Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  Ungentle 2022

  Watched 08 Jun 2024

  Huw Lemmey and Ben Wishaw are born collaborators.

• 

  Challengers 2024

  Watched 03 May 2024

  A few weeks ago some friends and I were debating what the sexiest sport was and tennis was mooted. This film provides a strong addition to that case.

  There were lots of things in Challengers I don't like in films: lots of flashbacks, heavy reliance on single piece (albeit absolutely banging) of theme music, sport. But I was somehow really captivated anyway. All three lead actors were really convincing as teenagers, so the flashbacks felt less gimmicky than they might, and I was moved by the tragedy of their little lives and unfulfilled desires. Not the best, but an enjoyable Thursday evening watch

Popular reviews

• 

  The Old Oak 2023

  ★★ Watched 10 Oct 2023 2

  Manic pixie dreamgirl saves middle aged man from mental health crisis by implausably obtaining enormous amounts of funding, basically overnight, for a community kitchen, using her inhuman ability to withstand intense trauma, oppression and grief with poise and self-assuredness.

  I went to see this in an independent cinema in a v middle class, v liberal area of Bristol, and it was the ideal audience for this film. The villagers were portrayed as one dimensionally small-minded and scapegoaty, the Syrian refugees…

• 

  Good Will Hunting 1997

  ★★★½ Watched 27 Oct 2023 1

  Wow, academics really are assholes, and matt damon has a supernatural talent for talking extremely fast.

  I thought it was surprisingly good on class, masculinity, trauma and the ways all those things intersect.

  A little lighter on the maths than I'd been expecting, and for that I am grateful

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