rewatched Millennium Mambo ( Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2001): 3.5/5
Noise and drug-infused neon dreams as a result of the inability to move on from the past, always coming back to the memories that we so desperately cling on to and remember only the good things about. The opening scene is one of the best there is.
Music (Angela Schanelec, 2023): 1/5
No plot no vibes just scenic shots and shit singing. I can respect Schanelec for committing so strongly to such a distant and cold film language but man are they a drag to watch. I'm sure there's a small subset of cineastes who actually enjoy them and another group who act like they do.
The Girl with the Needle (Magnus von Horn, 2024): 3.5/5
Good film. I never want to see this again.
rewatched Fantasia (Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, 1940): 5/5
Wouldn’t have hated a Garfield cameo. Don’t care that Garfield didn’t exist when the film was made. Would have been fun to see him.
Much druggier vibe than I remembered. Dancing mushrooms, boys? Not subtle!
Much hornier vibe as well. The centauresses were topless and looked hot!
Babygirl (HalinaReijn, 2024): 2/5
Bitches will romanticize being dominated by a mediocre white man and then wonder why Trump won
Oh, Canada (Paul Schrader, 2024): 3.5/5
An interesting reunion between Schrader and Gere, and a final collaboration with Russell Banks. More formally interesting than the typical Schrader and a big return to form after Master Gardener. I did enjoy how Leonard Fife is kind of Schrader contemplating aged mediocre white men who stumble into importance and become morally ruined by their imposter syndrome.
Presence (Steven Soderbergh, 2025): 3/5
Soderbergh does Paranormal Activity. Do not expect James Wan jump scares or Ti West camp. This is something between The Innocents and A Ghost Story as disquieting and devastating as it is conservative.
After Blue: Dirty Paradise (Bertrand Mandico, 2021): 3/5
My first Mandico film and it's a soft 3. I was sooo on board for the first hour and sooo ready for it to be over the last 70 minutes. It's hard to dislike a film that's so original and visually breathtaking and points should be awarded for the insane world building and absurd horniness of literally every scene. But there's barely a plot to all of this, just a mother-daughter mission and an acid trip. I can forgive that if a film is 90 minutes but for 130 I would need an acid tab of my own.
The Crime is Mine (Francois Ozon, 2023): 2.5/5
The twee French gay version of Anatomy of a Fall. I don’t know why the whole film wasn’t about Isabelle Huppert, nor why it takes more than an hour for her to show up.
Here (Bas Devos, 2023): 2/5
Not to be confused with the recent Robert Zemeckis movie, this Belgian arthouse drama revolves around a foreign construction worker preparing to move back home and another foreigner studying moss who he eventually meets and has a possibly romantic encounter with. The operative word in that sentence though is "eventually" as this is a film that hums to its own beat, not worrying about the plot moving forward until towards the end. Thematically, this feels on-point with the male protagonist not trying his hand at romance in Belgium until it is too late for a relationship to properly develop. Sitting through the film, watching and waiting for something significant happen is a lot less interesting though, even with some neatly framed shots in low lighting at night.
Io Capitano (Matteo Garrone, 2023): 2/5Means well, but ended up being frustratingly by-the-numbers and on-the-nose; purely a point A to point B movie and nothing more. In the hands of a better vision and script, it has the potential to be something special.
Totem (Lila Aviles, 2023): 2.5/5
Lila Aviles' Totem is a gentle and meditative look at people who are anticipating grief but somehow holding it all together. As important as that is, the film feels slight and familiar with its coming-of-age arc thus not leaving the viewer with an afterthought.
Much druggier vibe than I remembered. Dancing mushrooms, boys? Not subtle!
Much hornier vibe as well. The centauresses were topless and looked hot!
Babygirl (HalinaReijn, 2024): 2/5
Bitches will romanticize being dominated by a mediocre white man and then wonder why Trump won
Oh, Canada (Paul Schrader, 2024): 3.5/5
An interesting reunion between Schrader and Gere, and a final collaboration with Russell Banks. More formally interesting than the typical Schrader and a big return to form after Master Gardener. I did enjoy how Leonard Fife is kind of Schrader contemplating aged mediocre white men who stumble into importance and become morally ruined by their imposter syndrome.
