Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Revanche 2008

  ★★★★ Watched 21 Mar 2025

  This is mint. Revanche – which rolls off the tongue easier than "Rache" – establishes a cityscape of brothels and ex-convicts, Ukrainians with dubitable papers, and pimps with dubitable scruples. It weaves into this familiar Krimi tapestry two intriguing scenes, one with a countryside grandpa and another with a smalltown cop firing range, whose seeming disconnectedness to Vienna hangs like an unfired weapon on the wall. The bulk of the film rests on the woodcutter who would, if he could,…

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  The Man Without a Past 2002

  ★★★★ Watched 21 Mar 2025

  Gorgeous. It's always so adorable to see his characters come together, overcoming the oddly staccato exchanges with the seemingly one-note bit-players around them until they form a humanity. In this case, The Man Without A Past finds himself in a gentle exploration of Salvation Army events, jukeboxes, and bank robberies. It's how we all learn to build for ourselves a community.

  I'm obsessed with alcohol in Kaurismäen films. It's not like alcoholism in cinema writ large, a murky, depressing affair…

Popular reviews

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  Shambhala 2024

  ★★★★½ Watched 24 Feb 2024

  Every bit as beautiful and as loving as it appeared to be in promo photography. Shambhala takes the necessary time to ease us into Pema's life, and her community in the Himalayas. When the title card drops at the 50-minute mark, I was excited to see a Himalayan Drive My Car, which for better or worse is an expectation which doesn't completely align with the gentle love and gossipy stakes that Min Badahur Bham centres, even if we get the…

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  Jurassic World Dominion 2022

  ★½ Watched 07 Jun 2022

  An interminable crock of shit.

  The moments of Ian Malcolm's incredulity are as close as we get to charm. Every action sequence refuses to orient the viewer, to their great discomfort. The returned orig' tridge cast throw into sharp relief how poor company Owen and Claire have been.

  I'm as happy as anyone that Malta got its first Hollywood dollar since Popeye, but that entire sequence was an unnecessary delay to the fun of assembling the dino avengers. With this…