Jon Spira

Jon Spira

Film-maker based in Oxford, England.
Used to own and run the Videosyncratic indie video stores.

Favorite films

  • The Last Waltz
  • An American Werewolf in London
  • Tootsie
  • Anyone Can Play Guitar

Recent activity

All
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

    ★★★½

  • Millennium

    ★★★½

  • V/H/S

    ★★½

  • From Hell

    ★★★★

Recent reviews

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  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

    Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

    ★★★½

    This is probably the greatest example in cinema history of bad casting derailing a film. Every single other element is in place. This is an incredibly well directed film, the editing is brilliant, the production design and effects are perfect, the writing is tops - this should be one of my favourite films of all time.

    But Michael Cera just isn't Scott Pilgrim. I'm not just saying that as a fan of the comic, either. Scott is written to be…

  • Millennium

    Millennium

    ★★★½

    Millennium is an odd film. At times it is truly epic sci-fi - in ambition, implication and production design, yet at the heart of the story is an intimate connection between a 1980s air traffic accident investigator and a kind of special agent from 1000 years in the future. It sounds hokey but it's better than it sounds.

    It's a slow burning, pensive and earnest film which feels literally and culturally out-of-time, it somewhat defies genre and categorization. It's by…

Popular reviews

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  • Up in the Air

    Up in the Air

    ★★★★★

    What a fantastic film. Simple, direct, bittersweet and positive. It feels like a film a little out of time, with a Sullivan's Travels kind of charisma and the intelligence and off-kilter feel of a 70's studio picture. I just adored it. Clooney is perfect, Reitman finds beauty in a wholly corporate world, I can't recommend it highly enough. This is what films should be like - thoughtful, charming and modest.

  • Anyone Can Play Guitar

    Anyone Can Play Guitar

    ★★★★★

    I think this is the best film ever made.

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