Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  The Princess Bride 1987

  ★★★★ Watched 16 Feb 2024

  I wish Peter Falk was my grandfather reading me stories that taught the magic of literature.
  
  The Princess Bride reminded me quite a lot of The Neverending Story; it uses the Arthurian romance / fairytale to revel in the magic of storytelling. At first, the frame seemed a little pointless—but then I felt that the emphasis on passing down traditional moral tales of love and honour and redemption was one of the more interesting aspects of the film. Even in…

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  Berlin Alexanderplatz 1980

  ★★★★★ Watched 27 Dec 2023

  Y’know, it’s a damn shame Fassbinder couldn’t have been the one to give us the best adaptation of Ulysses proper, but at least he gives us the German equivalent. As everyone really says: this is Fassbinder at the height of his powers, a masterpiece of his Sirkian style which culminates in an epic city symphony while also—like Syberberg (who absolutely disdained Fassbinder, yet totally apes his style lol)—getting deeper inside the ambiguous everyman Franz Biberkopf to see all of the…

Popular reviews

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  Oppenheimer 2023

  ★★ Watched 21 Jul 2023 2

  Christopher Nolan is indicative of the problems of Hollywood, excessive flashy spectacle, highly stylised with very little substance. I imagine he likes to think he is a step above the type of ilk coming out of Hollywood currently. Nolan wants the viewers to think he’s smart and has interesting things to say about cinema and Oppenheimer’s work on the atomic bomb — but he really doesn’t. Most of his films deal with narrative, time, and image in what seems like…

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  Whiplash 2014

  ★ Rewatched 26 Aug 2022 4

  Yeah the more I think about it, the more it really rubs me the wrong way that this film uses jazz as a means to an end in its narrative. It becomes so focused on technicality that it loses any sense of being actually a film where jazz matters at all. Sure Andrew can play fast, he can play complex rhythms  but will he ever have the same groove and feeling as Rashied Ali? As Elvin Jones? No! And that’s because…