Co-founder of Letterboxd.
“I’m twelve. But I’ve been twelve for a long time.”
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AllPinned reviews
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First Man 2018
Grainy, noisy and claustrophobic, and that’s before we even set foot inside a Gemini module. It took me a little while to warm to Linus Sandgren’s extreme close-up camerawork, but it’s a stylistic choice that serves to reframe any mundanity that was present in the Armstrongs’ home life, and to propel an otherwise traditional narrative along in an unexpected way.
The mostly male cast is teeming with worthy character actors, many of whom are underused, but only so we can…
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United 93 2006
Ruthlessly economical filmmaking that so effectively illustrates just how unexpected and unfathomable the events of 9/11 were for the passengers and ground crews involved.
Once past the opening hotel-room and boarding-gate scenes, the film never strays beyond the walls of the hijacked aircraft or the military and civilian command centres that responded. Director Greengrass provides no explanation — other than perhaps nerves — for the hijackers’ delayed gambit on board, and deliberately downplays most of the day’s iconic imagery: the…
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Poor Things 2023
Felt like a strange and wonderful amalgam of words by the Decemberists and pictures by early-nineties Tim Burton, punched up to transcendent heights by one of the most accomplished directors in any era, and served to an obliging audience on a baroque silver platter.
Emma Stone is the heart—and eventually the brain—of this operation, in a risky, career-defining role that will land her, if there is any such thing as justice (or an end to the SAG strike), her second…
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The Royal Hotel 2023
A fictional reimagining of the events depicted in Pete Gleeson’s excellent 2016 documentary Hotel Coolgardie, this Outback-set thriller eventually diverges from both its source inspiration and its audience’s probable expectations for how this story plays out. Grimy, tense and at times darkly comedic. Kitty Green can do no wrong.
Popular reviews
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Drive 2011
The tech writer John Gruber is fond of a Kubrick quote about the truth of a thing being in the feel of it rather than the think of it, a phrase that for me perfectly explains the appeal of Nicolas Winding Refn’s noirish adaptation of the James Sallis novel. Right from the first hotel-room scene, through a near wordless fifteen-minute opening stanza, the foreboding atmosphere of an after-hours, back-streets Los Angeles takes hold. An ambient, minimal score by Cliff Martinez…
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Les Misérables 2012
Golden boy director, hot off earnest 2011 Oscar winner The King’s Speech, cashes in open-slather offer for next project by committing to film universally adored hit musical about love at first sight and the redemptive power of student uprisings.
Loses drunken bet over which member of the Master and Commander cast will play the pivotal role of Javert, and is forced to cast vocally-challenged Aussie rocker, only to have him murder ‘Stars’ and be thoroughly upstaged by pint-sized unknown Daniel…
