Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  The Novelist's Film 2022

  ★★ Watched 11 Aug 2022

  Given how much I'd enjoyed In Front Of Your Face, this is a total letdown, with all the things I find usually excusable in Hong's films rendered completely trying here (SO slow! SO much repetitive dialogue! SO many embarrasing conversations, but here I just feel embarrassed rather than being offered the levity or critique of social niceties that his films usually give). It almost made me question my enjoyment of some of his other work. I guess if you're grinding out as many films as he does some have gotta be duds, but still, disappointing.

• 

  In Front of Your Face 2021

  ★★★★ Watched 09 Aug 2022

  Hong Sang Soo being delightful, funny, charming in his placid, quiet directorial way. Compared to his other films this is positively action paced in terms of camera movement - slow zooms that had me completely surprised given his usual penchant for still mid-shots. Still, people manage to get around to drinking lots, they have awkward interactions, etc. Also different from usual is the way that usually his characters are quite un-selfaware, or don't quite understand how they themselves are operating.…

Popular reviews

• 

  My Crasy Life 1992

  ★★★ Watched 05 Jul 2018

  An interesting but not totally successful blend of fiction and documentary, about Samoan gangs in Long Beach. As usual, the thing I like best about Gorin's films is his tangible desperation to be part of a group he can't be part of or fully understand, though here his usual voiceover is replaced with the odd conceit of a HAL-like voice in a police car. There are several subtle moments here where the camera films a group and slowly, without planning it feels like, the group forms a circle with their backs to the camera, shutting it out, and these are kind of my favourite moments.

• 

  The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper 1908

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 15 Mar 2022

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.