Must-See / Masterpiece border
When spoiled heir Dickie Greenleaf catches Tom Ripley trying on his expensive clothing, the assumption that his new friend might be gay is only half-correct. Queer readings of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley are nothing new, and Steven Zaillian is not ignorant to them in his television adaptation, though the icy contempt and admiration that are wrapped up in Tom’s repression also paint a far more complex image of class envy. Tom does not…
Masterpiece (Top 1-3 of the year quality)
Spring arrives in the Italian village of Borgo San Giuliano with white, fluffy poplar seeds floating on the breeze, bearing a striking resemblance to the snow that has just melted away. In summer, school student Titta relishes the warm weather on a family day trip to the countryside, with his Uncle Teo being granted short-term leave from the psychiatric hospital where he resides. Autumn later brings cooler temperatures, and sees the vast majority…
Masterpiece (Top 1-3 of the year quality)
High and Low is more gorgeous than ever in its 4K cinema restoration - an absolute treat of detailed visual storytelling that I exposed several friends to for the first time, and one which they all thoroughly enjoyed.
Read my full review at Scene by Green.
Sub-par (flawed and lacking in quality)
What do you know - I turn up to a Christmas party and everyone decides to watch Hot Frosty, making this the second time I have watched it in just a couple of weeks. After sleeping through the first half, I woke up to finish it, and oddly found it slightly more charming than I did before. Maybe it’s the effect of watching it with friends. Or maybe there’s a secret spice in it being drowned out by awful dialogue.
Par (some redeeming qualities but not particularly notable)
On the rare occasion that a film is accurately described as one-of-a-kind, the world is usually gifted with a 2001: A Space Odyssey, Eraserhead, or Persona, pushing the boundaries of cinema pushed to new frontiers. Now in 2024, Francis Ford Coppola also accomplishes something quite unique in Megalopolis, though only to the extent that a chef who throws one hundred arbitrary ingredients into a dish might claim it to be truly original.…
Masterpiece (Top 1-3 of the year quality)
Even apart from its colossal influence on police procedurals and crime movies, M is an incredible achievement of narrative, lighting, and mise-en-scene. It may be somewhat surprising to our modern sensibilities that it was such a controversial film upon its release. It isn't its bluntness that makes it such a provocative film though, but rather its masterful use of subtext and signifiers to understand the mind of a reprehensible child killer. From the…
