Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion 1997

  ★★★★★ Watched 09 Jul 2021 5

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

  My Favorite Films, "ranked"

  Where to even begin? Coming in at 87 precious minutes, END OF EVANGELION is as dense as antimatter. It not only contains a plethora of thematic and plot-based baggage from the NEON GENESIS EVANGELION TV series, but it also injects the universe with a myriad of new material. So rarely is a piece of art so reflexive, interpersonal, and superior to its progenitor(s). In terms of its significance to cinema and the visual arts in general,…

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  Woman in the Dunes 1964

  ★★★★★ Watched 09 May 2021 7

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

  My Favorite Films

  “I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.” - Anakin Skywalker AKA Niki Junpei

  The ultimate determinist film. Woman in Dunes not only shows us that life is a series of internments that we must come to terms with, but it also teaches us *how* we are to come to terms with them. To escape society; its overbearing institutions, its constant insistence…

Recent reviews

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  Three Resurrected Drunkards 1968

  ★★½ Watched 25 Sep 2023

  Totally totally bizarre and not my jam. But, did discover the greatness that is The Folk Crusaders. So, thanks Oshima!

  With a filmography as eclectic, experimental, and New Wave-y as Oshima's, there's bound to be a couple mehs.

  Nagisa Oshima Ranked

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  Pleasures of the Flesh 1965

  ★★★½ Watched 23 Sep 2023

  PLEASURES OF THE FLESH is as uncomfortable a film as they come. An incel of modern Japan murders a monster, only to turn into an empty, hedonistic shell of futile perversion when the woman he murders for unsurprisingly rejects him. He thieves from a thief and goes on a series of paid-for GFE-esque relationships where he drowns his awkward personality with booze and women that are too good for him. But, wait! Why are these women with him if they…

Popular reviews

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  Broker 2022

  ★★ Watched 19 Jul 2022 9

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

  Kore-eda Ranked

  Damn. Kore-eda’s first dud.

  Technically gorgeous as always, but completely shallow, over-convoluted, and emotionally distant compared to not only its companion piece, SHOPLIFTERS, but also basically every other Kore-eda feature. There’s something lacking; a sense of true empathy perhaps, a feeling of genuine connection between characters; that Kore-eda has never lacked before. Even in the uneven THE TRUTH, at least the characters felt intimately connected to each other. Here, the overstuffed plot overwhelms any sense of intimacy between…

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  Decision to Leave 2022

  ★★★★½ Watched 16 Jul 2022 8

  Park Chan-wook ranked

  Exquisite.

  DECISION TO LEAVE is Park Chan-wook's most mature, refined, and well-directed film. Don't expect any early 2000s shocks, extreme violence, or gimmicks. This is, in many ways, a standard noir, albeit tilted on its edge due to the man behind the camera. Of course with that you can expect a convoluted mystery, plenty of twists and turns, and intrigue out the wazoo. And, if any of you know me by now, noirs aren't really my thing.…