Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  The Great Muppet Caper 1981

  ★★★★★ Watched 13 Feb 2024 1

  Look, Mother. It's my life, okay? So if I want to live on a beach and walk around naked...
  
  This is my favorite Muppet film just for Charles Grodin committing 100% to making you believe he’s cranking the hog to Miss Piggy, to say nothing of the Peter Falk cameo. Just bursting technical wizardry, insanely good one-liners, and banger tunes. Caper might not have the exact emotional peaks of the first Muppet film, but it is otherwise absolutely delightful and zany from beginning to end. Could rewatch it into infinity.

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  The Small Back Room 1949

  ★★★★ Watched 10 Nov 2023

  David Farrars starring as a hot, angsty explosives genius with a drinking problem, prosthetic leg, and a long-suffering girlfriend played by the luminous Kathleen Byron? Sign me up. Tense, small-scale WWII thriller moments abound, with lovely support by a young Michael Gough. A surreal interlude concerning a bottle of whiskey and a clock is perhaps the highlight. A grilling twenty-minute ending sequence had me sweating. Great stuff from Powell and Pressburger, as always.

Popular reviews

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  Cruella 2021

  ★ Watched 21 Sep 2021

  I will have revenge on every adult who tried to tell me this movie was fun and/or camp, especially compared to the recent live-action Disney remakes. You are all peasants. You are all liars. You are all portable insulated wine cups that say “live, laugh, love” in cursive across the front. I trust no one and hate all. When the earth is reduced to ashes, the aliens who find our remains will blame you.

  One star for Emma Thompson and her costumes.

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  West Side Story 2021

  ★★★★ Watched 22 Dec 2021

  Any film that makes Robert Moses a background villain gets at least three stars from me.

  
  Stephen Spielberg manages to pull off the impossible task of honoring the source material, paying tribute to the 1961 film that is deeply entrenched in our collective consciousness, and making a gorgeously crafted film that breathes new life and context into one of the biggest standards of musical theater.

  And then there's Ansel Elgort.

  A cast of mostly young unknowns gives the score and…