Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  On the Silver Globe 1988

  Watched 12 Mar 2025

  Initial thoughts: I watched this movie expecting to love it, and left with a bitter taste. It is visually stunning and conceptually staggering: it certainly has an epic, grandiose feel to it, and certain scenes like the unexplained attack that kills Piotr have stuck in my mind. The almost Shakespearian quality of the back half where almost every line is delivered as a breathless soliloquy began to get exhausting, but I appreciate it as a choice. However, beneath its stylish…

• 

  In the Mood for Love 2000

  Watched 03 Mar 2025

  Initial thoughts: A gorgeous, luxurious movie. While the characters are not particularly compelling, the film is dripping with so much style that its themes of heartache, separation, and tragic missed chances resonate regardless. The use of the main theme could be repetitive, but it's done with a lot of elegance and feels earned.

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  The 400 Blows 1959

  Watched 25 Feb 2025

  Initial thoughts: A film that I warm up to the more I think about. While it didn’t immediately capture me, its scenes had a warmth and a life that my mind keeps coming back to. Every performance is excellent and there is a sense of tactility to the movement that is absorbing. Scenes like the young offender's camp raise the commentary above autobiographical psychologising to insightful social commentary. Neurodiversity works very well as a theme as the viewer is sympathetically…

• 

  Contempt 1963

  Watched 02 Mar 2025

  Initial thoughts: Self indulgent, grating, and largely uninteresting. A story told by a divorced man frustrated by his own lack of self-awareness. I am sure there is lots of insightful critique on the medium of film therein, but my reading was a patriarch obsessed with the perceived loss of his power. Camille’s subjectivity, which would have made for a much more engaging story, was robbed by an ending that implied we are not to take her interiority as seriously as…

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