Review of Sisters (1973) by Steven G — 28 Nov 2009

I'll start this review by stating that the De Palma I'm familiar with is the crime/gangster director. Scarface has to be one of my all time favorite films, and I loved the Untouchables. However, I must say I'm really enjoying watching his thriller/horror films. A few months ago I was blown away by Blow Out, and last night I just watched Sisters. This was an amazing, weird, and intriguing suspense/horror film. The story is interesting and keeps you involved the whole time, the twists are crazy, and its just a real pleasure to fully go down the rabbit hole that's the end of this film. Sisters is also very stylistically pleasing. De Palma's signature use of the split screen is on full display here. The way the sudden bursts of violence scenes are shot are a sight to behold as well. The black and white pseudo-documentary footage was great, then it was just even more inventive to have the reporter's hallucinations look the same way.

As a history nerd, I also liked the sense of the mood of the early 70's that Sisters captured. The protagonist is a radical, feminist, muckraking reporter trying to get the police to do something right and get some sense of justice in a tumultuous time in the United States. You can also get a sense of the generational conflict between her and her mother, when her mother belittles her work as a reporter and pushes her to just assume her role as a settled housewife. All in all, a great film with a lot to enjoy and chew on. I'm such a noob that I can't wait to finally get to see Carrie as well as other De Palm films.