Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Another Prayer 2013

  ★★★½ Watched 21 Mar 2025

  Home When You Return companion watch

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  Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy 2021

  ★★★★½ Watched 19 Mar 2025

  The transition from George Lucas to Hamaguchi gave me whiplash. It’s like making the jump from baby formula to omakase. But to use this review as a Star Wars polemic would be a disservice to the quality of Hamaguchi’s scene construction and dialogue. In Wheel of Fortune, you go 10 minutes of straight conversation with maybe 5 cuts and you’re locked in.

  On paper, the stories are borderline melodramatic (love triangle, honey trap, etc.). But Hamaguchi takes these premises and…

Popular reviews

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  My Dead Friend Zoe 2024

  ★ Watched 01 Mar 2025 1

  Spoilers

  
  “Horrified” is how I would describe my face sitting in a deserted theater at 12 AM during the climax of My Dead Friend Zoe. (This is not a horror movie). God wasted no time in punishing me for my attempt at Thursday night spontaneity. I will be returning to my normally scheduled routine. 

  My Dead Friend Zoe is about a combat veteran, Merit, and her relationship with Zoe. Zoe is simultaneously a quippy memory of her dead combat friend and…

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  Mickey 17 2025

  ★★★★ Watched 09 Mar 2025 1

  During one scene, Mickey 17, frightened, struggles to respond to an upsetting situation. “What would Mickey 18 do?” he thinks to himself. Mickey 17 then resolves the issue with a confident “fuck off” and goes on his merry way. There’s power in deferring action, not to another person (e.g., What would Jesus do?), but to another version of ourselves more equipped to handle the present circumstance. Mickey 18 is Mickey 17, but just different enough. We are all not one…