Favorite films

  • Alien
  • Birth
  • Michael Clayton
  • Prisoners

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  • A Thousand and One

    ★★★

  • The Covenant

    ★★★

  • Bodies Bodies Bodies

    ★★½

  • How to Blow Up a Pipeline

    ★★★

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  • A Thousand and One

    A Thousand and One

    ★★★

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

    Love the rich atmosphere, color grading and 70s-style storytelling in Act 1 but, after a crime-based setup, the visual flair (intentionally?) becomes more mundane as the film settles into a years-long family drama. The crime is too understated when it's reduced to bookends instead of driving the entire narrative via cause and effect (e.g., a cop stop is inconsequential). Despite the uneven script, it's a notable debut feature and I'm interested to see what Rockwell does next.

  • The Covenant

    The Covenant

    ★★★

    Five stars for the story hook but a two-star deduction for minimal character development (which, unfortunately, is now the standard in screenwriting) and a reliance on long, repetitive montages.

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  • Chernobyl

    Chernobyl

    ★★★★★

    Holy crap, what a gruesome nightmare event. Riveting storytelling with great style, excellent cinematography, an otherworldly soundtrack and strong performances across the board. This docudrama deserves all the awards. Every single one.

  • Bohemian Rhapsody

    Bohemian Rhapsody

    ★½

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

    This film will certainly create new Queen fans, but why fabricate a plotline using a clichéd rockstar movie template when there's a true story that's uniquely interesting? Freddie Mercury isn't Dewey Cox. He didn't betray the band by going solo (Roger and Brian did solo projects years before Freddie did, and Roger assisted Freddie's solo effort); the band never broke up; Live Aid wasn't their swan song; etc. Freddie is a one-of-a-kind music icon with an R-rated journey. His legacy deserves more than this sanitized cookie-cutter PG-13 crowd-pleaser.