Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Conclave 2024

  ★★★ Watched 18 Mar 2025

  "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

  This is some very lovely cinema, with bold and assertive camera work and loads of dank Catholic aesthetics. I wish they'd made the political angles, which are nicely set off against each other in the conclave, less cartoonish though: it seemed like every character had a moment where they dropped into painfully bland and clunky dialogue where they…

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  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1966

  ★★★★★ Watched 08 Mar 2025

  Love how this manages to be both picaresque and epic, a wandering western buddy tale while also a morally serious war movie. Hadn't seen it in almost twenty years, and it's only gotten better with age (its own and mine). Peak cinema.

Popular reviews

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  Athos 2016

  ★★★★ Watched 08 May 2021

  Beautiful film. A lot of documentaries focus on notable personalities to carry the viewer's interest, but here it's a form of life that is compelling. Some of these men seem positively to glow with the simplicity and devotion of their lives. A powerful approach to life, well documented by the film's light touch and unhurried structure.

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  Mulholland Drive 2001

  ★★★★★ Watched 16 Jan 2025

  I first saw this on its theatrical release, with my high school girlfriend but some months after I'd graduated high school. I was living at home, working in a bookstore, and that's about it. I wasn't about much and didn't know much either. I'd never seen a David Lynch film, but to be fair I wouldn't have known if I had: I don't think I knew the director of any movie, even the all-time greats (i.e. Fight Club and Dazed…