Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Sing Sing 2023

  ★★★½ Watched 02 Mar 2025

  3.75

  Typically, in response to the prison industrial complex, we see depictions of unrelenting tragedy. I like that this film honors that same tragedy while making room for one of the most defiant responses to this kind of oppression - black boy joy. Taking an environment meant to keep you stagnant and ashamed, and using it to empower and unlock worlds you otherwise couldn’t touch. That is rebellion.

  The fact that the cast is mostly previously incarcerated people, many of…

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  I'm Still Here 2024

  ★★★★ Rewatched 01 Mar 2025

  Finally, something to rival The Brutalist this season. Absolutely exceptional on all fronts.

  Audience is thrust into the richness of the family’s life right away - seeped in community, culture, pastimes, young love, parenting… At this point, everything is presented through a golden hue of light. As the dictatorship closes in, Walter Salles masterfully plays with shadows - devoid of light and sun. It’s reminiscent of Rembrandt, and equally as godly. 

  This film as ties to Aftersun, so it’s no…

Popular reviews

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  Kinds of Kindness 2024

  ★★★½ Watched 31 Jul 2024

  3.75

  Theatre of the absurd. Triptych films are ADHD approved - I loved how palatable each section was, and was actively drawing parallels between them as each vignette was revealed. 

  I can’t look away from Jesse Plemons, which is a testament to both his incredible acting and his car wreck of a character (in every iteration). The scene where Dafoe grabs Jesse’s lapel in his office had me holding my breath. Yorgos has a way of making any scene feel…

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  Aftersun 2022

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 04 Aug 2024

  I loved this film so much after my first viewing at Syndicated that, over a year later, I have to coach myself down from having too high of expectations as I rewatch on my projector at home. It wasn’t necessary, though - it was somehow even sweeter the second go around.

  My relationship with this film is very personal. It personifies a father/daughter relationship that I’ve never experienced, yet always yearned for. I imagine it to be synonymous with the…