Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Master Gardener 2022

  ★★★★½ Watched 22 May 2023 12

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  87

  You'd think with the premise of Master Gardener, Paul Schrader is eager to play the role of provocateur, and while there is a bit of that here, especially in terms of fetishized imagery and the loaded relationship parallels, his latest film is ultimately a late-style romance of creaky simplicity and gentle beauty. As the trilogy capper for First Reformed and The Card Counter, it's the first of the three films to push back against the depths of the abyss…

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  Synecdoche, New York 2008

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 20 May 2023 4

  85

  Every so often, your teenage self is proven right. This is still a major work. Charlie Kaufman's anxieties and morbid tangents in Synecdoche, New York often intersect in moving, destabilizing forms. Unsure if it fully sticks the landing in a conceptual sense, even if the last scene is as harrowing as it gets, but the whole cast brings it home on an emotional level. All of the expansive theatrical set-dressing is audacious, and even the more intimate ideas (a…

Popular reviews

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  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker 2019

  ★ Watched 19 Dec 2019 303

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  15

  Disney/Lucasfilm Headquarters. Int. Day.

  Rian Johnson: Oh, hey, JJ!

  JJ Abrams: Hi Rian, how's it going?

  RJ: Great! I just wanted to say that really enjoyed my time making The Last Jedi. It was so exciting to craft a personal film with Disney money. And everyone at Lucasfilm approved it right away because Episode 7 left me with a bunch of mystery-box ideas and set-up that wasn't going to lead anywhere. Who directed that one again?

  JJ: Me. I…

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  American Psycho 2000

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 09 Aug 2014 20

  Christian Bale deserved an Oscar.

  So quotable.

  So funny.

  So twisted.

  So delirious.

  So amazing.

  Sorry this review is so short, I have to return some videotapes.