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Steamboat Bill, Jr. 1928
This is where Keaton completely comes together for me: the character-based humor, the physical gags, the action/adventure, the societal commentary, the emotional anchor.
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Everything Everywhere All at Once 2022
This movie gave me a headache, and not in a good way. Instead of being entertained, I was left confused and failed to catch up with whatever on the screen. If you look for a movie that is paced to the speed of Usain Bolt's sprinting, then this is for you.
If I need a good headache, I'd rather watch Satoshi Kon's Paprika or Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. If I want something bonkers, but genuinely funny…
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One Week 1920
Pitch-perfect both from the slapstick side, the comedy side and the great technique in the middle. This is easily the best and most impressively-looking Buster Keaton short films. Surely a lot of effort was put while making this comic little jewel. Perhaps my favorite Keaton short. I definitely wouldn't buy that house.
100/100
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The Green Ray 1986
One of the goods of film, as with other imaginative means of story-telling, is that it allows me the opportunity to see through another's eyes, to live someone else's life for a time, to experience things outside my ordinary ambit.
But another, rarer, good, by contrast, is that, once in a while, I myself appear on screen, and perhaps seeing myself in that way helps me to better understand myself and the life I am living.
Well, Delphine, c'est moi.…
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Pool Sharks 1915
Malick recommends, #1
In 2002, Terrence Malick was asked to recommend a few old films to show at the Austin Film Society's film festival. He responded with a few titles from early in the silent film era. This was one of them.
This pint-sized comedy comes from the very early years of film -- the same year as Birth of a Nation. It tells the story of two men, rivals for the affections of the same woman, who, cues in…
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The Battle of the Century 1927
Malick Recommends, #3
In 2002, Terrence Malick was asked to recommend a few old films to show at the Austin Film Society's film festival. He responded with a few titles from early in the silent film era. This was one of them.
It's a short film, with two parts: a boxing match and a pie fight, with a banana peel interlude. What could be better?
It's my first Laurel and Hardy film, and I, in the company of my seven-year-old…
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The General 1926
It’s hard to imagine Buster Keaton without trains. Trains play key roles in so many of his shorts and features (One Week, Our Hospitality, and Sherlock Jr., to name a few) and a train is the defining element—indeed the title character—of The General. Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, a Southern engineer whose beloved train is stolen by Union spies at the start of the Civil War. Desperate to retrieve it—and impress the belle (Marion Mack) who has been kidnapped by said…
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The Lost City 2022
While I see why this would appeal to fans of Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum comedies, I flat out refuse to believe that Rotten Tomatoes critics gave this 79%.
It's basically a high budget, made for TV romcom adventure, completely unremarkable in almost every regard. -
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The Card Counter 2021
Paul Schrader is becoming one of my favorite directors. Time to complete the early works of his that I haven't seen.
I especially like the unflinching nature of his presentation and the moral ambiguity.
Add to that, this might be my favorite Oscar Isaac performance.
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