nikla

nikla Pro

Relentless subjectivity

Allegedly the Letterboxd equivalent of a Temnikova-era Serebro music video

Favorite films

  • Turbulent
  • Looking for Oum Kulthum
  • The Carnival Is Over
  • Land of Dreams

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All
  • Savages

    ★★★★

  • Saint Laurent

    ★★★½

  • Fidelio, Alice's Odyssey

    ★★★★

  • Why Not Me?

    ★★★★★

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  • Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3

    Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3

    ★★★

    **spoilers for Maja Ma; some discussion of Dedh Ishqiya and The Fame Game**

    A part of my being is utterly delighted with the fact that when this film was banned in Saudi Arabia for “mentions of homosexuality,” Bollywood social media blew up because everyone just assumed that it would be Madhuri Dixit playing another lesbian. 

    Another part of me is fascinated by the fact that, when another character in this film was shown more explicitly to be the ~offender, audiences then assumed that…

  • Cold Sweat

    Cold Sweat

    ★★★½

    Baran Kosari getting away with jahel in 2018 isn’t really that big of a leap, but you’re telling me Hoda is out here squeezing every bit of homosexual intimacy she possibly can into her performance and the Letterboxd reviews are like “they’re roommates”?!

    Hussein, they’re lesbians

    Like yes, the coercive blowjob is a big deal, but it’s not as if there isn’t already a well-established visual code for sexual violence in Iranian films. The entire ulama aren’t pissed about that scene, they’re pissed…

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  • Savages

    Savages

    ★★★★

    I know Rebecca Zlotowski is a good director, because I know she told Amira Casar to play Daria’s concern that Idder won’t have time to fuck as often at the same emotional level as everyone else’s worries about French neo Nazism, and she made that choice because she is freaky motherfucker, a comedian, and a feminist with the intellectual capacity to balance short and long term priorities.

  • Saint Laurent

    Saint Laurent

    ★★★½

    Everyone being upstaged by that one Laure Giappiconi and Kate Moran scene, a likely story. 

    There is something very funny about Deneuve being mentioned only in passing in this film—presumably because it was all that she allowed them to get away with. Which is, of course, among the core lessons Saint Laurent would have encouraged her to embrace.

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  • Madeleine Collins

    Madeleine Collins

    ★★★★

    Son: “I’ve been noticing you are having an affair—“
    Virginie Efira: “And I’ve been noticing you are spending a lot of time with that twink friend of yours (no judgement), so maybe we all have some secrets, don’t we, JORIS”

  • Sink or Swim

    Sink or Swim

    ★★★★

    Depressed queers Virginie Efira and Leïla Bekhti teach depressed French men synchronized swimming so they can heal the trauma of their break up, and help the men to find self-worth in their inner woman instead of toxic masculinity, love that for France.