reworked the teensploitation movie of the 1950s with an unflinching voyeuristic
lens, the help of a young skateboarding scripter named Harmony Korine, and future indie
queen Chloe Sevigny in the starring role. He tapped serious social neuroses, from drugs and
under-age sex to HIV. A vital, moral vision of early 1990s youth that spawned a new
generation of dark teen films.
Killer of Sheep
(Charles Burnett, 1977)
Italian neo-realism, enhanced with bleakly poetic black-and-white cinematography, comes to
1970s Watts in Charles Burnett's UCLA dissertation movie, immediately recognised as a
landmark in American (not just African-American) cinema, but lost to us for 30 years over
rights issues concerning its stunning sound-track of blues, gospel and 70s black pop.