Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. 1951

  ★★★★ Watched 14 Mar 2025

  The wonky structure worked for me a lot better than it probably should. First hour or so is almost completely stand alone and has the most action, a couple tiny threads keep it going to an intermediate little tragic romance chunk of story, and then it's off on another mission where a bunch of stuff goes so sideways it's not even much of a naval story for the 'climax.' And yet I wouldn't change a thing. Well, almost. It's 1951…

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  Samson and Delilah 1949

  ★★★ Watched 11 Mar 2025

  Half the time the movie expands on the Biblical version in nice, dramatic ways - like making Samson's first wife into Delilah's older sister, and turning that into a sort of love triangle. Half the time the movie fumbles some of the cool parts of the Biblical version, like properly setting up Samson's riddle, as well as excluding some of the weird imagery and the continual violence.

  The sets and costumes are beautiful, but I was surprised how small scale…

Popular reviews

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  Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 2023

  ★★½ Watched 08 Jun 2023

  I don't really like the unmoored, maximalist aesthetic of the Spider-Verse even if I appreciate the ambition, so I'm already out of sync with just about everyone on this movie - but also I don't think Across has much to offer outside of the aesthetics.

  It doesn't bring anything significantly new to the tired corporate and fan-service friendly concept of a multiverse. Tying ideas about real world fate into meta concepts about franchise stories and fan culture is a thing…

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  Rebel Ridge 2024

  ★★★½ Watched 06 Sep 2024 3

  Almost all of Rebel Ridge worked perfectly for me - I even disagree with some of the criticisms that it slowed down too much in the middle. All the injustices and maneuvering and counter maneuvering is so specific and real and aggravating in the right ways. But the ending, man. It just wasn’t enough. I wouldn’t call it a fumble, there are plenty of great moments. I even admire why they went with a less satisfying finale. Keeping the hero’s…

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