Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  BlackBerry 2023

  ★★★★★ Watched 21 Sep 2023

  A theatrical dramatization recounting the rise and fall of Research In Motion through the lifecycle of their Blackberry product.

  Simply outstanding, irreverent recreation of the tech boom lifestyle and its individual characterizations. I identified so hard with the depiction: I knew (and still know) people like the RiM employees; I knew (and still know) management like Balsillie and co.; I am very much like Lazaridis and have friends and colleagues like Fregin. The memories of hanging out with college tech…

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  The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2023

  ★★★★★ Watched 13 Jul 2023

  Two plumbers, one pipe.

  I'm neither a Mario Bros. fan, but also not completely ignorant of the franchise (I played the coin-op back in the day), and I've never owned a game console aside from a PS2 for a year during the DDR craze. So what caught me by surprise is how much I truly enjoyed this much-maligned cinematic take on our li'l Italian 8-bit heroes. Having entered with low expectations helps, but I never expected to get all starry-eyed…

Recent reviews

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  This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection 2019

  ★★ Watched 02 Dec 2023

  Old woman in South African village protests plans to flood it for a power project.

  Despite the 4:3 presentation, the director and cinematographer certainly know how to capture an image. Twala has the memorable looks of a walnut, and she is framed in shots that almost universally appear like they belong in an art museum for National Geographic pics. Not many films come from this region that demonstrate very smart camera work of this level.

  The story, however, is so…

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  Come True 2020

  ★★★½ Watched 30 Nov 2023

  A runaway with strange dreams enlists in a sleep study.

  Many other films and influences come to mind as I watched Come True, including Aronofsky's Pi, the Lovecraftian works of Benson & Moorhead, Paranormal Activity, etc. Utilizing an 80s setting - with old computer equipment and period movie posters and t-shirts - a synthy score frames spooky imagery, constantly implying impending disaster. The unfolding science experiment was engrossing since the audience is never fully informed as to what's being studied -…

Popular reviews

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  The God Who Wasn't There 2005

  ★½ Watched 29 Jan 2007

  When I watched this, I had hoped it would be a good, logical, scientific breakdown of the facts and real history behind the biblical applications, interpretations, and claims of God and Jesus. It immediately starts out on the wrong foot with a mocking, comedic tone. The narrator, the filmmaker himself, could really use some lessons in neutral speaking. His sarcasm and derisive tone come across as clear as a bell over very low-budget graphics and frail facts. Interspersed are snippets…

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  Tenet 2020

  ½ Watched 22 Feb 2021

  Secret agent struggles to save the world from bad guys and bad things that fight backwards!

  This is the kind of movie you'd get if you asked a toddler what superpower the evildoers should have, then gave it to a big-name director to convulse it into a watchable format, and drove up a truckload of money to produce it. I hated Inception and hoped dearly for some kind of redemption, but this was so much worse than anticipated.

  Only Nolan…