Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Farewell My Concubine 1993

  ★★★★★ Watched 16 Oct 2022

  Watched this 172-min film, read some articles and analyses on it and then immediately watched it again. It is seriously on another level. Chen Kaige, DP Gu Changwei, Leslie Cheung, Gong Li and Zhang Fengyi. What a team. 

  So much emotion in this film. So much Chinese history. Tackles such massive issues. Every single frame is packed with not only crucial story beats and efficiently minuscule and important character development but it is composed and lit like a painting. I…

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  Still Walking 2008

  ★★★★★ Watched 29 May 2020

  This film is a defining example of how the art of cinema can evoke such personal, specific, and powerful emotions within viewers. In this case, me. There is something special about watching this story unfold in the patient way that it does, and in doing so, allowing me to feel the sensation of my memories ebbing and flowing until they eventually consume all my thoughts and feelings. The emotional experience is unlike anything else. I don't feel this by looking…

Recent reviews

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  Mulholland Drive 2001

  ★★ Rewatched 16 Feb 2025

  Whack.

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  Maria 2024

  ★★★★ Watched 14 Jan 2025

  • Really appreciated the unconventional approach to this “biopic” as is expected of Pablo Larrain. Bold filmmaker who reaches - soars for some, falls for others. 

  • Very impressed by Angelina Jolie’s performance, and especially her speaking voice. Did not know she had that in her! 

  • Some of the most gorgeous cinematography this year. Ed Lachman is a legend. Choices were deliberate, and format changes and texture were on-point. 

  • The dreamy vision sequences were visually stunning. Loved how they were incorporated and sparsely used. The one that recreated Madama Butterfly made me go “wow!”

Popular reviews

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  Warsha 2022

  Added 2

  Best short at 2022 Sundance Film Fest.
  One of the best shorts I’ve seen in years.

  This has everything you want in a top-notch film: 

  - social specificity - strong social commentary about a specific place that also reflects the greater society as a whole

  - authenticity - an engaging lead actor surrounded by an array of characters who are well-directed - they are entirely natural and believable and all lend to both impressive authenticity and subtle character-building (love the…

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  Licorice Pizza 2021

  ★★ Watched 28 Nov 2021

  Meandering. Unfocused. Weak character development. Feels like an assortment of unfinished plot lines with scenes that aren’t as funny as they want to be. Handling of time and structure is also off-putting. The weird old white dude who mocks his Japanese girlfriends is baffling; it clearly is not supposed to paint him in a good light, yet the PTA bros in the audience howl in laughter, so… not sure if the right point comes across. Not buying into what the…