Blatty & Mamet

Stacy Keach stars as a military psychiatrist sent to a remote castle to help deal with some very troubled servicemen in The Ninth Configuration, which was written and directed by William Peter Blatty of Exorcist fame. It's got a great cast and some fantastic dialogue but the first half feels more like MASH or Catch22 until it swerves abruptly into much darker territory with both doctor and patient uncovering deeper problems. By the end it's quite a touching tale of friendship and sacrifice but could've done with a bit less of the "zany".

I find Mamet's films a little so-so, well scripted and he's always gets a sharp cast but all a little too self consciously clever for my taste. Homicide bucks the trend though and seems a little dumb, maybe it lost it's juice on the cutting room floor or something cause despite it's interesting ideas it doesn't manage to rise above a bog standard police procedural. Joe Mantegna plays a Jewish cop, kicked from a big case to work a simple candy store shooting cause the victim was a connected old Jewess, it turns out more complicated than expected as he's dragged into Mossad antics and a personal crisis.