Recent reviews

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  Saltburn 2023

  ★★½ Watched 16 Jan 2024

  Saltburn is a movie full of beautiful things. It's a shame that beauty and ugliness are more of what the movie is concerned with than having a skeleton beneath that skin. Well shot, well acted, but strangely plotted; form over function.

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  The Departed 2006

  ★★★ Watched 19 Sep 2023

  The Departed is a heavy movie. It hammers its morals through capital A acting of characters that lean into their tropes as much as they subvert them. In some ways, the thorny plot reminds me of the principles of game theory; logical operators acting on their best information. But the requirements to suspend reality mean that character arcs can't be fully realized, and most feel wooden. Show me more, tell me less.

Popular reviews

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  Oppenheimer 2023

  ★★★★ Rewatched 28 Jul 2023 1

  Oppenheimer, in a word, is spiraling. It charts the arc of the physicist's life with apparent respect to both his mythology and actual history. As with all Nolan movies, it tells that story through a nonlinear but skilfully constructed narrative. Any initial confusion is remedied by the stunning conclusion that weaves together all the timelines, using different colour scales to show shades of differing perspective. Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. give stunning performances, though Emily Blunt probably wins outstanding…

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