Blue City

Screened on Vinegar Syndrome blu-ray

I've probably mentioned before in previous reviews that one of my current, favorite movie-going experiences is seeing 80s films now for the first time, more than 40 years after the fact. The ultimate situation is seeing them on 35mm on the big screen, but a new 4K restoration on the big screen at home is pretty darn special in its own right - especially for a film I mostly forgot such as this, but always wanted to see and remember vividly sitting on the shelf at the local video store.

Blue City, the one-time directorial effort from Michelle Manning, who later led Production at Paramount Pictures for over 15 years, reunited Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy from the previous year's John Hughes hit The Breakfast Club. Shot entirely in southern California, while taking place in the fictional town of Blue City, Florida, the film is essentially a neo-noir film. Billy (Judd Nelson), son of former Blue City mayor Jim Turner, returns to town find out who murdered his father and inflict revenge on whomever that is, which remains mostly a mystery until the end of the film's perfectly-short running time of 83 minutes.

The film mostly has a bad reputation, primarily it seems due to Nelson's performance, but the reason I've seen mentioned is the one of the top reasons I really enjoyed it. Nelson's character is a wise-ass of varying degrees, and his comedic approach didn't work for many, but I felt it made the film feel refreshing overall. It was so widely panned that in 1986 it was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards (The Razzies), though it eventually "lost" all categories to Prince's Under the Cherry Moon, except for Worst Actress where Sheedy lost to Madonna's performance in Shanghai Surprise. Blue City is not a great film, but it's for sure a fun one. All the performances, which also included David Caruso (Session 9), Paul Winfield (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), Anita Morris (Ruthless People), Scott Nelson (The Walking Dead) are perfectly casted, the score from Ry Cooder is unique, and Manning brings some decent imagery to the screen that represents its decade well. Because of that short running time, the negative feelings towards it feels unwarranted and makes any strong negativity comes across as moot. And thus, it's a decent recommendation from me.