Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  We Live in Time 2024

  ★★ Watched 16 Mar 2025

  Inoffensive yet interminable. I see why everyone involved figured there was something worthwhile here: it’s non-linear, optimistically millennial, artistically ambivalent, but – ultimately – pinkie-toe shallow. [4.7]

• 

  Whiplash 2014

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 16 Mar 2025

  Simmons’ monologue in the backend about the dangers of “Good job!” is such a rich and layered cryptograph. Because – as our rational mind knows but is waylaid into forgetting – there’s a fuckin’ middle ground between mediocrity and monstrosity. Last ten minutes of this film are as amphetaminic as it gets. [10]

Popular reviews

• 

  Before Sunrise 1995

  ★★★★ Rewatched 01 Sep 2023 3

  There’s not enough elegant meandering in cinema, which is embarrassing given this template. Hawke lands dead-centre impressive ‘tween smugness and charm (we’ll call it ‘smarm’, for argument’s sake), and Delpy nips at any manic pixie buds by steering every wayward chat aright. Magic hour movie. [8.9]

• 

  RoboCop 1987

  ★★★★½ Watched 30 Aug 2022 4

  A cyborgian mix of sharp political skewering and astoundingly brutal violence, RoboCop's very smart about how dumb it is. Sustained by a "Blade Runner on coke" aesthetic (and likewise tempo), it's subtler than you'd think in decrying the privatisation of social institutions... then a guy gets mutated by toxic sludge and explodes when a car rams into him. Fuckin' excellent. [9.7]

Following