Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Spettacolo 2017

  ★★★★½ Watched 30 May 2023

  A "Hey, Gang! Let's put on a show" film meets an Existential Crisis film, all set in a beautiful, little Italian village. A thoughtful examination of the value of art in day-to-day life. I loved it!

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  The Outfit 2022

  ★★★★ Watched 27 May 2023

  I really enjoy films set in a single location when they're done well. This one definitely is! It feels only slightly "stagy" as a result (even though the end credits reveal that it was actually filmed in a theater in London!), and any sense of claustrophobia is more than offset by a great cast led by Mark Rylance, who, to my knowledge, has never given a bad performance. This film should please anyone, but especially give it a try if you're partial to 1950s-set gangster films.

Popular reviews

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  Call Me by Your Name 2017

  ★★★ Watched 26 Feb 2018

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

  I truly appreciated both Tasha Robinson's and Josh Larsen's takes on this film, and would like to second their ideas but also add my own.

  I found this film irritating in how it idealizes adolescent lust and love-sickness. I'm not denying the reality or ubiquity of these states, but objecting that the film seems to want the audience to view them as an ideal state. The scene near the end of the film in which Elio's father--who has seemed to…

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  Jack Goes Boating 2010

  ★★★★ Watched 12 May 2021

  No one performs gentle sadness, quiet despair, and befuddled humor like Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but this performance is doubly impressive as this film is also his sole directing credit. Although it feels a bit stagey in the final act, this is a great directorial debut. I wish he were still with us.