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Harlan County U.S.A. 1976
This is what documentary should be. Not cheap entertainment, not forced narrative; just life, told on the terms of those being profiled.
Harlan County lays bare the exploitation existent in capitalism at its worst. Poor employees asked to work dangerous jobs with hardly any benefits and barely livable pay, while the company they uphold experiences soaring profits. Labor and capital completely detached.
The grit, humor, creativity and humanity of those workers in the face of such stark greed gives this…
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Nickel Boys 2024
A moving, daring, challenging film. It’s not trying to entertain you; it wants you to see, literally through the eyes of its protagonists, the shape of Jim Crow racism and the residual trauma it imprints.
Ross uses cinematic devices that in clumsier hands would come off as gimmicks. In Ross’s, they compliment his intent. The POV technique makes us feel the characters fear; montage firmly situates you in time and place; a non-linear story imbues the present with higher stakes.
If you don’t fight it, this movie will punch you in the gut.
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Harakiri 1962
I knew about the hype coming into this movie—top film on Letterboxd, widely seen as Kobayashi’s masterpiece—and usually I’m easily won over by sheer legend. But after watching, though I could tell it was exceptional, I wasn’t convinced by its reputation.
Then a day past. I read about Kobayashi’s and Japan’s history, and reflected on Harakiri’s subtle messages and startling images. Now, an older and wiser man, I must give this movie 5 stars.
The fantastic formalistic pieces of Harakiri…
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Twilight 2008
I say this without a single iota of irony: I adore this movie. There are few films that have brought me more pleasure as a viewing experience. This is not because I was laughing at it; I was simply, purely, entertained.
Twilight is the perfect time capsule of 2010 middle school life. It’s moody, awkward, melodramatic and so lovably self-serious. The characters flip between stammering insecurity and paralyzing horniness within seconds. Basically, it shares 99% of the same DNA as…
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