Raw, even by Cassavetes standards, but still has his ability to capture the essential feel of guys being dudes, of pretentious intellectuals, of proto-fuccbois, of conflicted people. There are some bits that don't go anywhere, but the good stuff will stick with you. Plus it's cool to see a movie about the beats and the early days of the counterculture made when it was still current, rather than looking back and trying to recapture it. Last but not least, you have to appreciate the rare Cassavetes that doesn't have an extra half-hour tacked onto it.
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Inland Empire 2006
Want to leave a review but what the fuck am I going to say about this?
Torn between "need to watch five more times to make sense of it" and "I can go another couple decades before doing that again."
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Lincoln 2012
Spielberg being Spielberg, a phenomenal cast, an inspiring story of the embodiment of America in all its contradictions, our very own mystical warrior healer politician and prophet and martyr for freedom.
Tows the line of hagiography at times, but I'm as guilty as anyone because my heart swelled when I realized I was watching it on the day he was assassinated.
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Die Hard: With a Vengeance 1995
Extremely convoluted, stretches itself a little too far (the hamhanded attempt to Say Something About Our Times and Race Relations, plus whatever was going on with Katya, Simon, and Krieg), but absolutely a rollicking good time, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson are charismatic as ever, I appreciated the twists on the classic Die Hard structure and the willingness to hold off on big action scenes.
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King Richard 2021
Watched almost exclusively because of The Slap. Wild that even ten years ago, this would have made $300 million instead of 38.
Perfectly serviceable, feel-good Oscar bait. A little unfocused, sometimes forgets stories or expects us to react to things that aren't on screen, but you can't deny the spirit or Will Smith doing his finest Will Smith.
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Once Were Warriors 1994
My first dip into Kanopy, and one I've been curious about for a while. Sometimes has a ring of cliche and melodrama, but when it's good, it's great. The violence is sudden and shocking, there are a million heartbreaking moments, Temuera Morrison and Rena Owen are fantastic as the two leads.
Wild that eight years after this, Morrison was in Star Wars and Tamahori was directing a Bond.
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The Worst Person in the World 2021
The existentialist subtext is pretty much the text here. Nobody likes the "I have read philosophy" guy, but the characters did everything short of namedropping the sickness unto death and Dasein and bad faith.
That's not a knock at all, it's a great movie and threads the needle of exploring all those themes in depth without beating the viewer over the head with them. It manages to do the same with contemporary elements like smartphones and MeToo and cancel culture,…
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