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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  Todo lo cubre la sal 2023

  Watched 16 Mar 2025

  Haunting poetic doc of the female net weavers from the Basque region.

  Watched at the Hammer Theatre Center as part of the Cinequest Film Festival.

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  Opal Of The West

  Watched 16 Mar 2025

  Shot lovingly on film, this is a colorful warm hug to all the offbeat humans who make Blackpool a unique place.

  Watched at the Hammer Theatre Center as part of the Cinequest Film Festival.

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…