Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  The Machinist 2004

  ★★★★½ Watched 23 Nov 2024

  Midnight screening after three days of being fully nocturnal. I write this from an airport diner between glances at a cup of Joe.

  Loved, though his revelation was prompted by nothing. I was one step ahead of his awareness, and I wish I wasn't.

  Still, that shot of his headless skeleton hunched into the sink will ripple into my mind daily.

• 

  Safe 1995

  ★★★★★ Watched 22 Nov 2024

  Masterclass in creating terror through subtlety.
  Compositions so unsettlingly balanced that make ya quake!
  Tired florals + mental anguish = <3
  Put scary/gross/pathetic far far away in the frame.
  Give your most peripheral, inconsequential characters the space and attention of your lead. They will stop time.
  Sweater weather is the best for epiphanies and 'healing' chapters.
  Uncanny authenticity.
  Psycho realism.

Popular reviews

• 

  Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo 2019

  ½ Added 5

  Hands down! Worst film! I've ever seen!

• 

  The Last Duel 2021

  ★ Watched 19 Oct 2021 2

  THE LAST DUEL: A story about a woman's rape, written by, produced by, starring, directed by, ABOUT men. The credits will tell you all you need to know about why this film doesn't work.

  This morning, I watched GLADIATOR on a bus back from Rome to Florence, hoping to makeup for not fully confronting the history of the colosseum while I was there. Tonight, sped walked forty minutes to see THE LAST DUEL in the outskirts of Florence, excited that…