iangbland

iangbland

Favorite films

  • This Is Spinal Tap
  • The Social Network
  • The Fabulous Baker Boys
  • The Royal Tenenbaums

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  • Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

    ★★★★★

  • The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

    ★★★★½

  • Back to Black

    ★★★

  • Love Lies Bleeding

    ★★★

Recent reviews

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  • Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

    Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

    ★★★★★

    I mean what can you possibly say? Nothing happens for three hours and fifteen minutes, then something happens and it’s everything. Or you can say that it totally invents a new cinematic language (and I don’t mean Belgian). You could say that it’s as heartbreaking, as devastating, and as beautiful as any film ever made. You could also, if you were an absolute philistine, says that it’s boring, overlong, and only loved by the pretentious. But who wants to be a philistine? In short, this very, very long film, is a magical, utterly unique cinematic experience.

  • The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

    The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

    ★★★★½

    What a film, and what a central performance, so much of it caught in big close up as strip-club owner Cosmo fights back the existential pain that threatens to engulf him at any second. God bless the good folk who keep the internet archive afloat for giving me the chance to watch this.

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  • The Red Shoes

    The Red Shoes

    ★★★★★

    Another one chalked off the ‘films every self-respecting Film Studies teacher should surely have seen,’ which means I am now qualified to gush about the bravura dance sequence, the sumptuous use of colour, and the way it offers the definitive take on how female talent is sacrificed on the altar of male narcissism. Pretty, pretty good.

  • blur: To the End

    blur: To the End

    ★★★★

    Some music documentaries utterly transcend their subject, becoming fascinating documents regardless of your interest (or total lack of) in the band. This, I’ll be honest, isn’t one of those. If you’re still, somehow, a Blur sceptic, stay away. But if you’re not there’s much to admire, enjoy and be moved by here.