Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  The Plains 2022

  ★★★★ Watched 03 Nov 2022

  David Easteal's The Plains is one of the most original and thoughtful films of 2022. (Don't just take it from me; Film Comment and Cinema Scope subsequently agreed.)

  After spotting UW Cinematheque's intention to screen this as the finale to their new Thursday premiere series, I got in touch with Easteal amidst his globe-trotting tour to touch upon a myriad of different things in relation to the film—the interplay between the film's real-life origins and written construct, themes of ephemerality…

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  Noise 2023

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 29 Mar 2023

  I had the privilege of being among the first to watch Julian Castronovo's Noise back in mid-February. Amidst a plethora of other Wisconsin-connected shorts, his stood out immediately with its slightly surreal and yet assuredly grounded premise. While confronting bigoted typecasting of white-centric sci-fi narratives on one level, it also takes a fascinatingly absurd angle to the schisms of communication and pragmatic concerns of any bit-part regular in the world of moviemaking.

  Ahead of its official world premiere at the…

Recent reviews

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  The Adults 2023

  ★★★½ Watched 29 Aug 2023

  Ahead of the UW Cinematheque presentation, the Madison premiere, on September 7, I chatted with writer-director (and often editor) Dustin Guy Defa over Google Meet for Tone Madison.
  Little rough trying to acquire a screener for The Adults, which affected my initial drafting of questions. I felt like my preparation and brainstorming drifted too heavily towards inquiries into Defa's prior work; but it made for a more traditionally journalistic interview, I guess, ha. And perhaps I accidentally achieved some sort…

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  Never Been Kissed 1999

  ★½ Watched 27 Jul 2023

  Also, never been storyboarded.

Popular reviews

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  A Dim Valley 2020

  ★★★★ Watched 04 Apr 2020 3

  Colvin's most ambitious project yet with its opening credits enfolded in a botanical-wildlife field guide slideshow. A lovingly illustrated entry into a film that feels like a whimsically ethereal and modern update of a free love film that the late 1960s produced— now dripping in alluringly deadpan dialogue that can skirt between revelatory drama and teasing comedy. A sneaky amount of screen time is actually devoted to song, whether diegetic or not (or somewhere hazily in-between), which heightens A Dim…

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  Variety 1983

  ★★★★★ Watched 20 Nov 2017

  One of the most genuinely subversive and absorbing films I've ever seen. Variety is somehow simultaneously poetic and plain-spoken in its initial loquaciousness, revealing such depth of character in affirming conversations between women that feel so reverent. However, there's another side to this film, just as there's another side to Christine (Sandy McLeod), and that's in its progressively visual storytelling. This is really where Variety transcends simple summation, labeling, and premise.
  Perfunctorily, it's about a woman discovering an interest in…