The Last Seduction 1994

Hot open fire burnt toast of a femme fatale movie in which Linda Fiorentino gives a great nasty smoldering too hot to handle performance. Because it was originally shown for one night on cable, it was knocked out of being eligible for Oscars, and Fiorentino lost a sure shot chance of winning a best actress Oscar. Stupid Oscars. She did win several high end awards though including the New York Film Critics best actress award. So where is this sultry dame now? If the film was streaming on Netflix today she would have certainly walked off with the Oscar. Fiorentino plays a nasty lady who is out for her own good and rewards that comes with many twists and turns. She’s a user and an abuser who takes no prisoners including her hapless corrupt drug dealing doctor of a hubby well played by Bill Pullman or her clueless boyfriend latched on by her in a small burb town somewhere upstate New York played by Peter Berg. This is B territory made in garish color by the very good No frills director John Dahl who is more known as the director for the many good nasty t.v. series he worked on , like Dexter, Breaking Bad, Shameless, House of Cards and many others, and he brings this style of filmmaking to this movie which has the look and feel of a low budget television movie. It does have some nice New York City mid 90’s location work and the small town local footage bristles with bright neon signs and wet small town streets. It’s vulgar, tangy and twisty and that great Linda Fiorentino performance is like a smack to the face. Lady noir lives.