Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel Patron

Favorite films

  • Catch Me If You Can
  • It's a Wonderful Life
  • La La Land
  • Children of Men

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  • May December

    ★★★★½

  • Jawan

    ★★★★

  • Last Hurrah for Chivalry

    ★★★

  • Martha Marcy May Marlene

    ★★★★

Recent reviews

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  • May December

    May December

    ★★★★½

    Nauseating. It’s simultaneously an empathetic examination of the psychological and emotional toll of being a long-term victim of abuse and a horrifying exploration of the onlookers, bystanders, and audiences who allow traumatic, cruel dynamics play out due to numbness, carelessness, or refusal to acknowledge immorality. Natalie Portman gives a career-best performance as the obsessive actor investigating the situation, brilliantly balancing performative kindness and an intense actorly obsession with selfishly absorbing the drama of someone else’s pain. Julianne Moore is as terrifying…

  • Jawan

    Jawan

    ★★★★

    Ridiculously fun, melodramatic modern Robin Hood with robust action sequences and exuberant musical numbers. Shah Rukh Khan gives an incredibly charming, multifaceted (if you know, you know) performance, and the visuals are largely exquisite. On the negative side, the extended cut available on Netflix definitely feels kinda shaggy and meandering, to the point where it almost runs out of steam in the end, and I’m not sure if the original cut fixes that. And its overall attitude toward prisons (or,…

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  • Do the Right Thing

    Do the Right Thing

    ★★★★★

    If you don’t think Sal is a racist, you should probably rewatch this movie. His climactic use of racial slurs can’t be chalked up to a lapse of judgement. He repeatedly clarifies that he only tolerates black people because they haven’t done anything bad to him, and because they provide his livelihood. His respect for the black community is entirely conditional and transaction-based — as soon as his “terms” of respect (essentially not having any major negative encounters with any…

  • Grease

    Grease

    ★½

    Nothing about Grease makes any sense. Aside from a few enjoyable musical numbers and dance sequences, the movie is an absolute mess of tonal contradictions. It attempts to radiate horny teen energy, but everybody in it has so little chemistry that they seem like they’re siblings pretending to be lovers.

    The failed sexual energy is also at odds with the bizarrely juvenile slapstick humor that, in my eyes, only kids could appreciate. And the filmmakers shoot the whole thing with some…