Favorite films

Pinned reviews

• 

  McCabe & Mrs. Miller 1971

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 17 May 2021 9

  In the upper echelon of cinema anecdotes are reports of Altman intentionally damaging film reels and audio tapes at the end of each shooting day, hoping to circumvent the studio inevitably withholding permission for similar effects work in post. It’s just as well that he did; the only thing harder to imagine than executive approval for such a technique is McCabe & Mrs. Miller existing in any other form. Altman dramatizes the idea of the American dream here via the fog…

• 

  The Master 2012

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 30 Jul 2020 23

  “Where am I?”
  “You’re safe. You’re at sea.”

  Those who admire the films of Paul Thomas Anderson are no strangers to the labyrinths his thematic puzzle boxes construct — one could probably watch Magnolia half a dozen times in the span it would take to unravel all of its mysteries — and yet, The Master lingers tantalizingly even above this, the most oblique and elusive of all his work. For a film that feels so assured of itself, one so…

Recent reviews

• 

  Airplane! 1980

  ★★★★ Watched 09 Jun 2023 2

  “I just want to wish you both good luck, we’re all counting on you.“

• 

  The Fabelmans 2022

  ★★★ Watched 07 Jun 2023 7

  Last shot is pure transcendence… the rest is the king, the GOAT, the maestro of sincerity himself indulging in cloying faux-sentiment to a degree that makes this borderline unwatchable. Would give anything for the goofier, more emotionally tactful version of this that David Lynch thinks he’s in, but for disturbingly large swaths it’s hard to engage it as anything besides Michelle Williams’ roadtrip doc to Oscarville. Personal disappointment aside, though, it feels obscene to rate this so low, like I…

Popular reviews

• 

  Spider-Man 2 2004

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 08 Jun 2020 48

  the virgin amazing spider-man:
  - responsibility, no power
  - listens to phillip phillips unironically
  - shares diluted to 0.03%
  - skater
  - has never seen a girl

  the chad mcu spider-man:
  - power, no responsibility 
  - girls are fine but legos are better
  - can’t do anything w/o sugar daddy iron man
  - snap score hit 1m last week 
  - favorite movie is the lion king (2019), doesn’t know it’s a remake

  the thad raimi/maguire spider-man:
  - power & responsibility 
  - ironic dancing 
  - respectful to women but not a simp
  - relatable (can’t pay rent, occasionally emo)
  - reads poetry, Augustine, probably

• 

  Napoleon Dynamite 2004

  ★★½ Rewatched 17 Apr 2021 17

  This movie feels like being in Goodwill