Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  The Cold Light of Day 2012

  ★½ Watched 12 Sep 2020

  Fits the aesthetic of "7-11 DVD shelf"-core to a tee. Generic script, phoned-in performances from actors & actresses just looking to buy new swimming pools, decent action, and shot on digital with little to no visual flair to anything. It's kind of hilarious how deadpan Sigourney Weaver is in this. "Catch." I guess it's not terrible if you've just never watched an action movie in your life.

  Yeah, not a lot of jokes for this one. The real funny moment is…

• 

  Glitter 2001

  ★ Watched 10 Sep 2020

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

  Glitter is mildly fascinating because it is essentially the most stripped-down, bare-bones, fleshless version of the "rise to stardom" plot you can get. Technically, everything is there in the script: Sad backstory, the boosts of popularity, being swept up in the machine to lose who you are and where you came from, big emotional arguments, and the closing epic performance that's supposed to sell, like, a bajillion singles. But it's literally missing everything else: Performances, proper editing, connective tissue between…

Popular reviews

• 

  There Will Be Blood 2007

  ★★★ Watched 26 Nov 2019 9

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

  BROVEMBER 24/30

  Recommendation by Matthew

  That's it?

  Another film to put on the "respect the craft, could give less of a fuck about what's going on" shelf in my mental film catalog, "There Will Be Blood" is pretty neat. Great environments, great cinematography, lots of cool imagery (DAT OIL FIRE THO), some fun religious symbolism, great visual storytelling, some of the score is good...uhhh...I think Jonny Greenwood went too far in some places. What's up with the dancing skeletons and…

• 

  Parasite 2019

  ★★½ Watched 24 Jan 2020 29

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

  The Lot Roulette, Pick by Frank

  Recommendation by Jem

  I respect the craft. But I don't care.

  The hype train really crashed and burned for me on this one, I tried really hard to not factor it into my thoughts or my rating, but I'm really sad that the #1 narrative feature film on Letterboxd has replaced character writing, the art of the twist, and emotional depth with "muh class warfare though." It's not like classism is a bad topic…