Review of Sunset Boulevard (1950) by Matthew T — 28 Aug 2010

Franz Waxman's score is too notable to ignore, especially considering how it aids and abets the characters and their existential fluctuation en route to tragedy - step by step, as they descend into the moral abyss and Norma - into insanity.

But this is solely one of the several truly excellent aspects Mr. Wilder has so masterfully combined to create something that betters even "Double Indemnity" in a mode that leaves me, for once, intellectually satiated and personally gratified.

Even the fuckin' sets are as if from Miss Havisham's coffin, damn, lol. No wonder Billy Wilder was denounced for limning Hollywood in such a realistic manner the same year "All About Eve" set another milestone in the "movies about movies" genre Hollywood's masters could do so iconoclastically.

They just dun make 'em like that anymore..... fuckin' awesome! (in that "awesome" sense that doesn't even exist anymore but capped the Golden Age of Hollywood like nothing else..

..).