Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Valley Girl 1983

  ★★½ Watched 24 Mar 2025

  The soundtrack was totally tubular, but most of the rest of this verrrry loose “Romeo and Juliet adaptation” could gag me with a spoon.

  (ShakespYear #7)

• 

  Anora 2024

  ★★★½ Watched 23 Mar 2025

  It’s a shame Yura Burisov’s Oscar nomination was the only one that didn’t win. He was hands down the best part of this movie.

Popular reviews

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  2001: A Space Odyssey 1968

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 28 Oct 2024 1

  The monolith’s greatest trick was convincing the world this is just another movie.

  My greatest trick was convincing my class that they’d understand the ending after two weeks of dedicated discussion on this masterpiece.

  Kubrick’s greatest trick was—obviously—faking the moon landing after filming this unmatchably perfect film.

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  Double Indemnity 1944

  ★★★★ Rewatched 30 Sep 2024 1

  My students consistently cite this as one of their favorite films of class. I always love the participation I get after this movie, like “Professor McCray, is this considered the first film noir?” or “Professor McCray, who do you think we’re supposed to be rooting for in this film?” or “Professor McCray, what type of life insurance policy do you have and are you planning to travel by train any time soon?” Good kids.

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