Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  The Killer 2023

  Watched 12 Nov 2023

  He was looking for a job, then he found a job, and heaven knows he’s miserable now.

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  El Conde 2023

  Watched 16 Sep 2023

  The problem with vampirism is that you eventually run out of other people's blood.

Recent reviews

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  A Close Shave 1995

  Watched 16 Mar 2025

  The motorcycle chase is every bit the equal of anything in Indiana Jones, Mission: Impossible, or some of the Buster Keaton classics.

  Also (spoiler alert) would make a better entry into the Terminator series than anything else after T2.

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  A Grand Day Out 1989

  Watched 16 Mar 2025

  Hadn’t actually seen this in full before, and there’s a real sense of craft and whimsy to it. Great stuff. (Toddler approved also!)

Popular reviews

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  Ratcatcher 1999

  Rewatched 14 Mar 2025

  First ever theatrical viewing of this, and it benefits from it. I’ve caught up with Ramsay’s shorts recently, and it’s clear to see how her work grew into this feature film. A film which somehow encapsulates hope and aspiration whilst also being incredibly bleak. 

  The music is sparsely employed but wonderful, and - much like the shorts Small Deaths, Kill The Day, and Gasman - you can really feel the DNA of Ramsay’s bigger-splash pictures here.

  Mind you, I do have to wonder how well the BFI Southbank crowd were doing with the accents.

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  The Brutalist 2024

  Watched 24 Jan 2025

  Full review now at takeonecinema.net/2025/the-brutalist/
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  There will be a longer review coming, but some immediate thoughts on The Brutalist. I was tearing up a bit after fifteen minutes. I love so many elements of this film - Brody, the script, the music. And there’s a coherence and clarity to the film’s ideas and themes, they have a clearly heard voice in a way they didn’t in Vox Lux. It’s just great. A capital ‘F’ Film.

  There’s also something about…