Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

One of the great gangster movies, with James Cagney's star-making performance as New
York bootlegger Tom Powers. From the queasy humour of the grapefruit pushed into Mae
Clarke's face, to the horror of the shot-up Cagney being delivered to his mother's door,
swathed in bandages, its brutal realism remains shocking to this day.
Pulp Fiction
(Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
John Travolta made a spectacular comeback as a junkie hitman in this kicking crime caper. As
the lurid action moves between boxers, drug dealers, small-time crooks and a whole bunch of
LA low-lifes, seductive cinematography, playful dialogue and fabulously confident
performances sweep you along on a tide of pure pop-culture pleasure.
Pumping Iron
(George Butler, Robert Fiore, 1977)
Now comes with heightened biographical value after Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial
triumph, as well as being a playful portrait of bodybuilding culture. Droll, Machiavellian, and a
touch unknowable in pursuit of the 1975 Mr Olympia title, Schwarzenegger became a duff
actor nonpareil, and the reason why is here: his greatest creation was Arnie, and there wasn't
room for anyone else.
Purple Rain
(Albert Magnoli, 1984)
Prince at his most purple - flamboyant, elaborate and bruised - this is pure 80s indulgence.
The flimsy story (tortured artist tries to keep his head and band together) is just a vehicle to
showcase Prince's sizeable talents. Not just a feature film, this is best viewed as an extended
music video.
Quadrophenia
(Franc Roddam, 1979)
The Who-scored youth film is far more than a mere document of the mods-rockers face-off or
a piece of cheap teen-lifestyle advocacy. Roddam invests true guts and grit into this
exploration of adolescent angst, with Phil Daniels' disgruntled mod Jimmy a pin-badge
emblem of how much postwar identity and authenticity hung on the right clothes and the top
tunes.
Quiz Show
(Robert Redford, 1994)
It's hard to imagine a time quite so innocent, but 1950s America was appalled by the
revelation that the hugely popular game show Twenty-One was fixed. Robert Redford's tightly
constructed period piece reveals the behind-the-scenes gamesmanship as well as the class
and ethnic tensions that fuelled the scandal.
Radio On
(Chris Petit, 1980)
Perhaps the only British film of the period that captures a sense of the ennui, drift and
dejection of the unlamented late 1970s. Bowing towards Wim Wenders' great German road
movies, it's also a meditation of the state of the nation's cinema, and a memorable, successful
attempt to make a genuine British art movie. Magnificent soundtrack.
Raging Bull
(Martin Scorsese, 1980)
The artistic high-water mark of Scorsese's career and his remarkable partnership with De
Niro. Between them, they transformed the self-serving memoirs of middleweight boxer Jake
LaMotta into stunning cinematic art: a sublime, black-and-white study of LaMotta's desperate
battles in and out of the ring, with his brother, his wife, his mob sponsors and of course
himself. A masterpiece.