Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Creed 2015

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 10 Nov 2017 3

  Bumped it up to the full 5 stars this time.

  An absolutely masterful examination of RACE, primarily in the subversion of the original film's "great white hope" narrative; MASCULINITY, specifically in its association with violence; IDENTITY, particularly in the significance of names; FAMILY, especially in terms of constructed bonds; and LEGACY, essentially in its relationship to death. And what's even more brilliant is not just the exploration of each of these themes individually, but how all of them overlap and…

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  Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood 2019

  Rewatched 17 Aug 2019 2

  I figured a second viewing was necessary to cement my feelings. I was right, but what it cemented was still a profound ambivalence.

  To begin with, I have to admit that this film is endlessly fascinating to me on a metatextual level. I'm considering the irony of Rick Dalton's lamentable villain roles against Quentin Tarantino's own gallery of iconic villains; I'm examining the correlation between Cliff Booth and QT's other stuntman-turned-unproven-woman-killer Stuntman Mike; I'm pondering the significance of Uma Thurman's…

Recent reviews

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  Sweet Smell of Success 1957

  ★★★★ Rewatched 09 Dec 2023

  So much to pick apart here about ambition, exploitation, domestic abuse, and racism (I'm still 100% convinced that Steve Dallas is black-coded). But I'm also just mesmerized by Tony Curtis's Maybelline eyelashes.

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  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol 2011

  ★★★½ Rewatched 06 Jul 2023

  I enjoyed this movie a lot more this time around. Still not a very good script, frankly, especially with the very stock nuclear warhead plot run by an absolute nonentity of a villain. But other than that, it's pretty fun and snappy. And it's a good balance of conspicuous action and covert ops, which is what I like to see in a "Mission: Impossible." (Even though none of the team ever wears a mask in this one -- sacrilege!) It's…

Popular reviews

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  28 Days Later 2002

  ★★★★ Rewatched 17 Sep 2015 2

  Hoop-Tober 2.0 Film #3

  "I promised them women."

  Quite possibly the most terrifying sentence I have ever heard in a film. And that is why I love horror movies like this -- because the true horror lies not in what the monsters do to people, but in what normal people choose to do to each other. After all, the infection here is just that: a disease. It has no agency, no motive. But people do. They choose to deceive, to…

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  Pump Up the Volume 1990

  ★★★½ Rewatched 07 Dec 2016 2

  Even shy, awkward, bespectacled Christian Slater can GET IT.