Favorite films

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Recent reviews

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  Adaptation. 2002

  ★★★★★ Rewatched by Philip Schmidt 14 May 2022 2

  A wonderful revisit of a film I used to find merely cute and slightly irritating. I think people may forget about what Jonze does here visually, which is a real shame. Obviously, Kaufman as writer and characters is so up front and with the act of screenwriting as one of the film's subjects, it makes sense that Jonze's work kind of recedes. Jonze is also terrific with actors making me kind of wonder if Donald is a bit of stand…

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  The Quick and the Dead 1995

  ★★★★½ Watched by Philip Schmidt 10 May 2022

  Loved this one, the first Raimi film I've really connected with. The camerawork is both ostentatious and somehow restrained for Raimi. Raimi's style fits the content to, in that we're talking about a story where a town holds an annual 'March Madness of Death' tournament to purge any bad blood.

  Great dolly push-ins and loads of split diopter shots, all used thematically and with a purpose. As a technical nerd, I couldn't help but get pulled out a few times…

Popular reviews

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  Schindler's List 1993

  ★★ Watched by Philip Schmidt 06 Dec 2013 4

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

  I finally got around to it. I was probably too young when it was in theaters and I've put it off for years because of the subject matter. Little did I know that Spielberg had a built-in device to tell this story and still make it an epic Hollywood entertainment: he made the two lead characters both powerful Nazis, existing outside of the group of Jewish victims. This creates the necessary separation that a mass audience requires. Ben Kingsley has…

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  Her 2013

  ★★★★★ Watched by Philip Schmidt 12 Jan 2014 1

  I was a little afraid that it wouldn't live up to the hype or that it seemed too much like exactly my type of film (man and technology theme, contemporary intimacy, clean futuristic city, one of my favorite actors, visually striking, etc.). Somehow it managed to exceed my expectations.

  Phoenix completely carries the film, occupying every shot and most of the time acting towards a disembodied voice. Most of his performance is not in his soft-spoken, bashful words, but the…