Letterboxd — Your life in film

I always astonished by the amount of ingenuity that had to go into crafting a movie like The Evil Dead on a sub-$400k budget. Sam Raimi had IT from the very beginning. I remember the last time I revisited this about four years ago, being blown away by how atmospheric it is, and by how well composed the images are. That wasn’t even taking into account the gratuitous elements it’s already lauded for, which hold up really well. This whole…

not at all surprised that alexander payne pulled a “both sides” about abortion. also, nomadland was the movie that really unlocked it for me but this watch confirmed it - i really have a problem with rich actors doing poverty dressup, like i love Laura Dern (pre-every white actor being against Will Smith for The Slap, anyway) but i just can’t buy her as someone huffing paint fumes and trying to get by on 15 bucks, when she was born…

"How could a man do this, Loomis? Tell me."
"It isn't a man."
"Well, what is he? Tell me! What the hell are we dealing with?"
"Evil."

Spooky Season #40

🎃 Happy Halloween! 🎃 My power only grows stronger on my favorite holiday. While I couldn't dream up a costume (how could I possibly improve on last year's classic?), nevertheless I'll listen to all the most appropriate music, e.g., the best Spooky Season song of all time and, of course,…

"There is no logic to this place. It’s been so many things, it doesn't know what it is anymore. A warehouse, speakeasy, gambling joint, restaurant… psychedelic club, a disco. Funny old world, isn't it?"

Women Film Editors #194: Penelope Shaw

Out of the many films currently available via Criterion Channel's spotlight on Jennifer Jason Leigh, Heart of Midnight was the only one not on my radar at all. So imagine my surprise to find, after reading Rock's excellent review, that…

astronomically misguided. a self described “purist” of Shakespeare who keeps in every line of Hamlet out of his devotion to the Bard’s craft,  fundamentally misunderstands every single thematic idea or character nuance in favour of crafting the tale into his own fantasies of being the martyr. imagine being so obsessed with something that you clearly don’t understand the potential power of. and if Olivier can keep a Hamlet adaptation under 3 hours, then you can as well Branagh. takes 45…

on the Howard Stern show, the date of which I'm not certain of, Quentin Tarantino appeared as a guest and was questioned about comments he'd made regarding Roman Polanski, in particular him being very happy that Polanski had won Best Director at the Oscars decades after fleeing the country due to being convicted for raping a 13 year old girl. over the course of an 8 minute segment on YouTube, Tarantino says a multitude of heinous things that made me…

1. saw this for free in theatres, didn’t pay a penny of my own money for it because of my previous objections. 
2. only went for two things, the last chance to see one of my favourite actors Luke Perry on the big screen for a couple minutes; and because I’m writing an essay on Charlie Says that I feel could use the perspective of having seen this film. 
3. for all the good that’s in it, when I left…

Who cares? I found this pretty boring. I whispered this to a friend who whispered back, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... nothing happened!” 

As always, performance and style is just great. It’s supremely fun to watch Leo and Brad act. Margot is... there? The style is intermittently cool. What little tension the film builds is undercut by its own self-interest in being unconventional. 

I like driving around LA listening to cool music as much as the next guy... Doesn’t mean…