Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  The Manchurian Candidate 1962

  Watched 18 Mar 2025

  There is probably a lot more to say about what is happening off screen.  The movie itself is a bore for the most part. Its form of commentary strikes me as very safe and marketable, which 60+ years of fawning also suggests.  The so-called Korean War seems like the least understood or considered US military excursion in recent memory, at least as far as popular understanding goes.  The Manchurian Candidate does little to elevate or clarify beyond a kind of…

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  The Quiet Man 1952

  Watched 17 Mar 2025

  Fuck John Wayne
  Up the RA
  Long Live Sacheen Littlefeather

Popular reviews

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  The Brutalist 2024

  Watched 25 Feb 2025 2

  Any other stylistic or political comments aside, heroin use has never had better public relations. 

  This felt very precisely calculated for a filmbro awards season audience.  It also felt like it muddied its own waters delivering on style while mishandling its points about social, cultural, and class struggles.  And it is Zionist propaganda.

  Also for an “architecture movie” there were never any interesting full shots of this building and the model looked ridiculous.  Plus for the Italian anarchist marble people.

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  Naked 1993

  Watched 20 Nov 2024

  I don’t like to use words like “doomer”, but this is that.

  When a movie features so much rape, violence, and repression, the message is more powerful if screamed instead of whispered.  By no means am I against subtlety and nuance. I just don’t think Leigh meant for the takeaway to be “well, at least the one piece of shit poor guy is not the bigger piece of shit rich guy.”  Or, “yes, the women are powerless, but so are…

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