Amy Hensarling

Amy Hensarling Patron

Favorite films

  • Ordinary People
  • Mumford
  • Birth
  • Bull Durham

Recent activity

All
  • Hannah and Her Sisters

    ★★★★

  • Pride & Prejudice

    ★★★★★

  • Men in Black

    ★★★★

  • Holy Smoke

    ★★★½

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  • I'm Thinking of Ending Things

    I'm Thinking of Ending Things

    ★★★★

    I don’t like thinking about box office. I don’t like thinking about commercial viability. All those things that get put into your head, that turn you into some kind of numbskull and unable to do the thing that’s important. I want to be rid of it. I’m done with it. It’s not important to me. I understand that now. And the fact that I don’t care anymore, it makes it easier, because I can do the work if I get…

  • Bad Things

    Bad Things

    ★★★★

    Bad Things is about wanting to destroy the part of yourself that wants to destroy you. Its insufferable characterization is what was missing for me in The Worst Person in the World—the self-loathing self-aware shittiness of a liar, a cheater, someone who’s lost their way but knows it, & can’t make a good decision stick. It’s not attractive or sympathetic or endearing. It’s ugly. 

    Maybe the movie’s not a great horror flick with plot holes, meandering bits, & inconsistencies, but I do know…

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  • Men in Black

    Men in Black

    ★★★★

    Okay I seriously just almost gave this a 4.5 and hadn’t seen it in, what, 15 years? Loved MiB growing up. Turns out there are loads of legitimate reasons… 

    Danny Elfman (nommed for Best Original Score!), the great Barry Sonnenfeld, Rip Torn, Linda (hot as ever), Smith & Jones, obviously obviously, produced by Spielberg,* visual effects by IL&M, RICK BAKER top tier creature designs, and OF COURSE the whole trip feels so Marvel-y it couldn’t have been otherwise. 

    “I’m gonna pay…

  • Holy Smoke

    Holy Smoke

    ★★★½

    love Campion’s “messy feminism” ‘cause feminism’s messy (sorry), relationships are messy (always), and the male/female power dynamics course never did run smooth. the shifts are so subtle, they happen like that, that fast. he thinks he’s on top, then, out of nowhere: You didn’t think I was pretending, did you? may never know for sure… who’s taking advantage, who’s being taken advantage of. what a silly endless dance. In the Cut treks similar terrain, going beyond MEN ARE DANGEROUS AND MAY PUNCH YOUR FACE to fearless feminine stance. do your worst. for I shall do mine. 

    yours anytime

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  • Maestro

    Maestro

    ★★

    Maestro has the emotional intelligence of a 12-year-old. Subtle as a sledgehammer. She looks over, he’s gripping another man’s hand, the camera eases in. She’s jealous, she’s livid, she’s had enough. She drops his LB monogrammed slippers on the floor in the other room ‘cause, gasp! Guess who’s exiled to that couch again tonight, Lenny.

    Sorry, Bradley. Plop this atop the Mank Eyes of Tammy Faye Being the Ricardos dirty laundry heap. Actors Acting, nothing nuanced to say. Two and a half hour time-suck drag, like overhearing a gossipy coworker complain about their marital problems using kindergarten terms. Snooze.

  • White Palace

    White Palace

    ★★★½

    There’s an early Sex and the City episode around the idea that we’ve all been with someone we wouldn’t introduce to our friends. The person doesn’t fit the bill. Too young, too old, too rich, too poor, too different, too ______. Fill in the blank. For Carrie & the gang, it’s not super deep or even insightful social commentary. It’s just this person does it for me, but nobody I know would understand, and that’s that. Fact of life. Have fun…