The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane, 2020): 3.5/5

THE DISCIPLE has some of the more striking structural decisions and elisions I've encountered recently. A must watch for all film students not just for the exquisite craft (the writer-director also edited the film which was shot by 3rd generation Polish cinematographer Michal Sobocinski whose late dad shot THREE COLORS: RED) but also for the parable about dedicating your life to a craft.

rewatched Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014): 4.5/5

Kubrick: The drives that generate violence among men will someday slingshot us to a higher evolutionary plane where we may or may not transcend them, if we can first abort the rival ascent of artificial life.

Tarkovsky: Technology makes real what we want, but it cannot make what we want significant; and perhaps being shown what we want, divorced from meaning, will only drive us further into our own psychological prisons.

Nolan: Alright gang, tech's put us in a bit of a bind, but to save the world, we're gonna have to travel FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LOVE.

Jokes aside, I hadn't seen this since its theatrical release, and I'm happy to say that my initial lukewarm read was wrong; this movie is a visually monumental, thought-provoking space opera and mind-enriching human odyssey into the unknown that is first of all a heart wrenching family drama. Not to mention a stunning realization of some of the most profoundly difficult-to-grasp scientific concepts known to mankind.

rewatched I Stand Alone (Gaspar Noe, 1998): 3.5/5

Imagine the response had Noe saved "You have 30 seconds to leave the theater" for IRREVERSIBLE, and employed it toward the end of the film. There's actually nothing else left that’s upsetting...but what if you didn't know that? What if you were sitting there thinking "Wait wait wait wait wait, now he warns us?!?" Would've been a magnificent joke. Also that bang/zoom effect remains brutally effective, and is so sui generis that it's never been copied as far as I know.

Those Who Wish Me Dead (Taylor Sheridan, 2021): 2/5

Unmercifully almost entirely free of incident save for a 20-minute stretch towards the end.

The Killing of Two Lovers (Robert Machoian, 2020): 3/5

Basically if David Lowry made MARRIAGE STORY.

French Exit (Azazel Jacobs, 2020): 2.5/5

Basically if Wes Anderson were a chaos gay

Infinite Football (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2018): 3/5

Appreciated this on an intellectual level but still found it kinda dull. Not being a sports fan admittedly didn't help—I'm fuzzy on the precise nature of the rule changes Ginghina advocates, and honestly couldn't discern how the experimental game we see at one point differs from a regular game. It's all just dudes kicking a ball around the field to me. Still, the basic idea comes across: Having endured a traumatic soccer-related experience as a child, Ginghina is now weirdly obsessed with reconfiguring the sport in ways that might have prevented his injury, oblivious to the fact that this "problem" is hardly widespread.

Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello, 2019): 3/5

Eh… como si dice… “leftist mimbo”

The Price of Everything (Nathaniel Kahn, 2018): 2/5

Unfocused contempt does not make for meaningful critique. Awful music cues and manipulative camera reveals end up highlighting a hollowness of filmmaking that rivals the hollowness of its subjects.

Mortal Kombat (Simon McQuoid, 2021): 0.5/5

It’s not very good, but it’s also quite bad. If tramp stamps were a movie it would be this.

My Octopus Teacher (Philippa Elhrich, James Reed, 2020): 1.5/5

I’d watch this again, but ONLY with audio commentary by this guy’s poor wife.

Stowaway (Joe Penna, 2021): 2.5/5

GRAVITY meets THE MARTIAN, basically. (And I didn't care for either of those films.)

Honeydew (Devereux Milburn, 2020): 2/5

More like HoneyDON'T. Only watched this because of Mary Karr and Barbara Kingsley's involvement. (Milburn is Karr's son.)

Lured (Douglas Sirk, 1947): 3/5

Brassy taxi dancer Lucille Ball goes undercover to help Scotland Yard track down a serial killer who's been taunting the police with Baudelaire parodies. Along the way she winds up exposing slave traders, madmen, and possibly... her heart!

Boris Karloff steals the show in a one-off scene that is utterly bizarre and then never mentioned again.

Where Is My Friend's House (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987): 4/5

Soul-soothing simplicity and inherent goodness viewed through the lens of a child. Probably the most empathetic showcase of the childhood experience that I have seen in a movie thus far.

Fourteen (Dan Sallitt, 2019): 4/5

Time, as a symptom. Minimalistic filmmaking at some of its best and brightest, FOURTEEN is a brutally honest, tenderly written contemplation of female friendship that wouldn't be as wonderful as it is if not for Dan Sallitt's understated direction and sensitive, empathetic script and Tallie Medel and Norma Kuhling's beautiful performances.

Jailhouse Rock (Richard Thorpe, 1957): 1.5/5 

A movie where Elvis kills a man, spends about 12 days in jail, then takes over the music and film industries while being a jerk to everyone in his path, and then gets punched in the throat for his troubles. Just shut up and play "Jailhouse Rock" already!

The Chaperone (Michael Engler, 2018): 2.5/5 

There are virtually no surprises in this film. It's schlocky, and the dialogue is simplistic and corny, but I came across it on PBS on a mellow Sunday afternoon and it hit the spot. Also, I love anything related to Louise Brooks.