Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Gladiator II 2024

  ★★½ Watched 27 Nov 2024

  MRGA (Make Rome Great Again)

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  I'm Still Here 2024

  ★★★★½ Watched 09 Oct 2024

  More often than not, we praise actors for doing the most acting rather than the best acting, overlooking moments when they choose to internalize their emotions and express little externally. It is through this restrained performance that Fernanda Torres delivered one of the most resilient, dignified, and heartbreaking female characters seen on screen this year. The film as a whole also embraces this art of subtraction, using ensemble staging over close-ups, match cuts instead of flashy montages, handheld shots only…

Popular reviews

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  The Brutalist 2024

  ★★★★ Watched 28 Sep 2024

  Part 1: this is the most visually, acoustically stunning piece of cinema I’ve seen this year
  Part 2: is it just me or is the plot disintegrating?
  Epilogue: definitely bad and unnecessary 

  The runtime is not the problem. The problem is how reductive the story is. The characters behave like stereotypical Zionists / callous rich people / underappreciated genius. What’s new here? Structurally speaking, why place the central conflict so close to the ending? Where is the secondary plot with…

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  Last Summer 2023

  ★★★★ Watched 26 Jun 2024

  Dance of tenderness and cruelty. 
  I love the long, bold close-ups on those who are vulnerable, deceived, or losing control in moments of conflict. It's not about the fear of falling, but the irresistible temptation to fall.

  From Q&A with Catherine Breillat @ Lincoln Center:
  1. Breillat thinks of herself as a conductor of flesh. She wants the actors to move in the most believable way possible, from slowing down Léa Drucker’s speech and movements to the meticulous choreography of…