Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Prisoners of the Land 1939

  ★★★½ Watched 17 Mar 2025

  Film #12 of the 2025 Criterion Challenge: South American film

  Film #14 of the March Around the World 2025.

  Argentina 🇦🇷

  The oldest Argentine film I've seen by 46 years, and I'm glad it got this restoration. The Misiones region of Argentina looks incredible shot by Pablo Tabernero. The film follows plantation workers who are indentured servants to the brutal foreman Köhner, hence their being prisoners of their own land. Madness ensues due to both the conditions and an ill-fated romance with the doctor's daughter Andrea.

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  Birds of Passage 2018

  ★★★½ Watched 17 Mar 2025

  Film #15 of the 2025 Anti-Criterion Challenge: Broken up into chapters

  Film #13 of the March Around the World 2025.

  Colombia 🇨🇴

  A familiar type of crime saga but set among an indigenous Wayuu community in Colombia. A family gets involved in marijuana trafficking in the 70s, and there are both personal and cultural consequences. Like many, I first heard of Guerra with his breakout Oscar-nominated film Embrace of the Serpent, which is excellent. The use of color here is…

Popular reviews

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  Phantom Thread 2017

  ★★★★★ Watched 19 Jan 2018 1

  It took until 2018, but 2017 has its first 5-star film for me. Anderson (serving as director and DP) is so precise with his compositions and camera movements, and has cemented himself as one of the best directors of actors out there (Sandler in PDL, DDL in TWBB, Phoenix/Hoffman in The Master, and the list goes on). I like Paul Dano in There Will Be Blood, but he was barely able to hold his own against Daniel Day-Lewis (which I'm…

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  Satantango 1994

  ★★★★★ Watched 27 Feb 2017

  Is there a 6 star option?