Cole Swanson

Cole Swanson

Favorite films

  • Arrival
  • All the President's Men
  • Rebecca
  • La Haine

Recent activity

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  • Xala

  • Jackie

  • Wolfs

    ★½

  • Laura

    ★★★★★

Recent reviews

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  • Jackie

    Jackie

    Like it, don't love it.

    Constantly veers towards the boundary between emotional pathos or emotional catastrophism. The striking visual approach is, ironically, the distancing effect that reminds us just how weird the whole shebang is: our empathy for Jackie—Portman is perfect for this—is tempered by how ethereal she and her world are. Her desperation to preserve something of her and Jack's Camelot for the history books is rendered as purposefully extravagant, maniacal even.

    And the final revelation of that as…

  • Wolfs

    Wolfs

    ★½

    This piece of hackery is trying to be so many things: a slice of throwback cinema; some sort of dissertation on male loneliness, aging, and the slow brutality of 'work'; and a dark comedy with some buddy-buddy feels thrown in for good measure.

    And it misses the mark widely on each of these. It doesn't take itself seriously, but asks us to take its ideas seriously, and thus to patiently endure many meaningless diversions in the hope of eventually landing…

Popular reviews

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  • The Super Mario Bros. Movie

    The Super Mario Bros. Movie

    ★★★★

    Absolutely unhinged review incoming.

    Earnest, silly, propulsive. But it's also SHALLOW, and I mean that as a compliment: it's all on the surface, from the clever angles used to simulate gameplay, to the mile-a-minute references—can they still be called Easter Eggs if they are the focus of the frame? aren't you supposed to look for Easter Eggs, instead of being handed them?—that have nothing to do the with story. And thank goodness. The filmmakers understood the assignment, which was do…

  • Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

    Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

    Kevin Conroy: Eternal.

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