Favorite films

Recent activity

• 

  ★★★½

• 

  ★★★

• 

• 

  ★★

Recent reviews

• 

  Hangmen Also Die! 1943

  ★★★½ Watched by Muffintree 14 Jan 2022

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

  HANGMEN ALSO DIE! is a real mixed bag. On the plus side the cinematography is outstanding, shot by the great James Wong Howe. The Nazis are uniformly grotesque, perhaps a shot at studio executives who complained that his 1941 film MAN HUNT was a 'hate film' because of its strong anti-Nazi content (poor, fragile Hayes Office). One of the senior officers has pronounced pimples on his face and during one scene he pops one (reader, I looked away - I…

• 

  The Devil, Probably 1977

  ★★★★ Watched by Muffintree 11 Jan 2022 1

  THE DEVIL, PROBABLY was made in 1977 but it may as well have been made last week. It focuses on a group of disillusioned twentysomethings who feel overwhelmed at the state of the world and frustrated at the lack of substantive systemic change after the protests of 1968. They research pollution and watch videos of environmental devastation, fully aware that the scale of the problem is insurmountable under the current system. Some of them refuse to give up hope and…

Popular reviews

• 

  The Lodge 2019

  ½ Watched by Muffintree 22 Feb 2020 8

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

  Half-star reviews are reserved for films that make the world a worse place. This is one of them. The plot 'twist' is thuddingly obvious from about the halfway point and requires an almost overwhelming suspension of disbelief to accept (also, Chekov's gun will have to be renamed after this one - "well, I'm leaving now - guess I'd better show you where the GUN IS!! The combo is 1-2-3-4-5 because I'm a fucking idiot"). It treats trauma, suicide and mental…

• 

  Shoes 1916

  ★★★★ Watched by Muffintree 01 Jan 2021 3

  Weber's SHOES opens with a closeup of Jane Addams' 1914 book "A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil" and an anecdote about a shopgirl who yielded to the advances of a man in return for a new pair of shoes. It's a fascinating way to open a film and presents the viewer with two pieces of information:

  1) By linking this film to a story rendered in a sociological study, Weber wants us to see this was a real world…