Favorite films

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Recent reviews

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  Pig 2021

  ★★★★ Watched 28 Dec 2021

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

  the kind of film that redefines itself post-first helping; that palpable anticipation for delicious catharsis dissolves entirely, setting the narrative adrift like a battered raft in gentle waters, shedding any flavor of urgency in favor of a zen-like meditation on loss and the rejuvenating power of a good meal. I’m already hungry for seconds.

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  Howl's Moving Castle 2004

  ★★★★ Rewatched 26 Dec 2021

  ambient Ghibli. this one confounded me upon first viewing, as it’s such a strange progression of events with a truly oddball cast of characters, even by Miyazaki’s standards. but I’ve since fallen for its many peculiarities and found that it really transcends its whimsical narrative in the precious moments of pause — Sophie napping, gazing wistfully at nature, or just taking a breather on a hillside — which feel like little pockets of peace in the seams of an inevitable, omnipresent turmoil. life happens fast, but presence and kindness slow it down considerably. it also helps to have a sense of humor.

Popular reviews

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  Fire and Ice 1983

  ★★½ Watched 18 Aug 2019 1

  sometimes a guy just needs to rotoscope, like, a ton of ass

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  Burning 2018

  ★★★★½ Watched 04 Nov 2018 4

  quiet devastation at the hands of a metaphor. a mystery drifts in on a warm breeze from Africa, rustling the leaves as sunset slowly burns the day to ashen black. Miles Davis dances with North Korean propaganda in the cool twilight.

  poetic, existentialist ambiguity gives way to bracing tension with the gradual subtlety of light creeping into the morning. Mowg’s score bestows a soft menace on everything. a beguiling swell of cloistered emotional heft, and what a rousing coda! my heart aches for the greenhouse: hopeful, promising, ephemeral, lost in a puff of smoke.