Sam

Sam Pro

Favorite films

  • We Need to Talk About Kevin
  • Revenge
  • Another Year
  • Jean de Florette

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  • North Face

    ★★½

  • The Wind That Shakes the Barley

    ★★★★★

  • Birdeater

    ★★★½

  • The Flight of the Phoenix

    ★★★★½

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  • Spencer

    Spencer

    ★★★★★

    A sordid descent into loneliness.

    Spencer is triumphant in its retelling of this modern British legend. Immediately the imagery strikes you. This is something different. The Malick-esque wide angles and magic hour shooting is delicious and demands your strictest attention. All the details matter. The glistening of tears or vomit on Princess Diana’s face, the slight smirk of an otherwise stoic page. 

    Spencer wears its visual influences on its sleeve with many frames being clear homages to Kubrick’s The Shining.…

  • The Happening

    The Happening

    ★★★★

    Horror and comedy are siblings. Reliant on atmosphere, suspense and surprise. What is strange then is how terribly misunderstood The Happening has been. It’s a terrifying, hilarious piece of political filmmaking. 

    Shyamalan is one of the most unfairly maligned directors in the medium. His work, though not without its stumbles, is consistently precise and unique. This man knows how to make a masterpiece, intentionally. 

    The Happening then should be given much more credit than it has received. It’s horrific and…

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  • Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

    Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

    ★★★★

    With hindsight, Herzog is very quick to positively represent his subjects ideas. Thrown at him by scientists and CEOs alike, the interviewees are given credence they are not always deserving of.

  • Alien: Romulus

    Alien: Romulus

    ★★★

    CGI Ian Holm looks like a goddamn Thunderbird puppet.

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  • Tenet

    Tenet

    ★½

    Tenet is a terribly written, unnecessarily complex and thoroughly incoherent disaster. But really, it’s just boring. 

    To begin, the central idea of Tenet, shrouded in mystery during its marketing campaign, is merely a device to enable the various action set pieces included in the film. And I would be 100% on board with it if those set pieces weren’t so incompetent.

    Nolan has never directed action well and his central effect merely amplified this deficiency.  The film has all the…

  • Wanderlust

    Wanderlust

    ★★★★

    What could have been another tired BBC familial drama is actually a rather exciting piece of filmmaking. The editing is surprising, the camera movies with an energy usually reserved for action films and the plot is simultaneously schlocky and thoroughly realistic. 

    It’s worth a watch.