Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  Perfumes 2019

  ★★ Watched 15 Mar 2025

  It’s fine, but a trite script and limp stakes make for a pretty forgettable experience. I appreciate a movie like this that intentionally veers away from romance, but there needs to be some chemistry of some kind between the leads.

• 

  Casablanca 1942

  ★★★★★ Watched 02 Mar 2025

  I was so skeptical. It had been a really long day in a series of really long days. I haven’t really been wanting to watch movies lately. And I was on a friggin’ airplane. But it got me within about four minutes, and it was wonderful. It strikes me as an infinitely rewatchable classic.

  Also! I knew that a massive amount of pop culture and media directly reference this movie. But I had no idea that Year 2 of Grim Fandango is basically one hours-long reference to Casablanca. Go figure!

Popular reviews

• 

  Sonic the Hedgehog 2020

  ½ Watched 08 Feb 2020

  Jesus.

• 

  Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning 2023

  ★★★★½ Watched 29 Jul 2023 2

  Maybe it’s just that this is the first one I’ve seen in a theater since, jeez, 2000? But seeing one of these movies on a big screen is absolutely the way to go. 

  Exceeded all expectations. I think this was the best one yet, and it comes down to how well it pays homage to where it began — the sleight-of-hand, the double- and triple-crossings, and, well, Kittridge — and perfects where it’s gone since then. The character interplay is…