Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Tremors 1990

  ★★★★ Rewatched 21 Feb 2022 8

  I love this movie. A last gasp of great practical effects in mainstream cinema, working with limitations and using imagination to make something much cooler than what throwing millions of dollars at CGI departments gets you. The script is great — funny, fun, and heartwarming. It strikes the perfect balance between a small and big movie. It had a reasonable but limited budget, and punches so far above its weight (box office of 1990 be damned). A humble story of underground man-eating worms that never gets old.

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  The Northman 2022

  ★★★½ Watched 28 Apr 2022 2

  A very good 2 hours and 17 minutes Vikings montage, with stunning imagery, impressive moments, and good use of sound. It's not much as a story, though. Beats the dead horse. I was itching to get out the theatre by the end. Acting is a bit hokey. Very "post Game of Thrones." Visually it is distinguished, no doubt, which makes for a few moments where it all comes together. Mixed review from me.

Recent reviews

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  Master Gardener 2022

  ★★½ Watched 13 Jun 2023

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

  I love Schrader's visual style (the photography is phenomenal) and mood (though the writing in this one has flaws), but the story is at heart about accepting someone was a “different person” when they murdered based on white power beliefs, and that is way too left wing for me—and doesn’t ring true. I appreciated many things about this movie, and I was interested throughout, but part of the story riled me. I don't believe that character corresponds to a real…

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  Strange Way of Life 2023

  ★★★★ Watched 05 Jun 2023

  Possibly the gayest Western you have ever seen. Very sweet, tough, poignant, well-written, and well-acted. It is also part of a new format of cinema Almodóvar seems to be single-handedly creating: the cinematic short long enough to be seen on its own. He draws world-class talent, the production is to the nines, and the story is free to tell itself in its natural length and end wherever feels right, with no runtime pressure. I said it about The Human Voice,…

Popular reviews

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  Dune 2021

  ★★★★ Watched 10 Oct 2021

  Villeneuve's long-awaited science fiction space adventure, coming more than half a century after Frank Herbert’s novel with a couple failed attempts in between (a cancelled production by Jodorowsky in the 1970s, and a disastrous effort by Lynch in 1984), manages to be both deeply flawed and a movie that doesn’t disappoint. There are two films in there, and I think it will split audiences. It puts on the screen a spectacular and extremely cinematic version of a fascinating and imaginative…

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  Portrait of a Lady on Fire 2019

  ★★★★½ Watched 16 Jun 2020

  Excellent cinematography (Claire Mathon) and a powerful sense of place and time create an impressive backdrop for this love story between a female portrait painter (Noémie Merlant as Marianne) and the lady of the house (Adèle Haenel as Héloïse). Terrific performances memorably etch two strong-willed personalities, equally stubborn and intelligent, in the mind. Set at the end of the 18th century (the time of Jane Austen, whose style of romantic literature this film feels part of), the manners and behavioural…