Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  May December 2023

  Watched 28 Nov 2023

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

  May December. It wasn’t filmed with that Sirk-inspired careful composition and color scheme that I’ve gotten used to from Haynes, but it looked nice in a different way: a more atmospheric, looser evocation of Savannah, with occasional glints of sunlight in the lens. And there was a lot of nice detail in the acting, unusual mundane things that most filmmakers wouldn’t think to do. (Julianne Moore affected a lisp for the role, but she was flawless and exciting, as usual.)…

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  Going My Way 1944

  Rewatched 25 Nov 2023

  Going My Way. The film really hit me hard this time. The density of McCarey’s invention is remarkable: he never sleeps on anything, is always on the lookout for some unusual reaction or bit of business to give his actors. I used to accept the idea that the film suffers from a bit of sentiment, but this time I kept tearing up at every bittersweet thing: all it takes is a little deviation from convention to take the curse off…

Popular reviews

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  Killers of the Flower Moon 2023

  Watched 11 Nov 2023

  For a while I felt that Scorsese's style was needlessly showy, and then I felt that conventional acting and pacing had set in as the film became quieter. Somehow whatever aesthetic path I’ve been on has taken me to a place where I don’t find much of anything interesting about the eminent American filmmaker of our time. Certainly there are good performances - de Niro and Gladstone, also Scott Shepherd and other supporting actors - but there are bad ones…

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  Barbie 2023

  Watched 12 Aug 2023

  Barbie. The film surprised me: it's certainly very strange by blockbuster standards, relying on art direction and iconography instead of on an emotionally direct story. Its feminist discourse, obviously unusual at this budget level, is mostly a baseline that the film wears lightly and plays with. Gerwig and Baumbach’s dialogue squirrels oddball, smart jokes away in the film’s crevices: the Kens’ patriarchal takeover is particularly funny, with Kens prattling on to Barbies about gender-linked topics like The Godfather's greatness. Some…