Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  Baby Doll 1956

  ★★★½ Rewatched 17 Sep 2023

  62/100

  Second viewing, last seen 1995. All that I really remembered were the title character's infantilized aspects—her nickname, obviously, but also that she's introduced sleeping in a crib and sucking her thumb, then spends most of the movie being terrorized(/seduced) by much older men.

  (Rest of the review, along with everything else I write, available via ultra-cheap subscription. Seriously, it’s as little as $1 a month and for now that pays my rent.)

• 

  Jericho 1937

  ★★ Watched 16 Sep 2023

  35/100

  Filmmakers of the '30s really understood that if you were gonna cast Paul Robeson in your movie, might as well find reasons to have him repeatedly break into song, whether or not it's a musical.

  (Rest of the review, along with everything else I write, available via ultra-cheap subscription. Seriously, it’s as little as $1 a month and for now that pays my rent.)

Popular reviews

• 

  Moonlight 2016

  ★★½ Rewatched 08 Dec 2016 88

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

  49/100

  Okay, here we go: Why I think the year's most universally acclaimed film is sorta kinda not really very good. Took a second look to be sure, both because I'm always open to the possibility that I'm wrong and because I served on a festival jury with Jenkins a couple of years ago and liked him enormously, so take no pleasure in being a contrarian here. Had exactly the same reaction, alas. In descending order of importance:

  • I'm generally…

• 

  Sicario 2015

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 10 Sep 2015 36

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

  83/100

  Second viewing, no change. Having now professionally reviewed this film four times (for The Dissolve from Cannes, and then for the A.V. Club, the Nashville Scene, and the Las Vegas Weekly), I thought I had nothing left to say, especially since I made a point of addressing the most common criticisms. But since a bunch of folks are praising Adam Nayman's takedown for Reverse Shot, let me quickly address a few of his points.

  “I have to know,” Kate…