Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Detour 1945

  ★★★★ Rewatched 05 Dec 2023

  Upon second viewing, still a nasty, dirty film that I adore. Ann Savage is incredible as one of the saddest, cruelest femmes fatales ever.

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  Scarface 1932

  ★★★★½ Watched 05 Dec 2023

  Dated, but transcendent. Camonte’s tragic anti-hero arc is more poetic and complex than the tacked on disclaimer at the beginning suggests. That disclaimer would be better suited to something like Reefer Madness, but Scarface is (for the most part) a mature, thoughtful piece of filmmaking that codified a genre. 

  Beyond its script, the film’s visuals, particularly their use of deep, evocative shadows, are beyond compare for the time period. Perhaps the link between expressionism and noir. Two compelling femmes fatales also deepen the connection to the noir that followed.

Popular reviews

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  Bones and All 2022

  ★ Watched 21 Nov 2022 1

  I always read about movies getting booed at European film festivals and I think that’s dumb but then I see a Luca Guadagnino movie and I get it.

  This is so contrived and insincere and it recalls far more interesting movies that explore this same trauma-as-monstrousness dynamic. It wants so badly to be cannibal Bonnie & Clyde but the characters are so flat that even that movie’s French New Wave pastiche feels more original. 

  One star because I think the cinematography…

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  The Warped Forest 2011

  ★★★½ Watched 13 May 2021

  Imagine if the least weird thing that happened in Twin Peaks was when Josie went into the knob.