Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  National Theatre Live: Dr. Strangelove 2025

  ★★★★ Watched 27 Mar 2025

  When this was announced a few months ago, I was mildly apprehensive that it would be set in the modern day or, worse, a 60s period piece with current-day satire, but Iannucci is smart enough to preserve the original's themes and humor. Except for a joke about President Muffleys rival refusing to accept the results of an election, the original script is left largely intact, which is for the best, since it's still incredibly prescient. I don't know how Kubrick foresaw that floride would become a massive bugbear with right-wing cranks, but that dumb shit is more relevant than it's ever been.

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  Opus 2025

  ★★ Watched 24 Mar 2025

  We've got The Menu at home. It's a real testament to how fucking good John Malkovich is that he can take an otherwise very middling movie and make it somewhat watchable. Picking him to play a pop star cult leader might seem bizarre at first, but he's always had this weird ephemeral charisma to him that few actors have. The plot is very basic "we live in a society" shit that's been done a million times better, but Malkovich is so compelling that he almost makes up for it.

Popular reviews

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  Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils 2022

  ½ Watched 17 Apr 2022 2

  Arguably one of the worst episodes of Dr Who. Looks like something I would have made in my high school computing class. The story has zero stakes and only exists to address or rather skirt around the big gay elephant in the room. Chibnail continues to be a master at queer baiting. Oh, you want the protagonist to have a fully formed lesbian relationship ? Well, tough shit because the BBC are too fucking cowardly to ever commit to something…

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  The Zone of Interest 2023

  ★★★★★ Watched 20 Jan 2024

  Michael Hannake once said that he doesn't like holocaust movies because most of them are exploitation (he lumps Schindler's List along with The Night Porter). Zone of Interest is about as far away as you can get from that. There are no scenes of crying kids being herded into gas chambers, but there are a lot of scenes of bureaucrats sitting around tables deciding on the most cost-efficient way to kill people. Everything is treated clinically and as a matter…