In his essential documentary essay “Los Angeles Plays Itself,” Thom Andersen refers to Nicholas Ray’s 1955 “Rebel Without a Cause” as a “Teen noir,” and thinks of the landscape of the film as the city as a musical soundstage without adults to choreograph the damage. It’s remarkable how this movie stands up, and how its combination of despair, self-pity, love, longing and loneliness appeals to the mind and heart at whatever age. But also how you can find something in its currents and corners, its eddies and sallies and forays to the darkness at the edge of town. 111m. CinemaScope widescreen. (Ray Pride)
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