Writer/director Paul Schrader’s most underrated film? It’s a crowded field, but his Dantean descent into the ‘70s porn underworld is a contender. George C. Scott’s Calvinist Midwesterner ventures to Los Angeles to find his missing teen daughter with Peter Boyle’s sleazy private eye and Season Hubley’s sexworker as his guides. The vice may be retro, but the ending could have been written yesterday. -Lee Gardner
1979 Paul Schrader 1.85:1 Color DCP 108 min.
