Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 2007

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 06 Dec 2023

  This film remains incredible. I love how it occupies the liminal space between the poetic and the prosaic with Bob’s journey as someone who is enraptured by American mythology, curdled when it fails to embrace him, and then becomes sadly resigned to reality. It’s a beautiful movie that I’ll go so far as to say is one of the best Westerns ever.

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  Chicken Run 2000

  ★★★½ Rewatched 05 Dec 2023

  Probably a weird day for the Tweedys.

  This remains super cute, and while CG animation has made great strides in the past few decades, it’s difficult to imagine this film being as charming if it wasn’t claymation (and I say that as someone who likes Aardman’s CG efforts). The tactile approach reinforces the chickens’ bits of ingenuity.

  Also, it’s interesting that so much of Gibson’s career is defined by violence (characters inflicting and/or receiving), but he’s far more charming as a schemer like here and in Maverick.

Popular reviews

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  Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania 2023

  ★½ Watched 13 Feb 2023 15

  Marvel has lost it. Films like Doctor Strange and Iron Man 2 now look like bastions of competence next to stuff like this because as weak as those films are, they still try to have a character arc for their protagonist where the adventure changes his outlook. Everyone in this movie is the same at the end as they are in the beginning. There’s not an ounce of character development or even a challenge to a character’s personality. It is…

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  Midsommar 2019

  ★½ Watched 24 Jun 2019 11

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

  Between this and Hereditary, I’m confident saying I’m not an Ari Aster fan. On a technical level, his skill is undeniable, but it lacks artistry. Everything he does is painfully self-aware and there’s no empathy for his characters. The deaths of family members are exploited and crassly used for shock value with minimal reckoning. He’s made two movies that are ostensibly about unimaginable grief, and yet they both get bogged down in mythological bullshit. By the end, you’re no longer focused on the protagonist because of some threatening cultish other. Spare me.