Epitome of the three-star film you nevertheless throw a heart.
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Paradise 2008
I talked to Michael Almereyda about his three superb, inexhaustible documentaries — Paradise, Escapes, and William Eggleston in the Real World — for the Metrograph Journal. Especially appreciated the insight into this film, about which almost no history or even context has been publicly provided.
NN: Paradise screened for two weeks at MoMa in 2009 and was otherwise unavailable until Grasshopper Film’s release in 2021. The 2021 edition is actually an amended cut—some elements added, perhaps others removed. What motivated…
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Thunder Island 1963
A 25-year-old Jack Nicholson was paid $1,250 (adjusted for inflation: $12,766) to co-write this thriller set mostly in island hotels and against blandly beautiful tropical backdrops, wherein a bulldog-looking American whose name you will not possibly remember is assigned to assassinate a "dictator" (what kind? you tell me) living in seclusion. Notably, even remarkably efficient narrative build — suggests, alongside two Monte Hellman movies, The Trip, and Head, Nicholson left behind his calling as a genre craftsman. Nearly no image…
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F for Fake 1973
Convincing the audience your girlfriend is hot enough to horn-up Picasso into 22 portraits... ultimate flex.
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Avatar: The Way of Water 2022
James Cameron's The Mother and the Whore
James Cameron's Inland Empire
James Cameron's As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of BeautyKate Winslet does underwater sign language with a whale, and some scenes — one? 12? — later I think this movie hinged its plot on that whale's ability to see the future. Edie Falco drinks coffee in a giant mech suit.
I zoned out because something looked cool. Something looked cool because I zoned out.…