Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Children of Men 2006

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 19 Feb 2025

  Re watched in 2025, it's clearer than it was when I first saw it how easily Britain could stumble into a future where the government opts for performative cruelty towards anyone whose skin colour or religious beliefs or accents don't match 'Great British' values.

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  The Wild Robot 2024

  ★★★★ Watched 28 Jan 2025

  I hadn't expected to shed so many tears; perhaps I'm turning into a big old softly as I get older.

  In a decade or so this should be recognised as an Iron Giant-level achievement that deserved at least an Oscar  for Best Animated Picture. Great work all round.

Popular reviews

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  Loving Leah 2009

  ★★★½ Watched 19 Mar 2016

  Undemanding but surprisingly engaging fare. Yes, the ending can be predicted some fifteen minutes in, but it's the path the characters take to get there that makes it worth a watch.

  This whole story depends hugely upon Lauren Ambrose's performance to sell it. Happily, she's more than up to the task.

  [It probably helps that I have absolutely no knowledge of whether the combination of Jewish custom and personal circumstances that resulted in the lead characters coming together counts as completely outlandish or merely ridiculous. It's easier to suspend disbelief that way.]

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  Up in the Air 2009

  ★★★★ Rewatched 30 Sep 2017

  George Clooney's performance as a man who is professionally committed to not getting attached to anyone is what makes this film so, so good. Amazingly enough, he's carved himself a niche where he can live his life and manage his career in ways that don't require him to let anyone get close to him, and not even his employers' adoption of modern communications technology is going to get in the way of his spending an epic proportion of his life in an airliner seat or in a hotel room.

  Excellent work by all involved.