Ilya Alesker Patron

Favorite films

  • The Big Lebowski
  • City Lights
  • Chungking Express
  • My Friend Ivan Lapshin

All
  • Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

  • Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

    ★★★★

  • Willow

    ★★★½

  • Moneyball

    ★★★★

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Happy Together

1997

★★★★½ Liked Watched

I don't think I've ever seen another film that captures the existence of tender, genuine romantic love within a toxic, codependent relationship like this.
Wong isn’t interested in glamorizing it as a “true ionate love” where the emotional highs outweigh or justify the devastating lows. At the same time, he doesn’t reduce the relationship to mere manipulations or gaslighting, but instead captures its complexity, showing both the pull it has on those involved and the loneliness that comes with it.

P.S. I’ve felt Fai fold at “Let’s start over” with every fiber of my being 🫠

The Brutalist

2024

★★★★½ Liked Watched

The Brutalist is both epic in scale and deeply resonant on a personal level, successfully blending its monumental themes with an intimate human story. It tackles a wide range of subjects yet handles them so well that the movie itself feels like a towering brutalist structure that bears the thematic weight without crumbling.
It’s also one of the most striking films in recent memory that's shot, scored, and acted absolutely beautifully, with Vistavision feeling like IMAX where every frame has…

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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

2023

★★★★ Liked Rewatched

Unceremoniously writing off my crush Rebecca Ferguson and essentially replacing her with my other crush Hayley Atwell? Never thought that’d be a problem… and yet here we are.
Most of the other M:I-stuff though? Pretty much chef’s kiss 😗👌

Moneyball

2011

★★★★ Liked Rewatched

Citizen Kane of dad movies

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The Kid Detective

2020

★★★★½ Liked 2

After the first 30 minutes, I thought I knew what this movie was — a solid modern neo-noir trying to land somewhere between Brick and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (two great films that I love, so not a bad thing at all in my book).

But then it gets really funny. Like really laugh-out-loud funny, while still staying true to classic film noir beats. And then it gets even better yet again when it finds its emotional core and expands…

The Holdovers

2023

★★★★½ Liked Watched

Loved the characters. Loved the actors (Giamatti is fantastic with what might be the best physical performance this side of Nic Cage). Loved how the movie looks. Loved the VIBES.
Sometimes all you need is something simple and wholesome where the seemingly lowest stakes are the most important thing in the world.

P.S. I think now I get why some millennials are obsessed with rewatching these mostly terrible Harry Potter movies during Christmas