A brilliant techno-thriller that presents both an electrifying game of digital cat & mouse, as well as some of the most impactful & hard-hitting action you could expect to find in a film about hacking. Houses what is probably Hemsworth’s best performance to date, with Michael Mann’s entirely digital lens painting an ethereal picture from a topic so tangible & real. Clearly a film that was shot too early in production, though one that is aided by the construction of those broken pieces.…
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Kingdom of Heaven 2005
A truly sweeping epic on a scale we so seldom see these days. Not perfect, of course - yes, even the Director’s Cut - but it is a definite high point of Scott’s career. The exact kind of grittiness & brutality required for such a film… and damn those battle sequences are incredible!
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 2011
Having journeyed through my favourite franchise with my girlfriend over the past however long it’s taken us has been one of the happiest moments of my life.
After all this time?
Always. -
Interface 2022
One of the most fascinating pieces of web media I have seen in a very long time. A gorgeous digitally animated web series by Justin Tomchuck; which feels like it’s been ripped from the depths of early Newgrounds & that consistently presents some of the most inventive & imaginative imagery the medium has to offer. Tomchuck’s in house sound design & score manages to blur the lines between diagetic & non-diagetic sound in the same way the animation & characters blur the line between free-will,…
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Napoleon 2023
Kind of a really fascinating, though disjointed film that clearly has large chunks still on the cutting room floor. Hoping the rumours of a 4hr cut ring true & we get to see more of the pieces fit into this puzzle, but for now it’s a pretty serviceable historic epic. Joaquin Phoenix does a tremendous job at portraying this version of Napoleon, though even at nearly 3hrs it feels like the film only scratches the surface of his political presence, military…
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 2010
Goated. Making this a 2-parter is one of the best decisions WB ever made.
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes 2023
Sir Francis Lawrence did indeed cook & served a delectable piece of retro futurist pulp that adapts the book brilliantly, sometimes to its detriment. A really interesting look at a twisted character that is actually hurt by the titular games that most will flock to see. None the less, super solid & easily in the upper tier of the Hunger Games franchise. Glad this delivered!
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Saltburn 2023
Twisted. Provocative. Debaucherous. Diabolical. All words I’ve seen used to describe what is instead a vapid, not scathing, dissection of broken characters. A painfully hollow production that is caught in a void of being neither satire nor commentary & instead presents as a shell of something that could have been far more interesting & exciting if it leant either way. It tries so hard to be this sexy & perverse thing, but it just isn’t that at all & runs dry before it’s even truly begun.
Probably more words to come? Maybe? Idk.
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