Review of Sunset Boulevard (1950) by Guy G — 13 Nov 2012

[A+/100] Hollywood's brutally frank hate-letter to itself is a gripping melodrama performed with surreal panache, surefooted pacing, and masterfully subtle black humor. The tragic psychological dilapidation of an eerily proud but outdated silent screen icon dominates this movie's underlying web of loneliness, obsession, desperation, the fear of ordinariness, and absurdity, and Gloria Swanson is beguiling and unforgettable in her haunted role, but William Holden is also very excellent as the out-of-luck hack looking to hang on to the promise of Tinsel Town glory. His unusual predicament, his failings and prodigious self-loathing, his cynical fascination, and - most importantly - his pity, speak from the mirror center of this doomed romance with self-deception.

Nancy Olson and Erich von Stroheim are also real good. One of the great Noir works, not to be missed.