Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Nickel Boys 2024

  ★★★★½ Watched 27 Mar 2025

  I had no idea what this was about before watching it.  Just going by the name, I assumed it was some kind of carefree Hardy boys style mystery film.  I was way off.

  The film is also challenging, both in subject matter and in filmmaking style.  I started watching and asked is this really going to be pov all the way through?  Yep.

  There's at least a few scenes that stick with me: the drive into the grounds at nickel,…

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  Native Son 1951

  ★★★½ Watched 23 Mar 2025

  It's no surprise that this was made outside the Hollywood system because this film tackles issues no other film of it's time would be doing.

  The hatred that Bigger faces is palpable and intense.  Really disturbing.  

  Bigger also is facing these problems because his so called "allies" put him in a bad situation.  The film could have cheaped out and shown Bigger to be an angel, but it clearly showed that Bigger had a predilection toward violence.  It made for a more realistic film.

Popular reviews

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  Black Venus 2010

  ★★½ Watched 11 Aug 2018 3

  This film has historical merit,  but there’s no way I can recommend anyone watching this.

  The main character is placed into escalating scene upon scene of indignities.  We definitely feel a lot of empathy for her.  
  The main problem I have is:  no actress should be subjected through 2.75 hours of these indignities.
  It’s horrible that this young lady had to subject herself to such embarrassing scenes.  This is too close to art imitating life when it comes to exploitation.

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  Black Panther 2018

  ★★★ Watched 18 Feb 2018

  We could all learn a lot from Wakanda and have our political leaders fight to the death on the top of a waterfall.  

  But seriously, this is a very average superhero movie.  
  There was one interesting action set piece in Korea and not much else.  The ending battle was mediocre, with a lot of hokey cgi.  
  The cast was pretty great, especially Micheal b Jordan, Daniel Kaluya, and Letitia Wright, but the lead is kind of a dud.  Chadwick Boseman has no charisma or screen presence.

  I did find the political discussions of Wakanda's protectionist politics interesting though.