Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Inherent Vice 2014

  Rewatched 15 Dec 2024

  Even funnier than I remembered . . .

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  Nickel Boys 2024

  Watched 03 Dec 2024

  An extremely formally ambitious and at-times visually and emotionally striking film, but one ultimately dragged down by some indulgent aesthetic misfires.

  Its formal adventures start with the first-person point-of-view camera, but this recedes as an active intervention, partly from acclimatization and partly from the more standard storytelling that takes hold after the introductory act. Whether in this first-person perspective or not (as in the through-the-ceiling shot that adorns, in a bastardized commercialized form, the main poster), RaMell Ross's camera has…

Popular reviews

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  Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story 1987

  Watched 21 Nov 2024

  Mainly lived up to the hype, with some less than successful didactics. The barbies are really only 70 percent of the movie, but they are gripping when they work. That the Carpenters were from Downey in LA county made me wonder if Mike Davis ever saw this movie.

  This was shown with DOTTIE GETS SPANKED and listed as a "special additional screening." According to the programmer, SUPERSTAR can only be shown in theaters for free and without advertising what's being shown.

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  Megalopolis 2024

  Watched 29 Sep 2024

  Something powerful but not fully realized. Unclear if it needed more time or someone to push back or help in certain parts. Shia remains in my book an extremely gifted physical actor. Would have loved even more Coppola family cameos. Something may have gone wrong at the end of our screening, as there were no credits.