Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Hundreds of Beavers 2022

  ★★★½ Watched 23 Mar 2025

  What a film this would be had a nice stern editor sat down with a nice big pair of scissors to snip away all those bits that make it fifteen or twenty minutes too long. You can actually feel those bits as they're happening, particularly in the flabby second act between the absolutely revelatory and completely delightful first act and the rather more insane and anarchic third.

  Still, it's a rare delight to be able to sit down and watch a film that is completely original in almost every possible way.

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  Network 1976

  ★★★★ Watched 22 Mar 2025

  A pretty stunning collection of monologues that somehow melds together into a coherent and powerful film. None of the characters felt real to me but I nonetheless am certain that these people existed, and still exist, obsessed and power-hungry and selfish and willing to sell anyone or anything if it means they get another dopamine rush of success.

  And what on earth is Faye Dunaway doing here? I don't think I've ever seen a performance like it. She's a ball…

Popular reviews

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  Marriage Story 2019

  ★★ Watched 25 Nov 2019 2

  I must've watched a different film to everyone else.

  This is a film that is terrified of emotional honesty and tries to conceal its cowardice with a dull legal procedural and showy yelling arguments (which, granted, do get the best out of Driver and Johansson). But even in these raw moments, the characters never attempt to be honest with each other, never expose their desires to each other, never display a hint of vulnerability. Their narcissism is rife and the…

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  Moving Target 2000

  ★★★★ Watched 12 Jan 2021

  A remarkable achievement. The only criticism I can come up with for this Connemara Irish kung-fu Beamish movie is that most of the cast appear to be from anywhere but the west of Ireland.

  Some might say that having a car chase that appears to go around the same large coal heap three or four times is a stupid idea. They might also say that having slow motion action shots is a laughable stylistic choice. Such people generally also suggest…