Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Scrooge 1951

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 25 Dec 2023

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  Nomadland 2020

  ★★½ Watched 21 Jul 2021 1

  I found this film to be bewildering. Zhao frames the American landscapes beautifully and showcase both the loneliness and serenity of life on the road quite well. McDormand, as usual, turned in a very strong performance. However, I remain unsure of the film's methods and motivations.

  Why cast mostly real nomads and have two major actors play nomad make-believe alongside them? The fact that some of the supporting cast didn't know who McDormand was casts a strange pointlessness over the…

Popular reviews

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  Cinema Paradiso 1988

  ★★★★½ Watched 20 Mar 2021

  (Note: this review pertains to the 123 minute 'recut' version.)

  Cinema Paradiso lovingly captures the wonder of film as seen through the eyes of a young boy.

  Film is seen to bring disparate groups of people together routinely under one roof, and it is seen to create worlds for them to live in for a little while wherein they are moved to tears, or roar with laughter.

  Above all else, it could be argued, the film captures a real friendship,…

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  Another Round 2020

  ★★★★ Watched 16 Jul 2021

  What I believe makes this a great film (in addition to the excellent performances, of which I felt Mads Mikkelsen's to be the finest), is its complex and nuanced treatment of a complex thing: alcohol consumption.

  Alcohol is not shown definitively to be either an evil, destructive force in the lives of human beings, or a benign and harmless recreational pursuit.

  It is shown to be both, and more.

  At a crucial dramatic point in the film, the filmmakers had…

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