Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Keeping the Faith 2000

  Watched 22 Feb 2025

  cute lubitsch-esque love triangle charmer but for all the characters’ references to “the 21st century” this feels so utterly sealed in the amber of the 20th—a time capsule of nyc in the days just before 9/11, when the hot topics of conversation were ritalin and speed dial. (the “smooth” needle drop as ed and ben strut down the street in matching leather jackets? 👨‍🍳💋)

  but honestly i felt sad watching this, remembering that atmosphere of optimism. because after 9/11, the…

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  The Narrow Margin 1952

  Watched 14 Feb 2025

  fleischer busts out some really neat blocking tricks in this one. wish there was more train 🚂 but it’s a lean mean 71-minute noir, who can complain really

Popular reviews

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  Combat Obscura 2018

  Watched 15 Mar 2019 3

  powerful, essential, shocking verite doc that i can’t believe the pentagon allowed to be released. it’s been almost two *decades*, what in the world are we still doing there?

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  Snake Eyes 1998

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 15 Jan 2020

  one of de palma’s best and perhaps his most underrated. a thrilling mix of all his favorite themes (political conspiracies, whistleblowers, surveillance, voyeurism, institutional rot, etc) and techniques (tracking shots, split-screens and -diopters, screens within screens, replaying scenes from different perspectives, etc). cage giving a perfectly manic performance as a scumbag detective who discovers his moral compass hasn’t completely eroded. 

  a note about tracking shots, because this one delivers an all-timer. a lot of high-profile movies from the past few…