2018 Ranked
Seen in Theaters

In a film about the Chappaquiddick incident - in which a car driven by Senator Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) went off a bridge with him and Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) inside, only for the drunk Kennedy to let her die in the car while he walked home and did not report the accident until the cops were already at the scene the next morning - director John Curran opts to open in a rather…

NOTE: This excerpt is the introductory section of an essay I wrote for Cineccentric, entitled "The Role of Nostalgia in the Films of Todd Haynes". Here is a link to entire piece, one which I spent a good amount of time writing and am reasonably proud of having written. In advance, thank you to anyone who opts to follow the link and spend part of their life reading the essay. It is appreciated more than you know.

Todd Haynes is…

The Criterion Challenge, 42/100

The worst part about John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday is that it is not even all that bad. It is just far too distant to make an impact. Perhaps I am too young to get this film and would love it if I were 50, desperate to feel young once more. Perhaps the fact that I thought, until five minutes before starting the film, I thought it was a crime film. Who knows. Depicting the relationship…

20 Films x 5 Decades: 1950s

Henry Hathaway’s Niagara is certainly a pretty predictable and conventional noir. Complete with a constantly smoking man, a femme fatale, and a setting that acts as its own character, Niagara is a film that will not shock you. The most shocking thing, perhaps, is when Marilyn Monroe showers with lipstick still on, only to emerge from the shower with the lipstick still on her face. Beyond this, Niagara offers little-to-no surprises. Yet, it is…

2011 Ranked

Forgive me father, for I have sinned. When I saw Drive for the first time in 2013, I had just finished my first film class in high school and was set to graduate from high school in a few weeks. Now, a week and a half removed from finishing college a semester early, it was time to atone for the sins of my youth. Unacquainted with good films at the time aside from the ones I saw in…