Recent reviews

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  Ladder to Damascus 2013

  ★★★★★ Watched 26 Mar 2024

  So many individual Syrian stories are told within the confines of an hour and 40 minutes. I was skeptical at the beginning, but I also should acknowledge that independent films made within Syria after the uprising were/are a miracle (especially when the film is confronting the state's narrative of the "crisis"). So it made sense that scenes outside the confines of the traditional Damascene house were bleak. But once the real film started within the closed walls, everything started making…

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  La Ciénaga 2001

  ★★★½ Watched 07 Feb 2024

  While there's no major plot in the film, it metaphorically keeps you on your edge throughout anticipating something bad to happen. A low-key horror movie? Probably in ways you don't expect. The soundscape is perfectly stitched and layered to elicit an immersive and haunting experience.

Popular reviews

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  The Fabelmans 2022

  ★★½ Watched 10 Mar 2023 2

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

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  Barbie 2023

  ½ Watched 30 Aug 2023

  Political spoon-feeding dressed in pink.
  Barbie may seem like a light fun movie, but it also has a progressive political agenda that deserves to be analyzed. Films should appeal to both the brain and the heart, stimulating emotions and logic. Successful films are ones that make you think, ponder, question, or even criticize the plot and its reality, and thus your own reality. Good storytelling does not need to spoon-feed you the conclusion and treat you, the viewer, as a…

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