Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  The Last Showgirl 2024

  ★★½ Watched 24 Feb 2025

  Gauzily shot with a probing handheld camera. this feels a bit like a somewhat lighter take on something like "The Wrestler"; the aging Las Vegas showgirl version. 

  Pamela Anderson as our main aging showgirl is great, Jamie Lee Curtis is a give no fucks wonder and Dave Bautista is nicely understanded, though once they need to adhere to the semblance of story here, the proceedings become less interesting. 

  The film works best in the series of mostly backstage scenes with…

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  Stuck 2007

  ★★½ Watched 20 Jan 2025

  Nasty little low budget thriller that uncomfortably vacillates between earnest sincerity, dark comedy, and darker thriller.

  Mena Suvari is retirement home caregiver who, after a night of partying, crashes her car into a newly homeless Stephen Rea. Rather than taking him to a hospital, she abandons him in her garage, essentially waiting for him to die.

  It's an attention grabbing conceit, though Fargo Season 2 had more fun with the same basic scenario (based on a real life, very grim story)

  Feels more of a piece with Stuart Gordon's so-so David Mamet adaptation, "Edmond", than his rollicking Lovecraft adaptations.

Popular reviews

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  Would You Rather 2012

  ★★½ Watched 13 Apr 2014

  This one is awfully similar in its themes to the far better "Cheap Thrills", though the execution is stagey and the characters don't have quite the complexity. In place of David Koechner we have B-movie alum Jeffrey Combs, always a very welcome manic presence. Combs hams it up per usual as the almost creepily charming host to the worst dinner party since that one in "The Celebration".

  The actors are mostly capable, though Sasha Grey is given a typically bland…

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  Afflicted 2013

  ★★½ Watched 12 Apr 2014

  Found footage horror mash-up of "My Best Friend is a Vampire", "Chronicle", "The Fly", and "American Werewolf in London".

  The two leads also serve as directors, and are not quite as natural or as effective as actors as they could be, however Derek Lee has a nice screen presence that helps him anchor the film.

  This has some suprisingly effective set pieces in which our "afflicted" lead leaps onto and off buildings while attached to a camera and other similar…

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