Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Civil War 2024

  ★★½ Watched 20 Apr 2024

  War is bad, but American exceptionalism means that Americans don't get that message without a movie *explicitly* depicting it in American context? That seems like the thesis behind this movie

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  Ready Player One 2018

  ★½ Watched 29 Apr 2018

  Spielberg does a passable job of adapting something that should have always existed only as a visual piece. Hard to put heart into this, and every now and then there are attempts, but it loses out on the logic or the thrill of the race itself- even though it was an improvement over the books. Takes some of the annoying deux-ex machinas out, but the claim of Spielberg finding the 'real' world of the book interesting and wanting to explore…

Popular reviews

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  Columbus 2017

  ★★★★ Watched 03 Feb 2018 1

  Stories, and movies more so, are often characterised by a heavy concentration on the 'plot' - the whats and whens and whys, with the setting serving as a mere stylistic element, a backdrop that can add garnishing to the themes within. And indeed, retaining the theme whilst merely adjusting the setting creates whole new genres - what with comparisons between the modern superhero blockbuster template to that of the classic Western ones.

  It is thus rare and often refreshing when…

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  Phantom Thread 2017

  ★★★★½ Watched 21 Jan 2018

  At this point talking about DDL's performances is stating the obvious, but what's remarkable in this one is how Vicky Krieps matching him toe-to-toe. I really liked Paul Dano's acting in There Will be Blood, and yet it was overshadowed by Lewis, which is what made her holding her own even more impressive.

  PTA has crafted this with the same passion and love that Lewis's Reynolds crafts his dresses, and for a film that starts with a somewhat tame premise,…