Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Dune 1984

  ★★½ Watched 18 Jan 2025

  Would make a good double feature with box office Jim's Avatar (although Avatar doesn't have Patrick Stewart charging into battle with his pug [is everyone in this galaxy a freak eugenicist?]).

  A heavy use of fades making the film feel more like a fever dream, especially that fade on the line reading for "The tooth".

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  The Elephant Man 1980

  ★★★½ Watched 17 Jan 2025

  Maybe not as formally/stylistically interesting as Lynch's other work (though it does have it's moments), but never seen a film with as much heart and compassion. Feels a little like a response to Eraserhead's success largely as a "weird" midnight movie and curiousity instead of an earnest piece of art.
  Interesting emphasis on the backdrop of the industrial revolution.

Popular reviews

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  House 1977

  ★★★★½ Watched 26 Aug 2024

  Something that I noticed on this rewatch is how commercial like the production values seem. Especially the small balcony set of Gorgeous' house with the matte painting of a perfect sunset feels like the set for an old commercial for a travel company. The girls are dropped off from the bus in front of a billboard advertisement "Return to the countryside, get married". Maybe something more to this connection than just Obayashi's past commercial work informing the set design and production?

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  The Brutalist 2024

  ★½ Watched 04 Nov 2024

  The more I think about it I really appreciate the craft of this movie (mostly how it mirrors the sensibilities of Brutalist architecture in form, aesthetic, and emotion), but I will not be thinking about it a week from now, let alone come awards season.