Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Booksmart 2019

  ★★★★ Watched 20 Feb 2020

  Funny as hell, charming as hell, sweet as hell, relevant as heck.
  (Did I mention it's extremely funny?)

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  Uncut Gems 2019

  ★★★★ Watched 21 Feb 2020

  Not the kind of movie I usually enjoy (way too stressful!), but there is no denying the skill with which it is made, or the performances that anchor it.

  I didn't totally buy in until about 2/3rds of the way through, when a plot twist that I did not see coming made me think there was something deeper going on here. There are a few more toward the end that elevate it to something more than just a slick suspense…

Popular reviews

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  Boy 2010

  ★★★★ Rewatched 11 Sep 2019 2

  Love this film, love this filmmaker, love this sensibility. His first and perhaps still his best feature film, but 'What We Do In The Shadows' and 'The Hunt for The Wilder-People' are just as much fun and well worth checking out. Hope he doesn't get sucked into the blockbuster machine, like Peter Jackson, never to emerge with his own original work again.

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  A Brighter Summer Day 1991

  ★★★★½ Watched 08 Aug 2019

  An excellent film, gorgeously restored on Criterion, about growing up in 1960s Taiwan under military rule. It's long (4 hours) and relatively slow paced, but by the end you will feel deeply invested in the fate of this family.

  Yang gets excellent - alternately charming and heartbreaking - performances from his young cast, at least one of whom - Chang Chen - has gone on to mature stardom. (You've likely seen him - in a very different role - as…