Favorite films

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Recent reviews

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  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000

  ★★★½ Rewatched by Nick Vass 18 May 2022

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

  Glad to have a visual upgrade on 4K UHD (since I'd previously seen this on DVD) reaching its prettiest moment when Mu Bai and Jen are suspended with their swords in the windy forest. Sure, the wuxia genre received a more vibrant spark later on, but this film is just as fanciful on the combat side. Several instances, really, with brisk hand-to-hand deflections when Shu Lien pursues Jen after the Green Destiny is stolen (even bested in their intense, emotive…

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  Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company 1986

  ½ Watched by Nick Vass 18 May 2022

  On par with Godard's Numéro Deux when it comes to inscrutable hogwash. Once again, a potentially cogent plot is squandered by so much facile bullshit, convincing me that he sabotaged his own rise and fall. I adore the playful nonchalance from his 60's output, yet that method is far more suited to narrative storytelling instead of experimental film. "I'm willing to give you a test, but first I have to test mankind", Bazin pointedly declares, and what's tested is heaps…

Popular reviews

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  Heathers 1989

  ★★★★ Watched by Nick Vass 15 Oct 2012 5

  Most folks would recall John Hughes' coming-of-age misfits, the raunchier shtick in Porky's, or those hangout vibes in Fast Times. On a more pungent note, there stood a revengeful, satirically anti-suicide black comedy which subverted American teen society with its cynical eyes. This movie is hilariously nasty, ahead of its time and still relevant. And no doubt, I get a sadistic smirk as liquid drainer is misled to be a hangover cure! That's my kind of twisted humour.

  Nowadays, I…

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  Arabian Nights 1974

  ★★★★ Watched by Nick Vass 10 Apr 2014 2

  In which Pasolini's devotion to life, death and prurience have now reached its peak. Took me until the third installment to get gobsmacked...but what he's learned and achieved in the final chapter is an ability to touch upon deeper, human qualities. Interestingly, the topics remains similar to The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales, as does his dependence on non-traditional storytelling to subvert traditional roles.

  But the key difference is that wonderfully human edge. He's unlocked a magnificent feeling on what…