Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Electric Mole 2003

  ★★★★ Watched 22 Sep 2023

  love how nonchalantly she belts out some of the greatest pop and rock songs of her generation. the way she ends Tadashii Machi here is cool as hell. the band are outstanding too, particularly Hiizumi Masayukis contributions on piano. its interesting to hear the Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana songs played with a live band compared with the intricately arranged studio versions. Kuki, my favourite song of hers, without the strings and with the extended guitar outro ending the piece,…

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  A Bride for Rip Van Winkle: Serial Edition 2016

  ★★★★ Watched 20 Aug 2023

  the core material is so strong that Iwai gets away with it, but this is unambiguously weaker than the Japanese theatrical version. obviously this is in total an hour longer than the original movie, but what it isnt is "all the scenes from the original + one hour of extra content". in fact, some scenes are prolonged and added as youd expect, but some scenes are also lost to fit the television structure of six episodes with equal runtimes. the…

Popular reviews

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  The Nightingale 2018

  ½ Watched 10 Jun 2019 43

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

  Just before our screening, Jennifer Kent stood at the front of the theatre and stated that this was the most challenging film for her to make, and crucially, she branded it as her most important (not like there was much to choose from, but okay?). And from the opening scenes, you sense that this is a Serious Film, with its 1.33:1 ratio and its dim (non-existent) colour palette recalling The Witch's aesthetic and its liberal usage of "cunt" and its…

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  Avengers: Infinity War 2018

  ★★ Watched 25 Apr 2018 9

  This is what happens when your franchise suffers a decade's worth of technological stagnation and chronically inept characterisation. No matter who reunited, kissed, hugged or died, I didn't feel a thing. And on top of that, there's no understanding of how to inventively direct action. I simply cannot understand how Marvel, with all their money and power and all the people supposedly behind their ideas, consistently fail to get fight scenes right in an action movie franchise.

  This movie is…