Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Q: Into the Storm 2021

  ★★ Watched 28 Nov 2023

  It seems to me that the most interesting aspect of the QAnon phenomenon is the extreme mass hysteria, and that therefore the most urgent question, by far, is “How are this many people this stupid?” This docuseries does not ask that question. What it does ask, over and over again, is “Who is Q?” And among the Trump era’s endless parade of grifters, opportunists, and self-satisfied keyboard warriors, I simply do not give a shit which one of them is Q,…

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  Brute Force 1947

  ★★½ Watched 13 Nov 2023

  Despite the fatalism and the hardboiled dialogue, Brute Force is more of a melodrama than the noir I expected, which wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if it were better written. I’m onboard with the film’s dim view of American prisons prioritizing punishment over rehabilitation, which I gather was an uncommon criticism for 1947, but its habit of nakedly editorializing via the monologues of its prison doctor—sometimes looking directly into the camera—make it feel like a congressional floor speech (and an…

Popular reviews

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  The Florida Project 2017

  ★★★★½ Watched 16 Nov 2017

  When I see a new film of almost universal acclaim, sometimes I go out of my way to read the negative reviews to get a little distance from the zeitgeist. In the case of The Florida Project’s negative reviews, I saw a few patterns:

  • the expected backlash against the critical consensus
  • the frustration of viewers who prefer more traditional narratives
  • locals objecting to the portrayal of Florida
  • accusations of poverty porn

  One flavor of that last…

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  The Others 2001

  ★★ Watched 21 Oct 2011 4

  Remember when Nirvana exploded and every major label scrambled to sign any band they could find that was even remotely similar? Well, if The Sixth Sense is Nirvana (and given how quickly M Night Shyamalan squandered whatever goodwill his breakout hit engendered, I hesitate to draw the comparison), then The Others is Bush.

  The themes, tone, essential plot points, and even the color palette are all lifted directly. To its credit, this is not immediately apparent, and the way the…