Justin Sayles

Justin Sayles Pro

Content Lead, Culture at The Ringer

Favorite films

  • Sorcerer
  • Sorcerer
  • Sorcerer
  • Sorcerer

Recent activity

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  • Eastern Promises

    ★★★½

  • Taxi Driver

    ★★★★★

  • Seven Veils

    ★★★★

  • The Rule of Jenny Pen

    ★★★

Recent reviews

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  • Eastern Promises

    Eastern Promises

    ★★★½

    They say get the Russian prison tattoos for the job you want, not the job you have 

    I had basically forgotten everything that happened in this movie. It’s a strange one in the Cronenberg oeuvre—bleak, but not really jammed with his ideas (though there is something to the whole idea of identity w/r/t to Nikolai). There are some unmistakably DC flourishes—and not just the violence—but overall feels more like a digression than a greater piece of his ~whole thing~

    Also, shout-out to the one dude who wouldn’t leave the steamroom. Perfect audience surrogate

  • Taxi Driver

    Taxi Driver

    ★★★★★

    My parents never showed me Star Wars. Instead, when I was 11 years old, they showed me Goodfellas. When I liked it, they rented Taxi Driver for me. I watched it by myself on a shitty VHS, probably three feet from the screen. When that happens, you’re either gonna end up an incel or a cinephile. (Venn diagrams, I know.)

    Luckily, I ended up the latter, which means I watched it on the big screen, at the Egyptian, tonight. Some…

Popular reviews

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  • Nosferatu

    Nosferatu

    ★★

    Old guy with questionable facial hair thirsting after young girls and gentrifying the neighborhood—sure sounds like Providence to me!

    (Maybe I’m just herzog pilled, but this lacked the poetry or beauty or purpose of that version. Kinda a stinker in my eyes.)

  • Challengers

    Challengers

    ★★

    You’re not gonna gaslight me into thinking a movie with that stop-motion kiss in the wind storm/pan up to the giant Game Changer advertisement is anything other soapy schlock! Seriously what movie is everyone watching! Maybe Luca can add yet another title card explaining what I’m missing!