Filmmaker
Favorite films
Recent activity
AllPinned reviews
More-
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! 1989
At LAFCA in 2019, Michael Barker took me by the hand and led me through a crowded hotel auditorium, past J Lo and Bong Joon-ho, shouting “Pedro! Pedro!” so I could meet his longtime collaborator, Pedro Almodovar. I felt like a kid exiting a stadium with his father, except we’d somehow gotten onto the field and were passing hall of famers. Noah Bambauch looked especially upset by this. Anyway, Michael (understandably) assumed I was a big fan of Pedro’s, who…
-
Detour 1945
Watching Tom Neal accidentally kill two people in a way that seems written to relieve him of any real wrongdoing feels silly at first. Like noirish bad luck approaching parody. That's until you learn that, in real life, Neal would go on to kill his actual wife and provide an equally absurd defense that denied any real culpability.
A part of that defense included painting his deceased wife as a cruel, Ann Savage-like woman, who he had to kill in…
Recent reviews
More-
Me, Natalie 1969
The ultimate romcom — maybe the best of the ugly duckling narratives, this criminally under-seen movie (300 views on Letterboxd!?) strikes one of the most satisfyingly unique tones of the 60s by being a little bit of all of the 60s, like if Jerry Lewis directed Harold and Maude. There’s nostalgic Cherbourgian colors and soft gauzy lenses dripping with vaseline, right up against second wave feminism decrying the very kind of romance associated with those aesthetics. There’s tender WWII era parents ––…
-
Popular reviews
More-
Red Rocket 2021
The most honest movie I've seen this year.
As an audience member, it tapped feelings I hadn't felt in a while — nostalgia for a place I've never been, empathy in corners usually mined for rage cheerleading. As a filmmaker, it feels like a loving dare — what can happen when you push past digestible characters with moralizing arcs and, instead, get closer to something bawdy and uncomfortable and sordid and foul and tender all at once.
Watched at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Shot on 16 w/ custom lenses made for Soderbergh that he never ended up using. :)
-
