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A Real Pain 2024
I skipped this in theaters, assuming it would be mildly enjoyable, an offbeat comedy with some deeper thematic material thrown in to give it some dramatic weight, but I now regret having written it off, because this turned out to be the biggest surprise of the year for me. The writing, direction, and performances are perfectly calibrated. Understated yet emotional, funny without being too cute or quirky, serious but not somber, and most importantly, it all feels totally grounded. These…
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The Brutalist 2024
Corbet's follow up to Vox Lux, one of the most polarizing (and best, imo) films of the past decade, is a rebuke of the American Dream (as one can immediately gather from the poster image), an epic which spans decades in its 3+ hour runtime. It's perfectly paced—to my mind, at least; I overheard a few people describe it as "tedious" during the intermission, but I was shocked when both halves ended far sooner than I expected—features some of the…
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Black Bag 2025
Soderbergh's 10th post-"retirement" film is the best he's crafted since his reemergence. A fun and twisty spy thriller with an incredible cast, strong character-driven storytelling, and some of Sode's best cinematography and tightest editing. You really can't ask for more from one of the most prolific and best filmmakers working today.
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Us 2019
Starts off strong, effectively building tension through striking cinematography and sharp editing/pacing, but once the table has been properly set, it's a gradual nosedive to the perplexing finale. The acting is undeniably committed and the child actors are pitch-perfect, but the exaggerated, go-for-broke lead performances teeter into overkill and would have been more effective if reined in a bit. Also, the frequent attempts at humor, though sometimes successful, completely undercut the unnerving tone. It felt like Peele wasn't confident in…
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The Player 1992
Not incisive enough to really work as satire, not funny enough to work as a dark comedy, not suspenseful enough to work as a thriller. The best thing it has going for it is the slow unraveling paranoia of the main character, and even in that, it’s fairly inconsistent. There are some really entertaining scenes, the acting is fantastic, and the writing is engaging, but it’s less than the sum of its parts, unfortunately.
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