Co-host/executive producer of long-running Filmspotting podcast and WBEZ radio show.
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
In the doc that precedes the 40th anniversary release, director Denis Villeneuve suggests the movie is a personal one for Spielberg beyond his obvious fascination with the material. He says the movie is about movie-making too, which struck me as a little trite - and cliche - in the moment. I mean, how many directors and their films has this been / could it be said about?
And yet, watching this time, I was struck by Roy Neary's journey from…
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Before Sunrise 1995
If somebody had told 19 year-old me that one day I’d watch this intimate masterpiece with my 14 year-old daughter... after having a conversation with Ethan Hawke where, just like an Ethan Hawke character in a Richard Linklater movie, he oh-so-insightfully schooled me on the importance of giving said daughter permission to make mistakes, to break hearts and have her heart broken... well, I might’ve said that sounded like something from a Richard Linklater movie.
There is some kind of magic in this world.
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You Hurt My Feelings 2023
Louis-Dreyfus and Holofcener just need, what, one more movie to at least enter the conversation of best actor-director collaborators? Or certainly actor-director collaborators of the last 15-20 years?
Put your combos in the comments. I haven't devoted time to generating an actual list, but I'll start with one no-brainer that's been top of mind this year: Williams-Reichardt.
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 2023
Fine, I'll say it: I should probably be giving this an extra half star.
There's a lot of talk about how groundbreaking the animation is, and that it's a game-changer for superhero movies... both rightfully so. But risking hyperbole here, sitting in the theater, I felt as if we were all watching a sort of cinematic demarcation. Like there will be pre-Across the Spider-Verse movies and post-Across the Spider-Verse movies. Not just animated or superhero ones. That isn't intended as…
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The Big Short 2015
Five stars? Yeah, five stars. Call me Standard & Poor's because I'm just tossing out AAA ratings.
A (frequently hilarious) crime movie where the American economy is the corpse, the entire financial system is the culprit, and the detectives all have bets on the body dropping.
But for the bearish take, you can hear Josh try to rain on my Adam McKay party on Filmspotting #566.
