Last night, I watched To Live and Die in L.A. from William Friedkin, the director of The Exorcist.  By way of critique, I'll say that the cinematography was inconsistent, the editing was a total mess that left the audience confused, and the script made unwarranted leaps, while coming off as cheesy as you like.

None of this matters.

Having only moved here in this millennium, I don't really believe the L.A. in this movie ever really existed, although my T2-spawned love of automobile rumbles in the Los Angeles riverbed makes me hope it did!  This is the Los Angeles Daniel LaRusso THINKS he's getting when he moves in from the Bronx in The Karate Kid!  Perhaps, it' also the L.A. his new schoolmates think they will inherit when they grow into the adult residents of Encino they aspire to be.

God, I love those aqueducts.  I'm opening Cheap Noir with a body in the aqueduct, because of stuff like this.

You gotta see this movie.  Willem Dafoe is in it, and while he's not really allowed to stretch out and spread his dark angel wings as far as he can, maybe his presence will con you into watching this movie.

Why do you have to be conned?  Why can't I just let you watch the movie?  Come on, Jake.  It's Chinatown.

"It's a cruel (bop-bop-bop) sum-mer..."