Murder in the gig economy. Burn the disco, hang the DJ. David Fincher's latest and funniest film opens with a detailed look at its enigmatic protagonist's worldview by way of his extensive inner monologue. He quotes Popeye, listens to The Smiths, borrows his aliases from sitcom characters, and gradually his constant assertions of how in control he is begin to feel more like self-affirmation rather than the brash manifesto of, say, Tyler Durden, or Amy Dunne's self-possessed Cool Girl speech.…
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Lilo & Stitch 2002
"You see, I never gave him a greater purpose. What must it be like to have nothing, not even memories to look back on in the middle of the night?"
After revisiting Fantasia, it was only right that I went back to my other favourite Disney film to mark the studio's 100th anniversary. A film about a living weapon rejected by the entire galaxy, finding kinship with a lonely girl similarly ostracised by her peers, about a small, broken family…
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9 Souls 2003
A lesson about crawling through holes: every tunnel that leads to escape has a million other problems waiting on the other side. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, but every encounter is just as likely to lead to disaster as it is to go well. Things break, people leave, and despite your best intentions, you will fuck up again, and again, and again. The good news is that every day is a second chance, the bad news…
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Chimes at Midnight 1965
A wise man plays the fool, his bumbling nature hiding callous mischief. But how long do you play that act before it ceases to be just a performance? Was it even put on to begin with? John Falstaff recurs through Shakespeare's catalogue, in works both dramatic and comedic. As a result, he's at once ridiculous and tragic, a rotund, strangely likable fop damned to lose all dear to him. It's an odd dichotomy, a work rich with equal amounts of…
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio 2022
Pinocchio loves hot chocolate and hates facists: film of the year!
A gorgeous, heartfelt adaptation of the timeless folk tale, one that, to my mind, stands above them all by remembering exactly what Pinocchio as a character represents: the enduring power of a father's love. It's another stellar take on Del Toro's pet theme-the power of disobedience in the face of authority, but I'm hard pressed to remember another one of his films pairing that with such winning sweetness. I'm…
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Oppenheimer 2023
In lieu of a biopic that uses its subject's eyes as a window into their soul or out through their world, Nolan turns Oppenheimer's cold stare into a stark, harrowing mirror that reflects back the wrenching existential dread that comes from the horrifying connection between creation and destruction. He pares back his more audacious structural sensibilities (which came as a relief to me as someone who really didn't get on with Tenet), creating much more space not just to depict…