Presence (Steven Soderbergh, 2025): 3/5
Soderbergh does Paranormal Activity. Do not expect James Wan jump scares or Ti West camp. This is something between The Innocents and A Ghost Story as disquieting and devastating as it is conservative.
After Blue: Dirty Paradise (Bertrand Mandico, 2021): 3/5
My first Mandico film and it's a soft 3. I was sooo on board for the first hour and sooo ready for it to be over the last 70 minutes. It's hard to dislike a film that's so original and visually breathtaking and points should be awarded for the insane world building and absurd horniness of literally every scene. But there's barely a plot to all of this, just a mother-daughter mission and an acid trip. I can forgive that if a film is 90 minutes but for 130 I would need an acid tab of my own.
The Crime is Mine (Francois Ozon, 2023): 2.5/5
The twee French gay version of Anatomy of a Fall. I don’t know why the whole film wasn’t about Isabelle Huppert, nor why it takes more than an hour for her to show up.
Here (Bas Devos, 2023): 2/5
Not to be confused with the recent Robert Zemeckis movie, this Belgian arthouse drama revolves around a foreign construction worker preparing to move back home and another foreigner studying moss who he eventually meets and has a possibly romantic encounter with. The operative word in that sentence though is "eventually" as this is a film that hums to its own beat, not worrying about the plot moving forward until towards the end. Thematically, this feels on-point with the male protagonist not trying his hand at romance in Belgium until it is too late for a relationship to properly develop. Sitting through the film, watching and waiting for something significant happen is a lot less interesting though, even with some neatly framed shots in low lighting at night.
Io Capitano (Matteo Garrone, 2023): 2/5Means well, but ended up being frustratingly by-the-numbers and on-the-nose; purely a point A to point B movie and nothing more. In the hands of a better vision and script, it has the potential to be something special.
Totem (Lila Aviles, 2023): 2.5/5
Lila Aviles' Totem is a gentle and meditative look at people who are anticipating grief but somehow holding it all together. As important as that is, the film feels slight and familiar with its coming-of-age arc thus not leaving the viewer with an afterthought.
Green Border ( Agnieszka Holland, 2023): 4/5
Harrowing. But necessary. I didn’t cry because of the cruelty and brutality, but the heroic acts of kindness made me weep. And the epilogue is quite a gut punch.
Our Body (Claire Simon, 2023): 4/5
A moving documentary about the important work that is done at an obstetrics and gynecology wing of a public Parisian hospital. More than any other modern doc work, I feel like this reminded me of a Wiseman film. The way we cycle through long scenes of doctors discussing different matters with a wide array of patients that are bookended with shots of the corridor of the hospital wing feels inspired by Hospital or Near Death. It’s an effective doc filmmaking technique, and the compounding of the scenes achieve director Claire Simon’s initial goal to show a collective care and understanding of non cis male people and their bodies. What Simon adds to the film - her subjective perspective - comes to play heavily later in the doc. And makes for a powerful set of scenes.
Queer (Luca Guadagnino, 2024): 2/5
Sucks cock and balls. Not a compliment.
Good One (India Donaldson, 2024): 3.5/5
Our Body (Claire Simon, 2023): 4/5
A moving documentary about the important work that is done at an obstetrics and gynecology wing of a public Parisian hospital. More than any other modern doc work, I feel like this reminded me of a Wiseman film. The way we cycle through long scenes of doctors discussing different matters with a wide array of patients that are bookended with shots of the corridor of the hospital wing feels inspired by Hospital or Near Death. It’s an effective doc filmmaking technique, and the compounding of the scenes achieve director Claire Simon’s initial goal to show a collective care and understanding of non cis male people and their bodies. What Simon adds to the film - her subjective perspective - comes to play heavily later in the doc. And makes for a powerful set of scenes.
Queer (Luca Guadagnino, 2024): 2/5
Sucks cock and balls. Not a compliment.
