Dan Herd

Dan Herd Patron

Favorite films

  • JFK
  • Magnolia
  • Zodiac
  • The Apartment

Recent activity

All
  • Dunkirk

    ★★★★½

  • Interstellar

    ★★★★★

  • The Dark Knight Rises

    ★★★½

  • Inception

    ★★★★

Pinned reviews

More
  • The Prestige

    The Prestige

    ★★★★½

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

  • A Christmas Carol

    A Christmas Carol

    ★★★½

    there's real understanding of the material here from zemeckis, and it actually aligns with a lot of his interests whilst having a sense of danger/mischief that suits his best work. easily the strongest of his adventures in motion capture, and maybe the most successfully 'him' movie post-cast-away (allied is solid but it really doesn't feel like the same guy who made back to the future part 2, roger rabbit, death becomes her or even contact; THIS DOES! (much of scrooge's…

Recent reviews

More
  • Dunkirk

    Dunkirk

    ★★★★½

    an experiential war procedural. 
    as one must post 1998, he’s channelling private ryan over mann or kubrick here - but through his own lens. the lack of dialogue is magic after some heavy exposition films (plus the surprisingly short run time). 
    whitehead looks like a teen version of young bale - the thought is so obvious!
    styles in this i guess is a gesture to sinatra in from here to eternity?
    the trio of timelines is potentially sondheim-stoppard-self-satisfied but it’s…

  • Interstellar

    Interstellar

    ★★★★★

    finally recognizing how really extraordinary this is. he goes for awe, and awe he gets. you’d say it was his peak if you hadn’t seen what follows. 
    mcconaughey is actually a perfect fit for nolan - self-serious by this point in his career, but incapable of getting stuck in one gear so he sells the formality of the text with human aplomb. he can’t help but try to find humanity in it - even if it’s rarely surprising or exciting.…

Popular reviews

More
  • Inception

    Inception

    ★★★★

    for a movie that keeps talking about going deeper, this is revealing itself to be startlingly shallow on the first rewatch in a long time. 
    dicaprio is just stating circumstances and invented adages. 
    i hadn’t realised how similar tenet was to this. in his popcorn movies, he really does go boring with his leading men (bale’s wayne, here, washington in tenet) in search of cool. 
    hardy is a fucking electromagnet in this. 
    there’s a thinness that’s hidden by aesthetic that…

  • Amsterdam

    Amsterdam

    ★★★

    yes it’s muddy and messy and overwritten and stagnant and up it’s own arse. 
    but it’s also sincere and idiosyncratic (albeit wilfully so) and has moments that are delightful. 
    watching on a sofa on a sunday, which feels like a better delivery system for it than a cinema might have been. i actually got invested in the story, enjoyed being in the world and found some of the scenes properly singular. 
    bale so charming (though he seems to be doing…