Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Spencer 2021

  ★★★★ Watched 04 Nov 2021

  SPENCER is a horror film. Believe it or not, this speculative psychodrama about Lady Di and the Royal Family has more in common with Kubrick's THE SHINING than Netflix's THE CROWN. "A fable from a true tragedy", it is almost undone by Stewart's bafflingly stylized Diana impersonation (a bold choice by director Larraín to let her go this far). There is a final thesis, also: all you need is love...pop songs and KFC. [Cinema, DCP]

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  The Last Duel 2021

  ★★★★★ Watched 14 Oct 2021

  For 83-year-old Ridley Scott, directing must be like breathing air. So intuitive is his work that tonal shifts between marital psychodrama, medieval jurisprudence, the vanity of men or the slippery nature of truth are hardly detectable. When Damon’s cantankerous brute and Driver’s smug scribe battle, it's the most thrilling cinema in years. Suddenly you realize, why Sir Ridley just may be the greatest director alive. [Cinema, DCP]

Popular reviews

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  Snow Falling on Cedars 1999

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 25 Jun 2016

  "It takes a rare thing, a turning point, to free oneself from any obsession…even love". If all life is coming to terms with what fate has already decided for you (your name, heritage, who you can love and also have)—is there a way to be free? Misunderstood and ignored upon release, the time has come to reassess SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. To appreciate its complexity beyond the astonishing cinematography and editing.

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  Alien Resurrection 1997

  ★★½ Rewatched 15 Jul 2017 3

  Easily the worst of the four Alien movies, ALIEN: RESURRECTION is still way more inventive than Fincher's nasty ALIEN3. In fact, there's a perverse joy in seeing the uber-serious Alien universe destroyed by buffoonery—Dan Hedaya is a hoot! The script or its interpretation or both are untenable. But Khondji's cinematography deserves huge praise (if Francis Bacon ever saw this, he'd laugh; but also silently approve).