Good One (India Donaldson, 2024): 3.5/5
An emotional slasher film. So much serene beauty along with two of the most emotionally brutal moments you’ll see in a film all year. Keep an eye on Lily Collias.
Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974): 3/5
Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974): 3/5
Ambition that far outstrips ability, even if that ability is considerable. Baffling, strange, and truly weird.
Nightbitch (Marielle Heller, 2024): 3.5/5
Nightbitch (Marielle Heller, 2024): 3.5/5
Has passages I flat out loved, and I'd be fine with Amy Adams winning an Oscar for this.
T-Blockers (Alice Maio Mackay, 2023): 3.5/5
T-Blockers (Alice Maio Mackay, 2023): 3.5/5
A story about what it feels like to be trans in a world that is increasingly transphobic. Turning hateful ideologies into a right-wing parasitic infection is only too fitting a metaphor for the bourgeois origins of fascist ideas and the way it spreads and poisons the working class; answering it with brutal violence is absolutely the correct response when there's no other way to get through. It's satisfying to watch a film that skips past the question and jumps straight to the answer that yes, violence is the answer. It doesn't really fully explore the metaphor of its parasitic fascism to the point of class consciousness, but it has the right spirit. It has the right angry energy. I could do without the sympathetic cop-dad - even the zoom in on the ACAB button wasn't enough - but otherwise, it's a glorious, snotty fuck you to the rising power of the right wing.
A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, 2024): 3/5
Part breezy indie pastime, part profoundly emotional indie drama. Both parts work quite well
Normal People (Lenny Abrahamson, 2020): 5/5
The best of what long-form television can be. Acting and chemistry on an almost supernatural level. Steamy! Sorry, you’re gonna have to watch yet another show.
2073 (Asif Kapadia, 2024): 3/5
While the filmmakers’ intentions are noble and their fears are not at all exaggerated (the film opens with a raging brushfire and as I write this a swath of my city burns) I ultimately think film will be rejected because people who care are already up to their eyeballs in bad news and the rest (who will vote for a monster as long as they think he will make their eggs cheaper and hurt people they don’t care about) either don’t care or lack the critical thinking necessary to understand the dilemma. But on its own terms it’s a competent bit of filmmaking and an interesting departure for a documentarian known for restricting his work to pre-existing footage. Here he conducts interviews, uses harrowing news footage, and shoots speculative fiction set 50 years ahead in a dystopian future (cinematography by Bradford Young) where a woman named Ghost (Samantha Morton) guides us through an environmental and economic ruin defined by totalitarianism. Documentary purists can’t stand this hybridization but I think it’s an interesting experiment even if it doesn’t quite work. We need interesting failures more than we need bland conformist success.
The End (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2024): 2/5
Whenever it actually reaches a point where things get interesting they burst into the most unserious musical number to date.
The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, 2024): 4/5
Much to chew on. Corbet is an interesting filmmaker but he also often feels like a try-hard. This is the first time the effort feels commensurate with the result.
Kraven the Hunter (J.C. Chandor, 2024): 0.5/5
Sony, my dear, making films is not obligatory.
The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodovar, 2024): 3/5
"your daughter looks just like you"
OH YOU MEANT, LIKE, LITERALLY-
Werewolves (Steven C. Miller, 2024): 0.5/5
What if a Punisher sticker on the back of a pickup truck could make a horror movie?
Y2K (Kyle Mooney, 2024): 1.5/5
The state of studio American comedy remains pretty dire as evidenced by this miss from A24. The period details were good in the beginning with the tug on nostalgia - look it’s AIM! look it's dial up! - and the high concept is a good one: what if Y2K actually happened? But Y2K does the bare minimum with it, recycling old sci-fi, high school party, and stoner comedy cliches and bringing nothing to the table.
The Order (Justin Kurzel, 2024): 3/5
Explores some very familiar (cop-thriller) territory, but sure-handed direction and strong lead performances make this well worth checking out.
Bird (Andrea Arnold, 2024): 2.5/5
Director: In this movie, I need you to play an absent father.
