Letterboxd — Your life in film

70mm! This is history told fast and furiously, and while I was enthralled, I’m wondering if I should wait to rate Napoleon until Ridley releases his promised four hour cut on Apple TV. There are sections (notably the early courtship between Napoleon and Josephine) that I imagine get more breathing room in an extended cut, which would in turn lend more of an emotional wallop to the end (though I will say I was quite moved by the scenes depicting…

The new age of Cage reaches perhaps its finest moment yet. Dream Scenario is a film that both harkens back to the great mid-budget Cage vehicles of the 2000s (Adaptation, Matchstick Men, The Weather Man) and yet creates something completely original. Yes, the movie can be read as a meta commentary on Cage’s internet fame and the price of becoming ubiquitous - but it also slowly morphs into something much darker and inarticulable with each passing scene. What’s most interesting…

AFS Cinema, followed by a Q&A with Richard Linklater and Todd Haynes (the latter via Zoom).

I wasn’t expecting this movie to be so uproariously funny, but it played to huge laughs at my screening. The scene where Natalie Portman visits a high school drama class is hysterical.

There was an excellent New Yorker article two years ago titled The Case Against the Trauma Plot, and it essentially argued that a good deal of modern cinema (and literature) is too…

Such a warm, deeply empathetic, generous movie, full of all the elements that make Alexander Payne’s films so moving and heartfelt. The Holdovers creates a space you want to live in, and I cherished being able to spend winter break with these misfits. It’s a testament to how much I love Paul Giamatti’s performance that I forgive him for loudly talking during a movie (he has the absolutely wrong reaction to being shushed, but no matter - it’s the classic…

Round Three, this time in IMAX.

The final scene between Ernest and Mollie is absolutely devastating. This is the moment the entire film has been building to, and it's just a gut punch. It reminds me of Peggy Sheeran's simple question to her father in The Irishman: "Why?"

Equally chilling is the final scene between Ernest and Hale. Never before have we seen Hale be so vulnerable, so broken, while still being his conniving self. The way he tenderly tells…

Round Two.

I will never hide my unabashed love and respect for Martin Scorsese and his films, and Killers of the Flower Moon is yet another stunning achievement in the career of the world’s greatest filmmaker. It takes the meditative and reflective qualities of Silence and The Irishman and applies them to the largest possible canvas. More than anything, the film is an incredible tribute to the Osage people. Just as in Kundun, Scorsese immerses you in the world of…