Recent reviews

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  3 Bad Men 1926

  ★★★★ Watched 15 Aug 2022

  A conventional Western in most respects. The villain has a lot of eyeliner and is quite flamboyant. I wonder if Ford was toying with the the effeminacy and corrupt of civilizing forces in the villainous sheriff character.

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  Daydream Nation 2010

  ★★★★ Watched 24 Jan 2022

  If Smells like Teenage Spirit, Fancy, and Teenagers were combined and made into a movie.

Popular reviews

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  The Lost Daughter 2021

  ★★★★★ Watched 24 Jan 2022

  A cleverly irreverent celebration of reckless motherhood. Gyllenhaal delivers a casually unsettling plot that challenges you to like an intensely unlikable character who, in her most unconscionable (and most talented) moments,  ignores deeply held social mores for maternity and womanhood.

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  The Power of the Dog 2021

  ★★★★★ Watched 21 Dec 2021

  When the gruff rancher played by Benedict Cumberbatch made a reference to Romulus and Remus within the first fifteen minutes, I knew this was going to be a different kind of Western. I was not disappointed when the references to classical antiquity kept recurring. But these moments of classical reception, though titillating, seemed quite trivial for most of the film. A Yale-educated cowboy who graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Classics? A Governor asking whether he steers the cattle in Latin or Greek? What the hell is going on? But as in many great films, these strands make sense once they make sense.

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