Popular reviews

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  Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★★ 2

  When I was about 12, I went to Hearst Castle. I remember taking the tram down the hill afterward and talking with my mom what we would spend our money on if we ever won the lottery and had as much money as Hearst.

  Well, I didn't need to win the lottery to feel rich. I just needed to see Barbara Hammer's short, Pools, filmed at Hearst Castle.

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  Review by Sally Jane Black

  It's interesting that these 80s Hammer films (ha not those Hammer films) all focus on exploring different environments and techniques and visuals instead of tackling queer content. So much of her other work that I love is focused on sexuality and gender, but as the country went Reagan, apparently, Barbara Hammer started experimenting with underwater cameras. That's fine, really (also I'm sure she was up to more than this at the time). What she shot is gorgeous, and water is one of my favorite subjects on film (see my list from earlier). This serves as an counterpoint to "Pond and Waterfall," nurture vs. nature, so to speak; as the film breaks the boundaries of the pools (and film itself), it begins to distort location and visual with color, pattern, and repetition, but the more natural distortions of the water itself were far more interesting.

  52 project: 29/52

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  Review by Ollie Godwin ★★★★★

  It made me desperate for a wee initially but I held out and it was worth it because some of the imagery towards the end - particularly the hand-painted sections - was super lovely

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  Review by albertbirney

  Made me think maybe I should join a gym with a pool and get back into regularly swimming. I love pools.

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  Review by freshmonke ★★★★★

  For years now, perhaps since i was 6, maybe 7, i've wanted to film things. First myself, for vlogs (to post on YouTube and become succesful and famous ofc, something i still don't understand as i've never enjoyed vlog content), then games, for the same reason as mentioned earlier, then big blockbusters like Steven Spielberg, then big blockbusters like Quentin Tarantino, then surreal art films like jodorowsky. And now, more recently, i just want to make something simple. Something short. Most prominently, i want to film nature. Trees, water, leaves. Create something magical. And as i watched pools, about 2 days ago now, i was struck with something. This. This is the type of thing i want to create. Barbara…

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  Review by Josephine ★★★★½

  oh this is magic. feeling like an alien observer

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  Review by Zach Nabors ★★★★

  I built these for 13 years, and no I don’t own one. Which is a statement and an idea I think Hammer could get behind. The beauty and possibilities of water within and also removed from it’s material surroundings. More open and less overly determined than much of the Hammer I’ve seen.

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  Review by lilac

  what if i lived inside a marvellously beautiful house where every room & every floor was a magnificent pool... what then.... to atleast dream of that house

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  Review by Yeshua Wagner ★★★★

  not to brag but the couple next to me dropped their phone and repeatedly tried to pick up my foot in recompense

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  Review by evilbjork ★★★

  Pools and noise.

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  Review by Harrison Wade ★★★★★

  Translation is distortion, is material, is the boundary between water and air and reality and image. Underwater, light flies up the pool walls, and in the image, someone can paint colours onto the world.

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  Review by Famous_Mortimer ★★★★

  I loved it up to the end - not sure I was feeling the weird animation attempts, but small potatoes.