Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  The Other 1972

  ★★ Watched 26 Feb 2023

  never quite reaches the heights of "eerie" that it's going for but i have to say, a lot of studio productions of the time have this very sterile, manicured depiction of pre-postwar that's nevertheless unnerving in the right hands. middle class family dynastic intrigues are certainly a dominant mode in novelistic fiction at the time, without that context youre not likely to find a lot of these tropes effectual. especially of note is uta hagen's performance, which now appears very theatrical and on the page, but pretty groundbreaking att, as this was her film debut after 3 decades winning tonys

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  The Outwaters 2022

  ★★½ Watched 22 Feb 2023

  this one actually stuck a bit better than i was willing to admit at first, if for no reason other than the slightly shifted perspective of the typical possessive hetero guy camera eye. the ayahuascic primal trip film of jungian/freudian cliches duking it out is pretty well trod ground too, even in FF. ultimately though, what im a sucker for is the fact that there exists a mode of filmmaking that is completely commercial but also sneaks in experimental, alienating techniques - a full third of this film is barely legible, fleeting images lit by a baseball sized spotlight

Popular reviews

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  American Beauty 1999

  ★½ Added

  some of my least favorite films are late 90's prestige edgy ensemble dramas. i always like these because of the smaller actors, in this case chris cooper and thora birch. this movie cops a major 'tude but the more i watch older movies, it seems like they have a much greater thematic range when trying to twist the nips of the american dream, despite being self-censored.

  never liked this one because it centered on the insufferably smug spacey character, playing possibly the ultimate great american novel protagonist, some middle aged dipshit pining for a 17 year old girl.

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  Annihilation 2018

  ★★½ Added

  there's something about alex garland's writing that i don't like that assumes you've never even heard of scifi before. exposition has a big place in genre film and shouldn't be excised entirely, but part of what makes weird fiction work is leaving some work to the imagination and above all, trusting your audience. an extended, mostly wordless sequence in the third act breaks free for a short, abstract little jog, too bad so much of the film is characters telling you their backstory.

  BIG props to buff gina rodriguez in the vasquez from aliens role.