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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 2022
Wrote about this — and the problem with Marvel more broadly — for the New York Times.
Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is sitting in a Manhattan coffee shop with the woman he’s loved since the fourth grade, the winsome Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). He gazes at her longingly. She leans in, eyes closed, for a kiss. But just as he moves to reciprocate, he freezes, sensing danger. The camera rushes forward, into an extreme close-up of Peter’s eye, the… -
Top Gun: Maverick 2022
In December 2020, a leaked audio snippet from the set of the next “Mission: Impossible” movie revealed star/producer/most intense man alive Tom Cruise absolutely losing his mind at some unnamed crew members who had, he felt, violated the COVID protocols that were allowing the massive studio production to roll cameras during the height of the pandemic. “We are the gold standard,” you might remember him shouting. “They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us… We are…
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Top Gun 1986
It's really more of a sports movie than a military one -- the hero's arc operates like a star point guard making a big shot to win the game, complete with cheering teammates at the end. Alphas bicker in the locker room, coaches bark at them in their office, then they blow off steam with some WAGs.
This is probably for the best because Bruckheimer and Scott don't seem interested in the Cold War politics that would ordinarily be the…
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The Godfather: Part II 1974
67/100
Third viewing, last seen 2011. Still think the Greatest Sequel Ever Made is "merely" far superior to your standard superfluous continuation—I didn't need to see Michael grow ever more ruthless and isolated, nor did I particularly care about Vito's backstory (wisely omitted from the original film), so it's a testament to Coppola & Co. firing on all cylinders that I'm happy to watch those two threads alternate for well over three hours.
(Rest of the review, along with everything else…
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The Lost City 2022
fun flick despite some definite tonal whiplash.
i sometimes get the feeling that bullock is underrated because of how natural she seems in comedy/action movies, but she really does pull this kind of shit off better than just about any other actress, even when the film itself is mediocre, so it's nice to see her in one that's better than that.
tatum is fine, but if you told me i had to replace one of the two leads it'd easily…
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The Darjeeling Limited 2007
In many ways Anderson's richest and most mature film, in that it is suffused with details and texture it has no need to explicate, but which inform every moment, and doesn't lead to any resolute understanding of who these people are and where they'll end up a year from now. It's a key moment in their lives, but did they really change? Could they? Far less certain.
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20th Century Women 2016
No quippy little letterboxd review I'll write can do justice for how truly, truly special this film is on so many levels.
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 2022
Sam Raimi took a big budget from Marvel to make an expensive spiritual sequel to the Evil Dead franchise. It is also a blast.
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Seven Samurai 1954
Nothing I could say would add anything to the discourse on Seven Samurai. I find it hard to imagine there could be anyone on this app who doesn’t think this film is the work of a master at the absolute zenith of his powers. What a picture.
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Uptown Girls 2003
we actually deserve the midbudget studio comedy desert we live in now because in 2003 the DP of Goodfellas perfectly photographed this gorgeous, grief-dipped fairy tale w/a performance from Brittany Murphy that should have rendered her Emperor of the United States and we said “hmmmm 13 percent on rotten tomatoes”
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