Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  The Big Trees 1952

  ★★½ Watched 03 Oct 2023

  Some movies have too much Kirk Douglas for their own good.

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  Five Graves to Cairo 1943

  ★★★ Watched 03 Oct 2023

  Billy Wilder's version of Hotel Imperial... but when your hotel is taken over by Field Marshall rommel himself, shit gets real pretty quickly.

Popular reviews

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  Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 1970

  ★★★ Watched 31 Oct 2015 49

  If this were by a female director, it'd be a compelling menstrual-hut-power fantasy ode to Goddess Reproductive Magic, but that's not a movie that any man could make, so...

  Disturbing crypto-pedo fantasy that reads like Charles Dodgson and Roman Polanski brainstorming on heavy doses of MDMA.

  It's got vampires + a very girly magic-realism drawn from fairy-tales and dream-work. A bit kitsch, innit? In a good way, though, like a lo-fi Nazareno Cruz.

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  Vicky Cristina Barcelona 2008

  ★ Watched 30 Aug 2016 28

  Glib and carelessly-imagined ode to privilege. I tried to ignore my distaste for the superficial artsiness of the characters, but after the scene where the blonde girl decided it would be kicks to go to a slummy-looking neighborhood and photograph sex-workers I just couldn't. Esp. when the SW were all "Hello, American Lady Woman! We love you! Come taste the wines and cheeses of my village!"

  An art-adjacent lifestyle is one thing, an arts career is another.