Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood 2019

  ★★★ Added

  One of the advantages of reviewing a film months after its release, once the dust has settled, is it allows you to develop a more nuanced opinion of the film. Feelings mellow, analysis becomes critical and doubts pave the way for meaning. There is no doubt that Once Upon A Time is an entertaining revisionist re-telling of a piece of Hollywood history. Through the vehicle of brotherhood between an actor and his stuntman, this friendship is the main feature of…

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  Dolemite Is My Name 2019

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 22 Dec 2019

  Dolemite Is My Name is absolutely rambunctious. There has not been a movie in such a long time that has me physically jamming, rooting, clapping and slapping; The feeling is almost spiritual and I can’t lie. It is a whole load of fun and one of the few movies that I can’t wait to immediately re-watch the second it ended. It is joyous; It is rapturous. However, make no mistake. This re-telling of Rudy Ray Moore’s ascent in the world…

Popular reviews

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  The Revenant 2015

  ★★★★½ Added

  I can say with confidence that Inarritu's Birdman has been well and truly beaten by his latest work in The Revenant, at least in my opinion. Although The Revenant tries to heap a great deal of self-importance on its subject matter like its predecessor, it's more relevant here. "Chivo" Lubezki's previous wins in cinematography for Gravity and Birdman have not stopped him from shooting another epic picture. The guy is on fire. But you know who else is on fire?…

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  The Irishman 2019

  ★★ Rewatched 22 Dec 2019

  Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is, by and large, a fading relic of cinema. Whilst I eagerly anticipated Scorsese’s final hurrah to be a last assertive stamp on the very genre he pioneered, this turned out to be the opposite. Laden with an overly-long run time, incessant machismo tantrums and shouting matches, the film is plagued by the unbearable toxicity and dread of male egotism and gangster business. While those themes do illuminate more interesting aspects of male insecurity, broken familial…