Here is a movie that takes place within our memories of the movies. The characters and the mysteries and especially the doomed romances are all generated by old films, by remembered worlds of lurid neon signs and deserted areas down by the docks, of sad cafés where losers linger over a cup of coffee, and lonely rooms where the light bulb is a man’s only friend. This is a world for which the saxophone was invented, a world in which the American Motors Javelin was a popular car.
