
My approach is to listen to interviews with directors who particularly interest me, archived on the DGA's invaluable website. These are often terrific, deep-dive interviews that last for several fascinating hours.
It's an approach that is leading to the discovery of some real gems, none of them more wonderful than this 1998 detective thriller by Robert Benton.

And then went on to direct Bad Company, The Late Show, Kramer vs Kramer, Places in the Heart...
And Twilight. Not to be confused with a series of teen-favourite movies about vampires and werewolves moping around the Pacific Northwest.

The novelist did some work on that script and Benton enjoyed collaborating so much that he sat down with Russo to dream up a private eye tale set in Los Angeles, a sort of modern day film noir.

I don't know how I missed Twilight when it came out, but it's an absolute beauty of a movie. Dark, sardonic, funny and thrilling, it pushes all the right buttons.
And it begins with one of the most perfectly formed brief anecdotes I've ever seen in a film.


Jeff is not very pleased to have their idyll interrupted by a middle aged detective. There's a scuffle, a gun goes off and...
Well, suffice to say, the entire premise of the ensuing story is set up here, beautifully and efficiently.


And not just financially. Jack and Catherine are out of their depth in a rising tide of blackmail and murder. And it's Harry's task to save them.

In no time at all Harry is being shot at and arrested, as he tries to work out who is doing what to whom and why.

Twilight may not have the stature of say, Chinatown or Night Moves. But it's certainly worth including in the same discussion.

In fact, I think I'll go and listen to Bernstein's music now.
(Image credits: The white English language poster is from Imp Awards. The black and white photo of Newman with the gun is by Lorey Sebastian and, along with the black poster is from IMDB. Reese Witherspoon with Newman out of focus in the background is from Zimbio. The Spanish poster and all the other images are from the extremely useful Movie Screen Shots.)
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