Star ratings are for categorical purposes only. The written review is the sum and extent of my recorded opinion.
Favorite films
Recent activity
AllRecent reviews
More-
Mean Streets 1973
There's a great hollowness in Scorcese's early 'masterpiece'. Charlie is our psychological hero, the only character in the film with motivations that are taken entirely seriously. Johnny is his belletristic cousin, a self-destructive idiot who acts largely as a object for Charlie's piety. He and his epileptic cousin Teresa (another suffering object for Charlie) are not really taken seriously, and why would they be? Who cares what they think? More often, in religious art, it is a different platitude which…
Translated from by -
Andrei Rublev 1966
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Horses bring death in Andrei Rublev. In some sense, this is historical fact. Horsepower sustained the Mongol yoke and remained the most effective military technology in the world until the 16th century. In another sense, his horses are Death itself, but a death that reacts perpetually inwards. The suffering of these creatures is often taken to signify the suffering of man. Like Wagner's motifs, they accrue new attachments with every shot. Their motion, against the starkly gentle camera, is violent…
Translated from by
Popular reviews
More-
Oppenheimer 2023
Oppenheimer represents something of a departure for Nolan from his usual action-thriller initiatives, but one that pays off. Oppenheimer is the perfect vessel for Nolan's frequent forays into existential grandiosity, which despite his perennially mediocre dialogue (bar the odd good line) always at the very least represent a filmmaker genuinely interested in exploring important themes and ideas. Here, the distinction that runs through Nolan's epic nuclear tragedy is one between Oppenheimer as a figure of destiny, a man who helped…
Translated from by -
Paris, Texas 1984
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Paris, Texas is the third Wim Wenders film I've watched. It is difficult to understand a director until you have watched at least three of their films, I think. Wings of Desire was my first. I watched it in the cinema (alone). Films almost always leave me feeling cold and vague afterwards, no matter their quality, and that was no exception, but I was very impressed with it regardless. More than anything, I got a sense of what it might…
Translated from by
