StuSmallz

StuSmallz

Favorite films

  • The Asphalt Jungle
  • Judgment at Nuremberg
  • Once Upon a Time in America
  • Rashomon

Recent activity

All
  • GoodFellas

    ★★★★★

  • Shutter Island

    ★★★★

  • Pan's Labyrinth

    ★★★★★

  • The Crying Game

    ★★★★½

Recent reviews

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  • GoodFellas

    GoodFellas

    ★★★★★

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

    "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster..."

    What is it about the gangster that fascinates us so much? Whether they be fictional or real, there's just something about gangsters, and the unencumbered power fantasies they embody that hold an undying fascination for us, despite (or maybe a bit because of?) the moral failings inherent to their lifestyles. It's something that filmmakers have tried to capture time and time again in movies through the…

  • Shutter Island

    Shutter Island

    ★★★★

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

    A link to my free Patreon write-up comparing/constrasting this with the OTHER DiCaprio movie from 2010, just in case anyone here wants to read it: www.patreon.com/posts/shutter-island-56789555

Popular reviews

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  • Unforgiven

    Unforgiven

    ★★★★★

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

    Unforgiven is haunted by many things; as a film, it's haunted by the image of an "Old West" that never existed, its protagonist is haunted by the memory of his late wife, by the atrocities he committed as a young outlaw, and by the fear that he'll get what he deserves in the afterlife, and finally, one could say that Clint Eastwood himself was haunted, by the long shadows his cinematic mentors cast over his career (Sergio Leone & Don Siegel…

  • Aliens

    Aliens

    ★★★★½

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

    "This time, it's war."

    One of the toughest tasks for any young director must be to enter a series that began with what is one of the most iconic genre movies ever, and then have to make a sequel that not only expands on its story & mythology without turning into ridiculous fanfiction (*cough Alien: Resurrection cough*), but also take that series in an entirely new direction, to the point where it goes into a completely different genre, without any of…