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so i was really confused about that ending until i realized this is literally just a comedy. also both the cinematography and the score in this are so good that i want to make out with them.

about halfway through this i said to my sister "i really hope this doesn't end with a dance party scene".

IT ENDED WITH A MOTHERFUCKING DANCE PARTY SCENE. i'm so done with everything.

generally not a big fan of movies clearly designed for the sole purpose of "tugging on the heartstrings" but i can't deny this one hit me HARD.

kept waiting for the "boring" parts i thought i ed, but nope. there's no way anyone can convince me this wasn't made in like 2018, because how on earth did mr michael mann manage to make this feel so modern?

iconic, but can danny devito chill the fuck out with his directing? love to see paul reubens here too for some reason.

it's fascinating to watch this more than 80 years after the fact, when almost every line and image has become so ingrained in pop culture, and try to imagine what audiences felt watching this for the first time in 1942. really does deserve the title of "classic".

shockingly good!! no spoilers, but the third act makes me hopeful for superhero movies again. and florence is the best, as per usual.

Watched on Thursday May 1, 2025.

literally a landmark in cinematic gen z representation. wouldn't be surprised at all if this turns out to be a future classic, because it's just so fucking fun.

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

there's just so many things i love about this movie. the fact that you never find out if the kid actually did commit the murder!!! juror #3 projecting his own insecurities as a father onto the kid to rationalize sending him to die!!! the writing!!! the fucking direction!!!

"𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏' 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 *𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔!* 𝒏𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 *𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕* 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆!"

"𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒓 *𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅* 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆."

probably the best way i've seen someone explain the fluid, apparently one-take camerawork gimmick is "like a dream you can't wake up from", and the chaotic energy of the whole movie really hammers home the point even further. so many great actors in this one too.

unfortunately my dad spoiled the ending for me before i watched this. :(

i really need to stop watching criterion collection blu rays. i can just FEEL myself getting more pretentious by the minute.

one of kurt cobain's favorite movies btw

This review may contain spoilers.

never underestimate ginger theater kids. they just might throw themselves off a balcony into a moving train because an asshole forces them to choose between love and art.

stylistically and aesthetically near-perfect, but i was under the impression that this was a fun little fantasy kids movie. it turned out to be a harrowing war film about an innocent girl using fantasy to escape fascists, and i'm so happy i was mistaken.
maybe my favorite part of the whole experience is sergi lópez as captain vidal. his performance is still just incredible today, especially the scene where he's stitching up his face.

undeniably impressive that a three hour movie about petty pianists never once becomes boring or stops being absoloutely delightful. also: the real mozart wrote a song in 1782 that roughly translates to "lick my ass". just thought i should share that.

very slow and meditative, which can turn off a lot of viewers, but maybe that's the point. when i rewatch it and ruminate on it more i'll probably give a 4½.

did i rewatch this specifically because my newest hyperfixation trent reznor helped score it? unfortunately, yes. but that doesn't detract from the fact that this is still such a completely engrossing, insanely well written story about the cost of ambition, with probably some of the most breakneck pacing in any movie ever.

just a really all around great concert. it's always kind of annoyed me when middle schoolers going through an emo phase talk about how much they "identify" with kurt cobain, but i digress. nirvana is still a revolutionary band, and probably one of my personal favorites.

for anyone wondering some of my other favorite bands would be:

pixies

the white stripes

green day

the dresden dolls

david bowie

nine inch nails

fiona apple

please be nice and do not call my taste basic!!

in the mood for love is basically the closest cinema can get to poetry. that said, super unfair that both maggie cheung and tony leung are so attractive. like, one would be bad enough, but both???

had to watch a couple video essays before i fully understood what was going on in this. still a great movie, though.

costing only around 5.4 million dollars, it's nice to finally see mid budget movies making a comeback. incredibly difficult to put into words just how much this movie means to me, as a drummer myself with tinnitus, but after this ended, i sat in silence for like 3 minutes straight.

Watched on Sunday March 2, 2025.

oddly specific compliment, but fargo has some of the best 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 in film history. sometimes the tiny changes in the actor's faces after they deliver a line are so funny for like no reason whatsoever.

watched it for the second time in a hotel, and even with the volume cranked way down to avoid getting filed with a restraining order from my neighbors, paul's worm-riding sequence still stands out as one of the defining cinematic moments of the 2020s so far.

my mom saw the people in rabbit suits and asked me if this was donnie darko.

just finished it for the first time and... holy fuck, anime freaks weren't hyping this up for nothing. what a soundtrack, and what an ending.

the puppet work in some of these old jim henson productions are still immaculate. i screamed "how did they do that???" at least like 4 times while watching this.

it's almost unreasonable how every frame of this movie is so visually stunning, like a perfectly composed comic splash brought to life. if someone held a gun to my head and forced me to pick a favorite shot, though, it would have to be eric draven, sitting on the rooftop and framed by the red sky, playing guitar. also, i still have the soundtrack on cd, and i wore that fucking thing out.

Watched on Sunday February 16, 2025.

this is one of those movies and worlds that you never, ever want to leave. the animation is obviously some of the best i've seen (it's ghibli, after all), but the characters feel so real and fleshed out, with distinct personalities and quirks, it's almost jarring to that they're animated. it's not the absolute best ghibli movie, but it's probably my new favorite.

contains some of the best uses of rain in cinematography since the original blade runner. denis villeneuve is a fucking maniac and needs to be stopped before he makes any more of these movies that emotionally destroy me.

loved most of it, but the licensed pop songs made me shake my head solemnly and say "wild robot, you can do better." seems to harken back to a time where "kids" movies were actually made up of more than poop jokes.

This review may contain spoilers.

one of the few "it was all in the character's heads" moments that doesn't feel like a complete cop-out. ranks high for me on the mind-fuckery scale.