Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball, 2022): 4/5

An immersive lo-fi microbudget horror and largely experimental art film that taps into the primordial fear of the unknown and of being a child having to go to the bathroom at 3 a.m. with a gnawing feeling that there's someone/something waiting for you in the shadows. Kyle Edward Ball’s debut Skinamarink tells the story of two small children who wake up one night to discover both of their parents are missing and all of the windows and front/back doors in their house have inexplicably disappeared, leaving them trapped inside with a malevolent supernatural entity. The film grain in Skinamarink is a character in itself. It perfectly recreates that sense of hallucinogenic darkness where your eyes create shapes out of the nothingness and see things that aren’t there, except, in the case of Skinamarink, something is definitely lurking in the darkness. Maybe it has always been there. To experience the true terror of this film, watch it on the biggest screen you have, kill the lights, turn up the volume, switch off your phone and commit to no distractions for 100 minutes. Pure nightmare fuel. The amount of tension and dread that builds is nothing short of suffocating.

Histoire(s) du Cinema (Godard, 1989): 2.5/5

Godard’s rambling and echoing voice, repeating phrases, words and names without really connecting them. The staccato of his electric typewriter which is nice and annoying at the same time. It’s more often than not difficult to follow this, it appears like demented jabbering that occasionally amounts to some coherence and (sometimes even poetic) poignancy. It’s like a bad dream really, Godard spitting this chewed up pulp in our faces.

Nazarin (Luis Bunuel, 1959): 3/5
Based on Benito Perez Galdos' distinguished eponymous novel, Nazarin follows the excursions of Father Nazario (Francisco Rabal), a priest who experiences several episodes that echo incidents in The Gospels. The film, which was awarded the Palme d'Or and denounced by the Pope, strikes a restrained yet profound tone and is certainly sober by Bunuel standards; nevertheless, the film illustrates the catholic education he rejected, the imprint of which never left him.


El (Luis Bunuel, 1953): 3/5
Like an early Hong Sang-Soo exploration of wounded masculinity with the cruelty button pushed to the max. Arturo de Cordova performance has the unlikely perfect mix of funny and tragic. Recommended double bill: this and Akerman’s La Captive.

Mephisto (Istvan Szabo, 1981): 3/5
Or, THE FAUST AND THE FURIOUS
You could totally remake this film just set in the Trump era with one of those token hack right-wing "I'm one of the good ones" grifter YouTube personalities like the Candace Owens, Dave Rubin, Blair White types.

Judgement at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961): 4/5
‘Iconic actor gives an all-timer monologue’, but make it every other scene. A reconciliation of the unanswerable.


Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige, 1984): 4/5
A masterpiece that I am ashamed to have not watched earlier. Yellow Earth is a film that drips aesthetically with slow sorrow, regret, and barrenness. A bright, young communist soldier goes into a village to collect information on rural folksongs. He meets a young girl who despises the idea of arranged marriage but does not know any alternatives - until she meets him. Inspired by his ideas of gender equality and free love, her life is reinvigorated. But alas, changing the landscape of a barren yellow earth is much harder than one thinks...

Wonderful performance, cinematography, and ugh, the music .

rewatched Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972): 5/5
A bunch of idiots go to South America and pack the wrong clothes.

rewatched Double Indemnity (Billy Wylder, 1944): 5/5
“I wonder if I know what you mean.” “I wonder if you wonder.”

I too would kill Barbara Stanwyck’s husband if she asked me to.     

When You Finish Saving the World (Jesse Eisenberg, 2022): 3/5

A Noah Baumbach adjacent dramedy about a mother and son failing to connect with one another. Extremely cringe and annoying but it's got Julianne Moore so I kinda enjoyed it.

You People (Kenya Barris, 2023): 2/5

Script would have been better if ChatGPT wrote it.

Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne, 1990): 3/5

Purgatorial languishing and the search for solace in death. What Jacob’s Ladder lacks in structure and coherence, it makes up for with jarring visuals, a potent commentary on PTSD and unethical military experimentation, and a riveting central performance from Tim Robbins.

River of No Return (Otto Preminger, 1954): 3/5

A western directed by Otto Preminger, and starring Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum? Sure, why not! It's actually at its best, ironically, before the wilderness adventure commences, with Preminger's mobile camera expertly prowling the cramped settlement; the precise choreography involved when Mitchum circles the stage as Monroe performs is breathtaking. Process shots predominate on the river, for obvious reasons, and the story gets a mite soggy as well, though the two leads are well paired in the sense that his nonchalance offsets her effusiveness. Not thrilled that the romance flirts with both rape and abduction, but the times, etc.

