Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  The Brutalist 2024

  Watched 24 Jan 2025

  Bafflingly stupid attempt at Zionist apologia. Baffling because there was no reason for this to be the direction it went. The film peaks when it's focused on Laszlo and Erzebet's relationship, which even so, is underdeveloped. The insufficiency of physical or even emotional intimacy as means to generate the sort of intimacy you desire, and the destructive mechanisms you'll put in place in order to deal with this tragedy – that's a compelling notion, and seemed to be the direction…

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  Conclave 2024

  Watched 22 Jan 2025

  Great shots, great acting, great sound. Predictable characters. Pulls its punches on politics. And completely crumbles when it matters.

  I will say, I did very much enjoy the speech that Lawrence gives. Certainty, as a notion, is a good one to pin a target on. It is correctly identified as an undercurrent of many of the reactionary and evil ideas in our world. But also, what could be more certain than a prestige film focused on the institutional crisis of…

Popular reviews

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  Challengers 2024

  Watched 13 May 2024

  I don’t understand why this exists. It seems to think it’s struck gold with the thesis that when you really think about it, tennis is kinda like sex. No expansion is offered. No exploration of the unspoken dynamics of reciprocity, recognition, and mutual proactivity that must surely ground the connection. Just this plain allegory sprinkled atop a sexless celebration of larval American elites. Boring. Vapid. Shit.

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  The Zone of Interest 2023

  Watched 17 Feb 2024

  Great film. A documentary of the familiar everydayness of life and a familiar atrocity. Unfamiliar in that it makes explicit the connection between the two. Not much to say about the craftsmanship of the film itself – it’s well shot, acted, coloured, and so on. The arthousey pieces of score and unusual one-off shots probably should have been scrapped. They only served to detract from the purposeful mundanity of it all. Great stuff nonetheless. 

  I was convinced that it was…