humanities teacher; film, music, and baseball nerd. Radical leftist.
Favorite films
Recent activity
AllRecent reviews
More-
Companion 2025
It was aight.
I liked the first half better, with all of the signposts of women's second-class status in many hetero relationships, with her being expected to be even more of a robot than she already is, and the others' refusal to believe her and their dismissing of the Russian man's assault of her were certainly commentary. The tension between her essential robot-ness and her clearly complex emotional life is well-drawn until the assault, and then it kind of gets…
Translated from by -
Nickel Boys 2024
Holyyyyyyy shit. Art is so awesome, y’all! If you want to be stunned by beauty and human cruelty in varying ratios, this is the one for you.
Now, the POV—I think it works! Once you find the groove, it’s a totally new kind of movie experience, which is sort of the actual definition of empathy made into something you can do in a theatre. I’m not the first person to harp on film as, potentially, the ultimate empathy-building art form,…
Translated from by
Popular reviews
More-
MaXXXine 2024
As a production design and as a production, it is pitch-perfect to my senses of the time. It’s sort of like getting a brand-new 1990 Ninja Turtles or first Ace Ventura that no one knew existed. Those are my two main reference points, but my adult experiences of Fridays the Thirteenth and Beverly Hills Cops also rung out in my head.
I also love the icy, pretentious director. The artist speaking as an artist who’s a character that the artist…Translated from by -
The Brutalist 2024
It has scope, it has artistic vision, it has “there will be blood” notes, it has social critique of art vs commerce, and it has a character who traveled across Italy to “beat Mussolini’s dead body with my own hands.”
It’s a film about making art (a film) with obscenely wealthy people’s money and under their indulgence, too. But it’s also about making a building to another person’s specifications even though they hired you for your ideas and specifications. It’s both form and function, but with real rage about injustice of many stripes at its core.Translated from by
