JohnA

JohnA

Favorite films

  • Ordet
  • The Third Man
  • Dekalog
  • Late Spring

Recent activity

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  • Phantom Thread

    ★★★★½

  • The Social Network

    ★★★★½

  • Monte Carlo

    ★★★½

  • A Scanner Darkly

    ★★★★

Recent reviews

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  • Phantom Thread

    Phantom Thread

    ★★★★½

    All the elements here work so well together to achieve an exquisite result. I find the portrait of this relationship unsettling in some ways, but I also appreciate the way it presents the deep human need for vulnerability if we mean to have any real relationships. That such vulnerability is forged via the commitments we have made makes all the sense in the world. That it comes at the hands of sometimes being hurt by those we love is unsurprising. This, it seems, is a picture of one couple's bumpy road toward love.

  • The Social Network

    The Social Network

    ★★★★½

    Eminently watchable. The words fly while the camera and editing are mostly restrained and controlled. I love that tension.

    This is the story of a deeply insecure man creating a vehicle to farm out that insecurity on the masses. Malformed people create malformed things. Those things, in turn, form, transform, and deform their users.

    What a world we are unmaking for ourselves.

Popular reviews

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  • The Office

    The Office

    ★★★★

    Kieslowski focuses on hands and faces in this short documentary. Everyone has some sort of paperwork, and all human interaction takes place through a tiny half circle in the glass. The older regular folk are smashed together in line (much like the files in the back room), while the younger government workers make tea with sugar and sit at roomy desks. The point is fairly obvious, but the technique evidences an eye for detail that draws the viewer into the moment.

  • First Love

    First Love

    ★★★★½

    A magnificent document of a teenaged girl dealing with a new pregnancy, an impending marriage, and eventually, the birth of her baby. Kieslowski follows the girl for about a year, from the earliest stages of pregnancy onward. He manages to capture a number of intimate moments in this girl's journey, none more powerful than the birth of her child. Utilizing a great deal of close-up, a fluid camera in open spaces, and classical music during transitions, the film feels both grounded and significant.

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