Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  The Face of Another 1966

  ★★★★½ Watched 05 Dec 2024

  Asian Cinema Challenge 2024
  Week #27: Japanese Noir

  As a massive fan of Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes, I should not be surprised that his exploration of identity, isolation, and the internalization of pain was almost as excellent. I started off thinking this was going to be a riff on Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face, which came out 6 years earlier but was pleased to find a different type of beast: something more focused on the importance placed…

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  Universal Language 2024

  ★★★★½ Watched 16 Sep 2024

  Writer-director Matthew Rankin’s films are a warm mix of nostalgia and absurdism as he pays homage to cinema of the past while maintaining a modern feel to it all. Where his feature debut, The Twentieth Century, seemed indebted to silent cinema and the surrealist charms of Canadian director Guy Maddin, and its production design and eccentric performances left the film skewering Canada and its historical figures, Rankin finds a different lens to view Canada in his sophomore feature. With obvious…

Recent reviews

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  It's My Turn 1980

  ★★★★ Watched 20 Mar 2025

  Appropriately messy as it strings you along a will they/wont they that you need something more to take the leap. Relieved that it eventually finds a really natural middle ground and tackles its messiness directly.

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  Down with Love 2003

  ★★★ Watched 20 Mar 2025

  Didn't hit for me like I thought it would, but I do love the playfulness of it. And that split screen scene is pretty damn good.

Popular reviews

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  Black Bag 2025

  ★★★★½ Watched 13 Mar 2025

  Even better than I thought it would be and arguably one of Soderbergh's best films. Twisty and duplicitous while marrying the spy thriller with a relationship drama in surprisingly intricate ways. Incredible score, beautiful pacing and editing, and some wonderfully subdued, yet hypnotic performances from Fassbender and Blanchett. Had me wrapped around its finger right from the jump.

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  The Wandering Earth II 2023

  ★★★ Watched 20 Jan 2023 3

  Situated somewhere between nationalism and science fiction disaster film, The Wandering Earth II is a bewildering experience for a prequel to a movie that so effortlessly glosses over its insane premise in exchange for space-age thrills. The first film leaned into the fact that it was a spectacle – and one that dominated the box office in China to become the country’s fifth highest-grossing film of all time, with a reported budget of $50 million. The Wandering Earth II does…