Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Moana 2 2024

  ★★ Watched 15 Mar 2025

  As far as Disney Animation’s sequels go, I’m just hoping Zootopia 2 fares a lot better! 

  At best, not unwatchable. In large part because the animation is still very solid and because Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson still deliver charismatic vocal performances. But is that any consolation when Johnson especially still seems to use every single performance of his—vocal or otherwise—as just an egotistical extension of his own brand? Is it any consolation that the animation is just good and within…

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  Black Bag 2025

  ★★★★½ Watched 15 Mar 2025

  Steven Soderbergh has experimented and stretched filmmaking boundaries many times throughout his career. But he’s a filmmaker who always struck me more as having a unique talent stretching within certain boundaries instead of stretching those boundaries out. That approach flourishes effortlessly here. The plot fundamentals seem basic enough for the most part, but Soderbergh knows exactly which targets to hit here and how to excel at hitting them. Propulsive and stylish without ever feeling excessive. Subtle in its almost relentless precision. So…

Popular reviews

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  Drive My Car 2021

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 27 Mar 2022 4

  The camera stares outside the windows from within the confines of Yusuke's and Oto's home, dimly lit, viewing the sunset just as Oto rises from bed into frame. Her face is in shadow as she tells Yusuke a story, during sex, of a girl who frequently broke into her crush's apartment, taking souvenirs and leaving mementos to vaguely indicate and communicate her presence without confronting the person she is in love with and communicating her desires explicitly.

  This simple but…

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  Nope 2022

  ★★★½ Watched 22 Jul 2022 2

  Jordan Peele's least successful film as a whole, but in many ways his most complex--certainly his most perplexing for both better and worse. If nothing else, Peele's filmmaking craft continues to soar from film to film, with Peele effectively utilizing Hoyte Van Hoytema's large-scale IMAX cinematography to create an effective build up and appropriately unsettling atmosphere for the first two-thirds. The premise Peele devises is best executed when it leans more into the unknown, less so when essentially all cards…