Favorite films

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Recent reviews

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  Triangle of Sadness 2022

  Watched 28 Jan 2023

  Not as concise or as nuanced as Parasite, but still had a lot of fun with this. 

  Östlund’s directing is near flawless here. The argument about the check (in part one) is so well observed. 

  The script could be shorter. I really enjoyed the captain’s dinner sequence but it felt a bit long, especially during the drunken intercom announcements. And they should have washed up on the island 30 min earlier. All that said, overall very enjoyable.

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  Die Hard 1988

  Watched 30 Dec 2022

  So ridiculous and so fun. 

  (Yes this was my first time. And yes I’m thrilled about people no longer being able to say, “WHAT!!! YOU’VE NEVER SEEN DIE HARD???”

  Now to watch Terminator 2….)

Popular reviews

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  Armageddon Time 2022

  ★★★ Watched 27 Oct 2022

  Could have been a short film. 

  Definitely my least favorite James Gray movie, but it’s not a bad movie. It feels similar to Green Book in that it hammers home a truth that audiences already largely know to be true — yet the performances are so nuanced and entertaining that it’s easily watchable. 

  Mr. Khondji could have shot this in his sleep. It looks good but I don’t know if he ever felt particularly challenged.

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  Widows 2018

  ★★½ Watched 15 Nov 2018 2

  One star for McQueen’s solid direction. One star for good performances. Half a star for that great shot rigged to Mulligan’s car showing the dichotomy of wealth in Chicago. 

  No stars for Flynn and McQueen’s bloated, messy, undercooked, boring script and its hackneyed, shoehorned twists. No stars for Zimmer’s lazy score. And no stars for those three false endings that added nothing to the story. 

  McQueen, you make us wait 5 years, for this?