Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Call Me by Your Name 2017

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 02 Mar 2024 3

  Headline Review
  ± I don’t care about any American moralising in regard of the age gap, or about the actor’s off-screen antics - if you do, this is the wrong review for you.

  ± The acting, direction, cinematography, composition, score, and script, are congruent, unified in the building of what is a viscerally sensual, wistful, soulful film. 

  ± James Ivory’s Oscar winning script fascinates itself with the unspoken moments, the invisible electricity, the inaudible lust, the intangible anticipation between two courting lovers. …

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  Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom 1975

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 21 Jan 2016

  Salò, a film by infamous Italian auteur Pier Paolo Pasolini, presents some of the most horrifying images ever displayed on a cinema screen - and it is no stretch to describe the film as one of the most macabre and disturbing in cinematic history. 

  Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir‘s ‘Must We Burn Sade’, the following essay is my exploration of the film and a discussion of its value.

  ‘Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom’ is based on the morally…

Recent reviews

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  Nosferatu 1922

  ★★★★ Watched 06 Jan 2025

  So film internet has been gooning over bushy-browed Count Orlok’s big bald head for the last couple of months now due to Eggers’ revisiting of the rip-off Dracula. And here’s me, always desperate to follow a trend, involuntarily twitching at every mention of the film but yet very much not in a cinema state of mind. What is one to do?

  Finally find time to watch the original, of course. 

  I’ve always wanted to watch Nosferatu. My logged films from…

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  Persona 1966

  ★★★★★ Watched 01 Jan 2012

  I’m quite obsessed with Persona.

  It’s a film I’ve never dared to try and write a review of, though. Whenever I try, I find myself suddenly lost in its layers like a little child rummaging about under a bedsheet. There’s too much. It’s all too much.

  One day, maybe. For now, just know it’s my favourite film.

  And I’ll leave you with the Hopeless Dream of Being monologue:

  “I understand, all right. The hopeless dream of being - not seeming,…

Popular reviews

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  Psycho-Pass: Providence 2023

  ★★½ Rewatched 03 Aug 2023

  Psycho Pass is (was?) a brilliant anime; a mature, thoughtful, artfully made piece of fiction with lively characters and a tone that could oscillate between slapstick and horror. Psycho Pass is the kind of anime which has characters you will remember and themes that you will think about - a lot. And it’s one of those increasingly rare anime which doesn’t just have a good premise but also an effective execution.

  Being a Psycho Pass fan can be a frustration.…

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  Barbarian 2022

  ★★ Watched 21 Jan 2024

  What a misfire. This did not land for me at all. 

  It has a stellar opening: woman arrives at AirBnB in the pitch dark. She tries to check in but realises there’s a man already in there. A tense mental negotiation with herself as to whether she can trust this dude ensues. Decides to stay, they start conversing, it’s all very, very suspenseful. You’re just sure this guy is going to be a serial killer. Then you’re like, wait, that’s…