Zach Ralston

Zach Ralston Pro

I don’t know, I think maybe “fast and steady” would win the race a little more often.

Favorite films

  • In the Mood for Love
  • The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
  • Do the Right Thing
  • Naked

Recent activity

All
  • Here

  • The Firm

    ★★½

  • Broken Rage

    ★★

  • Flow

    ★★★½

Pinned reviews

More
  • The Flash

    The Flash

    ★★★

    What a weird, fascinating specimen of a movie, nearly crushed under the weight of so many extracurricular issues and somewhat heroically emerging victorious against them.

    First of all, the separate-the-art-from-the-artist debate gets fresh chum with Ezra Miller's dazzling performance -- they're an off-camera mess of a person: an abusive, violent, grooming, cult-leading thief with serious mental health issues. But on camera they're working out a lot of this shit through emotionally charged scenes of bottomless humanity. Let's look at the…

  • Vanilla Sky

    Vanilla Sky

    ★★★★½

    Exists in a perfect dialectic with EYES WIDE SHUT -- the Kubrick text not only helps unpack this one, but this focuses some things about the Kubrick as well. There are even visual callbacks (Alicia Witt walking backwards seductively through LE is a straight up rip) as well as David's motto, which -- as he says twice at his birthday party in the first act -- is "living the dream." People keep telling him to wake up, but he has…

Recent reviews

More
  • Here

    Here

    A ghastly abomination so mawkish and feeble that it threatens the very legacies of Zemeckis, Hanks, and Wright. Not too long ago I was beating the auteurist drum for Zemeckis, whose ALLIED was wrongfully ignored and remains one of the great romantic dramas of the 2010s: effortlessly skillful in every aspect of its direction and storytelling. This is quite the opposite -- a tone-deaf stage play that is so keen on using graphic novel templates like frames within frames that…

  • The Firm

    The Firm

    ★★½

    I really don't like John Grisham. I think he's a terrible writer, both in style and in story. And virtually every movie made from his books is starting at such a massive disadvantage that only geniuses can make them remotely interesting -- which is why it's a minor miracle this one doesn't suck. Pollack is capable of some truly romantic camera moves and he has patience with his characters. The supporting cast is having a field day, especially Gary Busey…

Popular reviews

More
  • Mission: Impossible

    Mission: Impossible

    ★★★★★

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

  • Devs

    Devs

    ★½

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