Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Blackstar: Autobiography of a Close Friend 1976

  Watched 20 Mar 2022

  I teach "Silverlake Life," so I've wanted to watch this film for years since it's featured so heavily in the doc. Thankfully, IndieCollect and the UCLA Film & Television Archive just did a complete restoration of the film. It's a tapestry of thoughts and feelings from a filmmaker who is clearly in love with three things: film, his family, and his husband - but these three things don't necessarily love each other.

  I cried thinking how proud Joslin would have been seeing his work preserved and valued.

  Watched at The Billy Wilder Theater.

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  Petite Maman 2021

  Watched 14 Jan 2022

  I think about visiting my younger self often in order to take care of him and be there to help him through the rough spots of life. Here, Sciamma crafts a beautiful twist on this concept as we follow two people who both need support during two separate crises. The film not only reframes themes of mothering, nurturing, and domesticity, but for me it also flips the suppositions of linear generational time on its head in a profound way. In…

Recent reviews

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  Nosferatu 2024

  Watched 08 Mar 2025

  Most of the film pays homage to over 100 years of Bram Stoker’s classic on film. While the biggest formal risks are still in Coppola’s version for me, every generation deserves a glossy rendition of Dracula.  I loved the “Night on Bald Mountain” Fantasia homage the most. 

  Watched on Peacock.

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  10 Things I Hate About You 1999

  Watched 01 Mar 2025

  Showed up for research on a project and was tickled by this ultra-90s romp. Fun and tight script from Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. "Breakout" stars Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger are fearless and fantastic. And it's bawdy in a way the Bard himself would have loved.

  Super enthusiastic intro by Jessica Williams, who programmed the film for a sold out crowd.

  Watched at Vidiots (The Eagle Theatre).

Popular reviews

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  Jaggi 2022

  Watched 27 Apr 2022

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

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  Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 1975

  Watched 28 Mar 2024 3

  I’ve waited for years to see this on the big screen, and it was so worth the wait. Somehow, I expected it to be experimental, but its largest experiment is in its use of causality. Its structure is incredibly precise: 24 hours play out in “routine clockwork mode,” then the next 24 hours play out in “broken clockwork mode.” I found the before/after construction to be incredibly compelling, and I’m (unsurprisingly?) disappointed by all the lore that “nothing happens” in…