Some Came Running (Vincent Minnelli, 1958): 3.5/5

I totally thought this film was going to be a lark, a pleasant pick-me-up on a day I needed one. Instead, it's eviscerating. And great.

Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse, 1955): 3.5/5

Devastating in so many ways, largely because there’s nothing quite as soul-crushing as a completely lopsided rendition of love. And not even love really, just the remaining fragments of something that was once considered “love,” loosely resembling it but void of any other vital signs -- like how a firefly’s abdomen stays illuminated for a while after it’s dead.

See the Sea (Francois Ozon, 1997): 3/5

Creeping sense of dread for the win, but it feels incomplete and lacking any real meat to the story. Still shows off the exciting young talent that Ozon clearly was with this debut feature.

Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, 2023): 3/5

Just weird, horny vibes throughout. Trauma is just a small price to pay to be dominated by Mia Goth.

Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli, 2022): 3/5

Petition to swap titles with The Worst Person In the World.

A dark, nasty battle between two narcissists, one of whom is an absolute psychopath. Kristine Kujath Thorp is really fantastic in this movie. The lengths that she goes to for attention are absurd, yet they also feel so familiar in our current cultural economy where attention is the primary currency and people will do stupid dangerous shit to earn it.

I'm not sure the film itself ultimately says much about these issues, but it's an extreme and entertaining depiction of pathological narcissism anchored by a memorable lead performance.

Dinner in America (Adam Rehmeier, 2020): 1.5/5

This cruel, charmless suburban satire sacrifices warmth, depth, and coherent storytelling in favor of provocative gross-out gags and empty shock value. One of those Sundance comedies that attempts to pass itself off as “quirky” and “different” when it’s really just a big ‘ol dumpster fire with half-baked ideas all cluttered together. Already one of the worst movies of the year but definitely the best movie of 2003.

Detainee 001 (Greg Barker, 2021): 2/5

Fascinating subject; terrible documentary.

You know there’s an issue with a documentary when the Wikipedia article you Google on the subject in the middle of the film gives you more background and insight than the documentary itself. Showtime continues to have a weird way with documentaries. While the core, middle section of this doc is worthwhile for its detailed information and perspectives of the timeline surrounding the prison uprising, it is bookended on both sides by a terribly unfocused introduction and an end that is lost with where to take this information. So much surrounding it is powerfully unnecessary and confuses the narrative even more while also messing up any sense of pacing.

The Pale Blue Eye (Scott Cooper, 2022): 2.5/5

Quoth the raven, "What a bore."

Extra half star for my dear Gillian Anderson.

The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022): 2.5/5

I'm just completely immune to McDonagh's charms. Well acted, but apparently people are finding this riotously funny and despairing instead of schematically yoking a character-based concept that seems pulled from a cocaine-dusted yellow pad of log lines from the post-Tarantino 90s. Combined with McDonagh's earnest conviction that people repeating things to each other is automatically funny and Farrell/Gleeson can't save things for me. But seriously, ignore me, I didn't even like IN BRUGES.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Joel Crawford, 2022): 3/5

This and Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979) have the same plot.

The Wonder (Sebastian Lelio, 2022): 3/5

Nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh) is called to a rural village to observe Anna O'Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), an 11 year old girl who it is claimed hasn't eaten for 4 months. Her skepticism encounters resistance from the community that wants to believe in a miracle. Flounders a bit in its execution, but an interesting central mystery and great performances help elevate the material above your standard dreary period-piece enigma.

The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022): 2.5/5

The supervising sound editor on The Menu is named Rich Bologna, which is also a pretty good way to describe this movie.

M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone, 2022): 2/5

LET M3GAN SAY FUCK.

Anyway, 'classic pawn your orphaned niece off on the AI doll you created' story. I wish Matthew Broderick did the voice of the doll.

This Place Rules (Andrew Callaghan, 2022): 2.5/5

A YouTube video essay that was distributed by A24 for some reason. Empty entertainment that doesn't add anything new to the Jan 6th conversation. Also hated the random zooms every 5 seconds keep that shit on tiktok.

To Leslie (Michael Morris, 2022): 3/5

A fairly standard indie plot (alcoholic comes home to try to put her life back together, meets some wacky characters along the way who become her found family and help her redeem herself) elevated by another great performance from Andrea Riseborough and a ridiculously stacked supporting cast.

Starfuckers (Antonio Marziale, 2022, 14 mins): 3.5/5

More like WhattheFuckers! No wait, more like GAYvid Lynch! All kidding aside, Antonio Marziale: you have my attention.