Film critic and host of the Arthouse Garage podcast. Member - SEFCA
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Moonage Daydream 2022
This film looks and sounds amazing, and it really immerses you in all things David Bowie. It's less like watching a film about Bowie and more like Brett Morgan is trying to plunge you into Bowie's psyche for a couple of hours. I respect the approach.
The film is essentially a number of musical sequences of live performances and music videos, intercut with interview sound bytes and a diverse set of video clips. These snippets of video are things you…
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One More Time with Feeling 2016
This is worth watching for the gorgeous black and white photography alone, but also has so much else going for it. The philosophical musings on creativity and grief would be my favorite part if anyone else had directed this, but Andrew Dominik knocks the performance scenes out of the park every time too. It’s essentially just Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds sitting around a studio performing while the camera goes absolutely crazy around them.
I particularly like the one…
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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 2018
There’s a few good things about this movie. Chris Pratt. The dinosaur visuals. Some thrilling action. That one upside down shot of the raptor climbing in the window was pretty great.
But everything else was...not great. So over the top, no subtlety in ANY aspect of it. Predictable action scenes. Ridiculous and unbelievable choices made by multiple characters. I can’t fault the actors much because I think most of the problems were script-level issues. But just really not a great movie. I liked the previous Jurassic World more than most, but this one was a real clunker.
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A Separation 2011
The plot here is so meticulously crafted but unfolds in such a seemingly effortless way, that the emotional impacts (which are many) really snuck up on me.
There are many wonderful things about the movie, but the most wonderful is Sarina Farhadi's crushing performance as Termeh. She deserves whatever awards she got, and all of the ones she didn't.