Barry: I'll need months of preparation, I really want to get into char-
Director: Actually, I think you're ready.
Nosferatu (Robbert Eggers, 2024): 2.5/5
As a director, you can only care about so many things, and Robert Eggers is the guy who cares about whether the coffins were handcrafted with era-appropriate tools, whether the marginalia in an occult codex in a foreign language is accurate, and if the light balance of light grey to dark grey to black in a scene hits his sweet spot for barely legible. Meanwhile, establishing a rhythmic flow with editing, maintaining a cohesive camera language, and getting actors to do second takes when their reaction to the discovery of a boat of plague rats crashed on shore or the news that a patient escaped after killing an orderly carries the emotional weight of being told your UberEats driver is five minutes late - all of this is secondary.
Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, 2024): 4/5
A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, 2024): 3/5
Part breezy indie pastime, part profoundly emotional indie drama. Both parts work quite well
Normal People (Lenny Abrahamson, 2020): 5/5
The best of what long-form television can be. Acting and chemistry on an almost supernatural level. Steamy! Sorry, you’re gonna have to watch yet another show.
2073 (Asif Kapadia, 2024): 3/5
While the filmmakers’ intentions are noble and their fears are not at all exaggerated (the film opens with a raging brushfire and as I write this a swath of my city burns) I ultimately think film will be rejected because people who care are already up to their eyeballs in bad news and the rest (who will vote for a monster as long as they think he will make their eggs cheaper and hurt people they don’t care about) either don’t care or lack the critical thinking necessary to understand the dilemma. But on its own terms it’s a competent bit of filmmaking and an interesting departure for a documentarian known for restricting his work to pre-existing footage. Here he conducts interviews, uses harrowing news footage, and shoots speculative fiction set 50 years ahead in a dystopian future (cinematography by Bradford Young) where a woman named Ghost (Samantha Morton) guides us through an environmental and economic ruin defined by totalitarianism. Documentary purists can’t stand this hybridization but I think it’s an interesting experiment even if it doesn’t quite work. We need interesting failures more than we need bland conformist success.
The End (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2024): 2/5
Whenever it actually reaches a point where things get interesting they burst into the most unserious musical number to date.
The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, 2024): 4/5
Much to chew on. Corbet is an interesting filmmaker but he also often feels like a try-hard. This is the first time the effort feels commensurate with the result.
Kraven the Hunter (J.C. Chandor, 2024): 0.5/5
Sony, my dear, making films is not obligatory.
The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodovar, 2024): 3/5
"your daughter looks just like you"
OH YOU MEANT, LIKE, LITERALLY-
Werewolves (Steven C. Miller, 2024): 0.5/5
What if a Punisher sticker on the back of a pickup truck could make a horror movie?
Y2K (Kyle Mooney, 2024): 1.5/5
The state of studio American comedy remains pretty dire as evidenced by this miss from A24. The period details were good in the beginning with the tug on nostalgia - look it’s AIM! look it's dial up! - and the high concept is a good one: what if Y2K actually happened? But Y2K does the bare minimum with it, recycling old sci-fi, high school party, and stoner comedy cliches and bringing nothing to the table.
The Order (Justin Kurzel, 2024): 3/5
Explores some very familiar (cop-thriller) territory, but sure-handed direction and strong lead performances make this well worth checking out.
Bird (Andrea Arnold, 2024): 2.5/5
Director: In this movie, I need you to play an absent father.
Barry: I'll need months of preparation, I really want to get into char-
Director: Actually, I think you're ready.
Nosferatu (Robbert Eggers, 2024): 2.5/5
As a director, you can only care about so many things, and Robert Eggers is the guy who cares about whether the coffins were handcrafted with era-appropriate tools, whether the marginalia in an occult codex in a foreign language is accurate, and if the light balance of light grey to dark grey to black in a scene hits his sweet spot for barely legible. Meanwhile, establishing a rhythmic flow with editing, maintaining a cohesive camera language, and getting actors to do second takes when their reaction to the discovery of a boat of plague rats crashed on shore or the news that a patient escaped after killing an orderly carries the emotional weight of being told your UberEats driver is five minutes late - all of this is secondary.
Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, 2024): 4/5
The animals were cute. Global warming is not cute.
Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants, 2024): 3/5
The latest edition to the Nuns are the Devil Cinematic Universe 2024.
Sebastian (Mikko, Makela, 2024): 1.5/5
Flaccid movie about being the worst person in your MFA writing program.
Gladiator II (Ridley Scott, 2024): 1.5/5
Carry-On (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2024): 1/5
Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants, 2024): 3/5
The latest edition to the Nuns are the Devil Cinematic Universe 2024.
Sebastian (Mikko, Makela, 2024): 1.5/5
Flaccid movie about being the worst person in your MFA writing program.
Gladiator II (Ridley Scott, 2024): 1.5/5
Carry-On (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2024): 1/5
How can you leave your post multiple times without alerting the entire line of the conveyor belt?
HOW can his colleague sit 5 feet behind him and hear nothing?!
HOW can a bathroom in one of the busiest airports on the busiest day of the year have no people walk
in for a few minutes!?
HOW can he just drive up to a plane and open a cargo room! (plane doors are locked by a system in the cockpit!)
Why is nobody shutting down the entire goddamn airport!!!!
WHY does an LAPD detective listen to a random lady working in an airport against a national security threat!?
WELL???
HOW can his colleague sit 5 feet behind him and hear nothing?!
HOW can a bathroom in one of the busiest airports on the busiest day of the year have no people walk
in for a few minutes!?
HOW can he just drive up to a plane and open a cargo room! (plane doors are locked by a system in the cockpit!)
Why is nobody shutting down the entire goddamn airport!!!!
WHY does an LAPD detective listen to a random lady working in an airport against a national security threat!?
WELL???
Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross, 2024): 4.5/5
Immersive rotating first person POV fueled film that REQUIRES you to walk many miles in the shoes of the protagonists set in the racially treacherous 1960s. At first I was concerned it was a gimmick to stay in the POV but it doubled down as an incredibly original approach to showcasing material we may have otherwise brushed off to “been there, done that”, especially with film. One of those movies that will be analyzed, discussed and processed for years.The People's Joker (Vera Drew, 2022): 3.5/5
A parody and a pastiche of DC movies, comics, and television shows disguising a vulnerable, moving narrative of trans self-realization, trauma, and actualization; this film welds styles, references, and source material in a way that creates a vibrant, earnest amalgamation that does not lose its pathos in the midst of its sharp humor. While this is ostensibly a parody of Joker and Batman films, this saves its most vicious barbs for the comedy industry and capitalism in general. Its jokes come as much from trans in-jokes and queer pain as they do from the endless parade of Batman media and comedy entertainment they're dissecting.
Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood, 2024): 3/5
Almost the platonic ideal of what we have lost in mainstream/studio American filmmaking. At age 94, Clint hasn’t lost any of his craft as a storyteller. This film moves beautifully and handles the flashbacks adroitly. But we all know Clint went down a bad path 12 years ago and became a culture warrior obsessed with the most retrograde kind of American heroics. This film isn’t that. It’s the closest we will ever get to an Eastwood/Patricia Highsmith adaptation. Eastwood’s unyielding Old Testament sense of morality is back stronger than ever which is at odds with the times we live in.
Maria (Pablo Larrain, 2024): 3.5/5
Maybe the combination of La Jolie, the production design, the cinematography, and the music was all I needed to surrender to this film. But I think this is by far the best of Larrain’s La Sad Girl Trilogy. The union of Jolie’s otherworldly and mysterious persona and this subject is pretty inspired. Kudos to Larrain for having Caspar Phillipson reprise his JFK from Jackie without having Portman do a cameo. Lesser filmmakers wouldn’t have resisted the temptation.
Your posts are always such an education. Asif Kapadia, Bertrand Mandico, and Angela Schanelec are were not really on my radar. They seem pretty interesting, if not good. It's not always about good and bad!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank god I already watched (and liked) Normal People back in the day. Thank you for Paul Mescal!