Favorite films

Recent activity

• 

  ★★★★½

• 

  ★★★½

• 

  ★★★★

• 

  ★★★★

Pinned reviews

• 

  Marnie 1964

  ★★★★½ Watched by theriverjordan 27 May 2022 33

  The masculine imposition of a movie’s director meets the unstoppable spirit of its lead actress in “Marnie.” 

  Hitchcock’s second collaboration with “Birds” star Tippi Hedren, who claimed that Alfred Hitchcock sexually assaulted her during both productions, “Marnie” is a psychological battleground of wills on and off screen. 

  It cannot be assumed that Hitchcock ever seriously would have been able to court then-Princess Grace (Kelly) to return to Hollywood for the lead part of Marnie. Beyond being just a scheming sociopath…

• 

  The Birds 1963

  ★★★★★ Rewatched by theriverjordan 25 May 2022 37

  Self-involvement is worn upon upon the sleeve for daws to peck at, by all the characters of “The Birds.” 

  The film, often one of the first watched by newcomers to Alfred Hitchcocks’s oeuvre, is - deceptively - one of his most challenging works. “The Birds” has a minimalist script that insists, instead, that the visuals and editing of Hitchcock’s Pure Cinema do the dramatic lifting. 

  As the director explained this idea:

  “Pure cinema is complementary pieces of film put together,…

Recent reviews

• 

  Elvis 2022

  ★★★★½ Watched by theriverjordan 24 Jun 2022 26

  At every ovation, Baz Luhrmann returns with an encore more extravagant than the last. 

  “Elvis” is all sensation, sound and excess. 

  Starting with the Red Curtain Trilogy, there has been a certain rhythm to Luhrmann’s genre of film:

  A narrator who has witnessed an operatic tragedy. A wild setting of frenzied creation and celebration. A prodigious newcomer of extraordinary presence or talent. Obsession that warps into mania that inevitably explodes into a fiery downfall. 

  A familiar beat doesn’t mean that…

• 

  The Last Metro 1980

  ★★★½ Watched by theriverjordan 24 Jun 2022 20

  Performance transcends the edges of the stage, but not the tenets of morality in François Truffaut’s “The Last Metro.”

  The period romance stars Catharine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu as members of a theatre company in occupied Second World War Paris. It was intended as the second of an ‘arts’ trilogy by Truffaut, following the film-centric “Day for Night,” and with a third installment titled “The Magical Agency” that never saw completion. 

  In comparison to “Day for Night,” “Metro” is unsurprisingly…

Popular reviews

• 

  Luca 2021

  ★★★★½ Watched by theriverjordan 18 Jun 2021 64

  Disney, its time to come out of the closet. 

  I understand you are worried about how your family; Russia and China, will perceive you. It’s totally fair that you are concerned about them cutting you off. 

  But you have friends that will support you. 

  Friends, that, you have led along for years now. Most especially since “Frozen.” Friends who believe that you have intentions to live your truest self. 

  I have to say; someone in your position coming out would…

• 

  Spencer 2021

  ★★★★★ Watched by theriverjordan 26 Oct 2021 76

  “Spencer” is less a portrait, than it is a fractured image of self-reflection split between its subject and its painter. 

  That painter, being Kristen Stewart, who does the commendable work of being the rare actor in a biopic to - not - sink totally and utterly into her role. And the film, and her performance, are all the more remarkable for that. 

  Rather than lose every bit of herself in Diana, Stewart instead merges physical and psychological aspects of herself…