Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Light Keeps Me Company 2000

  ★★★★½ Added

  This exquisite postcard portrait of a film artist is intimate, imaginative and enticing. Sven Nykvist is often counted as one of the greatest cinematographers in the history of the form, with a strong case to be made as the greatest. Although I have a strong aversion for superlatives, I can say unquestionably he's greatly influenced my understanding of naturalist lighting and inspired my appreciation for simplicity. This biographical survey is supplied with scene samples from his many movies, insights from…

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  The Woman Next Door 1981

  ★★★ Watched 13 Dec 2023

  When two former lovers become neighbors, now each married with families of their own, things go terribly wrong. These unresolved passions are on destructive and tragic display in this tale of passion in another of Truffuat’s Hitchcock homages. Although not his best and a bit tiresome at times, there remains strong staging, dialogue, and intrigue, which Truffaut reliably delivers. A film for Truffaut purists and pining lovers.

Popular reviews

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  The Amityville Horror 1979

  ★★ Watched 22 Oct 2023

  Everything about this ostensible horror classic sounds great on paper: mysterious deaths in a spacious house on the Long Island Sound, a young family moves into their dream home (James Brolin and Margot Kidder -- the era’s Lois Lane), bizarre happenings, the family dog keeps pawing at the wall beneath the cellar stairs, flies suddenly congregate in an upstairs room, doors flying off their hinges, the apparition of possessed wolves appear outside of windows, the husband can’t sleep, he’s woken…

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  "Sr." 2022

  ★★★½ Rewatched 10 Dec 2022

  a gorgeous tapestry, a son trying to know his father, a father having one last hurrah, a grandson creating a remembrance, a profile of a sterling filmmaking pioneer, sown together with lessons of life and filial piety. A really moving documentary, one of the best films of the year!

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