Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Red Desert 1964

  ★★★★★ Watched 28 Oct 2013

  Long ago humankind had to adapt to its environment. Nature was harsh and cruel and we as a species evolved to survive. Eventually we gained the ability to adapt our environment to us. Thanks to scientific advancement we can now literally pave paradise and put up a parking lot, or a strip mall, or a nuclear power plant. We are now the masters! Or are we? What does being surrounded by all this artificiality do to a person? All this…

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  BlacKkKlansman 2018

  ★★★★½ Watched 01 Sep 2018

  I know Godard and Tarantino are the directors most often held up as examples of filmmaking as film criticism, but Spike Lee is no slouch either. It’s no accident that BlacKkKlansman opens with a clip from Gone with the Wind. Of course Lee’s prime targets are White Nationals and the President who has emboldened them, but NYU professor Spike clearly also has his sights set on Film History itself.

  It makes perfect sense that back in film school, Lee made…

Recent reviews

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  Little Murders 1971

  ★★★★ Watched 04 Dec 2023

  Loses momentum a bit after the wedding but gets you back with a sharp turn. Might’ve been a masterpiece if it could’ve sustained. But still a very good, wild, and dark comedy.

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  Tangerine 2015

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 03 Dec 2023

  Wild that in such a short time, the corner featured in this film has already changed so dramatically. Now it is not only a funny and heartfelt film, but it is also an important anthropological document.

Popular reviews

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  Magnolia 1999

  ★★★★★ Added 6

  Film students and critics love to make a big deal about the "showy" moments in this movie. They go on about the long takes, the prologue, the hidden 82s, the narration, the sing-a-long and the frogs. It's kind of hard not to. And with an epic run-time of 188 minutes, there is no shortage of "showy" acting as well. Not a single moment comes easy. People hurt and people get hurt. Every single character is an exposed raw nerve. So…

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  Blow-Up 1966

  ★★★★★ Added 13

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  By the middle of the 1960s it was undeniable that the baby-boomers were on the rise and the World War II generation was on the decline. While many in the older generation responded to this phenomenon with fear and aggression, others found it fascinating. Having already completed a trilogy of films (L'avventura, La Notte and L'eclisse) in effort to understand his own generation's ennui, 54 year-old Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni decided it was now time to see what gave the…