SECONDS

Rock Hudson is a revelation in this sinister, science-fiction-inflected dispatch from the fractured 1960s. SECONDS, directed by John Frankenheimer, concerns a middle-aged banker who, dissatisfied with his suburban existence, elects to undergo a strange and elaborate procedure that will grant him a new life. Starting over in America, however, is not as easy as it sounds. This paranoiac symphony of canted camera angles (courtesy of famed cinematographer James Wong Howe), fragmented editing, and layered sound design is a remarkably risk-taking Hollywood film that ranks high on the list of its legendary director’s achievements.

“One of the most underrated films of its time. John Frankenheimer crafts a psychological labyrinth where the quest for self-reinvention proves to be a deadly trap. Everything is suffused with a dark and suffocating atmosphere, like an existential allegory rising against the illusions of modernity. It shows perfectly the discomfort of identity and the inherent dissatisfaction of the human spirit, which, no matter how much it aspires to rebirth, can never escape its shadows.” – Neon