Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Hatchet 2006

  ★★½ Watched 21 Mar 2025

  A campy bayou horror-comedy that wouldn’t be notable except for a series of solid kills, squishy gore effects, and fun horror-icon cameos… But after this last awards season I’m in the mood for trash. So I’ll probably continue this series. 🪓

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  Nights of Cabiria 1957

  ★★★★½ Watched 20 Mar 2025

  A film concerned with the eternal search for purpose and meaning. Powered by the iconic Giulietta Masina as a sex worker desperate for something better… A very clear inspiration for recent Oscar darling ‘Anora’. With an equally emotionally devastating ending.

Popular reviews

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  Lean on Pete 2017

  ★★★★ Watched 23 Nov 2018

  Starts as a mostly conventional boy-and-his-horse story. But becomes a sober lament for America’s marginalized 21st century homeless population... Not as effectively gut-twisting as this year’s ‘Leave No Trace’, which covers similar ground. And the ending is a tad saccharine. But the leads and supports are all superb.

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  The French Dispatch 2021

  ★★★★ Watched 28 Dec 2021 1

  At once Wes Anderson’s most technically impressive film and his most emotionally distant. His cast is again an embarrassment of riches, each all-in for whatever Anderson has in store. The humor here is breathlessly, almost oppressively dry. The production design an intimidating marvel. But it’s not a film to approach casually, which is occasionally to its detriment… It’s the work of a master craftsman on a minor-key sociopathic streak.

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