Red Rock West (1993)

Nicholas Cage is on fine form as a man at the end of his tether when a job in Wyoming falls through, leaving him with five dollars to his name which he promptly spends on petrol in order to make it to the town of Red Rock, in a last-ditch attempt to find work. Upon walking into a bar, he is mistaken for a hitman (who later turns out to be Dennis Hopper's Lyle) but with the promise of $5000, agrees to murder the wife of a man who also turns out to be the town's sheriff.

The farcicality of proceedings certainly doesn't stop there, with the interconnecting character stories continuing to interlink in this small town Neo-noir thriller from director John Dahl, and it's heaps of fun.

Cage's presence reminds you of his performance in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), and almost ten years on from Blood Simple (1984) there's a lot going on here that could have been from the house of the Cohen brothers.

After arriving at the house of the woman he's supposed to kill, she (Lara Flynn Boyle, her of Lynch's Twin Peaks [1990-2017]) then offers Cage's Michael double what he was promised for her murder to kill her husband.

He decides to take the money and run, after coining an ill-advised note to the town's sheriff (not yet knowing who he is); unsurprisingly all hell breaks loose.

Dahl's film hasn't really seen the light of day, but last year's Blu-ray release will hopefully afford it the distribution it deserves; as well as being a highly effective black comedy it's also genuinely thrilling at times, most notably when Michael attempts to escape the town on the roof of a delivery truck after exiting a bar via its roof. 7.8/10