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Had to put the family onto the best MI while I was home

Definition of doing more with less, started the modern zombie formula and does it remarkably well.

Heard this one was a hidden gem but surprised how much of a sleeper hit it was. 

Also want to say the credits showing the real people who worked on the film was a wonderful touch.

Top 10 movie about cheating and potential top 10 New York Italian movie

Ultimate

Fun to imagine the nightmares this caused kids who snuck into this in 1903

Chaplin such a GOAT man, his Tramp so lovable

This was his debut at 24? Jesus man I gotta get on it.

Seeing it in theaters cemented it as Anderson’s best and that Hackman not only gives Anderson’s best performance but also maybe one of the best comedic performances ever, every single line read is perfect.

IM ALL IN ON ROYAL TENENBAUMS!!!

Watched on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

Gets the bleak empty cityscape so right it’s so good. The Infection isn’t super fleshed out but don’t think it needs to be for this, it works where it needs to. Overall really awesome and I actually enjoy the use of early aughts digital cam, it really adds to the grime of it all.

25 years of one of the greatest triumphs in filmmaking history. Thank you Wong Kar-Wai.

Absurd to think about how much work went into making this. Also can’t be overstated how good O’Malley is at exploring radicalization of young men and how those situations are in communication with our Information Age while also being hilarious.

At times feels like a Connor O’Malley vid and that’s always good. Also is refreshing to see a film surrounding the culture of chasing clicks on the internet that actually has a familiarity with the internet.

Yeah…. I think we’re back…

Watched on Monday May 19, 2025.

Wow just wow, this one came by surprise. Could move this up the more I sit with but that is yet to be seen. Altman taking another look at the little man and the despair of realizing there isn’t any real upward mobility so long as the rich have their foot on your throat. 

Also contains some of the best snow work since The Human Condition: Part III. 

What else is there to say? This shit bangs!

Hamaguchi once again explores the complexities of being human and once again uses the narrative conceit of cheating to depict us at our most fractured. Unlike Drive My Car which had the protagonist Kafuku’s spouse be unfaithful, Asako I & II instead follows the person who decides to be unfaithful. Almost making it a parallel film to Drive My Car in this way. Hamaguchi has a mastery over the screen that is rarely found elsewhere, runtimes feel like seconds in his films and watching what he brings to us is always a treat.

Hard not to think about Mati Diop’s Dahomey from this past year and can’t help but imagine the pieces yearning for their home like in Dahomey. I hope that one day that all of the pieces stolen can be repatriated.

A cute and effective film that Kiarostami feels is a bit overlong. Kiarostami uses a technique of cutting sound to mimic the character’s deafness, saying that “when you eliminate the sound the image gains more value; and vice versa.” A statement I have to agree with, it makes for a stark juxtaposition and feels reminiscent of more contemporary films like Sound of Metal. 

I believe the first film to feature Kiarostami as a presence, Orderly or Disorderly is described by Kiarostami as “a truly educational film.” He goes on to say that “when you make an education film, in my opinion, you have to think more cinematically, because some people think that “educational” means only giving advice.” He expands on this thought, explaining that “an educational film should avoid giving advice, and instead put a mirror in front of people to show them themselves.” A goal that he feels this film does well.

Informative, funny and according to Kiarostami, immensely effective. In an interview he talks about how after the film was shown on television there were no toothbrushes or toothpaste left at the market the following day and how after they showed the film a second time children would wake up in the middle of the night to brush again, leading to complaints from parents to Kiarostami.

This movie is insulting to Star Wars fans who don’t like slop.

Well first let me consider the old adage “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all.” How about the movie looks pretty good and the actors are really giving it their all trying to make it work, does that suffice? Now that that’s out of the way, this movie is maybe the worst thing to ever happen to Star Wars, it cemented the trend of shirking sensibilities found in good movies to try and maximize the number of moments that will make an audience clap or point at the screen and exclaim “I know that thing the movie said!” It is so clear that JJ Abrams despises The Last Jedi and that when making the film he and the writers made the choice to pander to the worst that the Star Wars fandom had to offer, putting the presumptive final nail in the coffin of good Star Wars films. 

In the end Star Wars is a curse, a film franchise with ideas and moments so good that watching one of its films makes you want to watch them all in order, the irony there being that the majority of the media in the series isn’t particularly good (with the obvious exceptions).

What the hell went wrong? I can only assume COVID did a number on the production leading to this product. A confusing script, jarring editing, a million Dutch angles and Part 1 syndrome bog this down too much to be saved by classic Ethan Hunt action.

So this is what happens when you give the reins to a director who has a vision for the story and the characters. Fleshes out and explores the best of the open ended questions left by The Force Awakens. It looks magnificent, the writing is much better across the board and it’s actually telling its own story! I love the exploration of Luke’s character as a flawed person, it is the most interesting thing Star Wars has done besides Andor. The film isn’t without its flaws however, nothing as egregious as The Force Awakens to me but Canto Bight goes on a bit too long and the manufactured tension between Holdo and Poe is a bit annoying. Other than that though it’s great, can’t wait to see how they take all of these great arcs and finish them out with the third of the trilogy!! 😄😄😄

“A good question. For another time.” 

I have nothing new to add to the discourse surrounding The Force Awakens, everything I have to say has certainly already been litigated upon the walls of forums. What I will not bring to this review though is something that has plagued online Star Wars discourse since The Force Awakens, prejudice. There is nuance to this movie, that nuance does not include any room for racism, sexism or any other form of hate. 

That being said, I have major issues with this movie that are not related to the previously mentioned factors, mainly that it was made by J.J. Abrams and has all of the issues therein. I included a quote at the outset that sums up Abrams filmmaking ideology, one where he chooses to set up a mystery to be explored later, something he calls a “mystery box” style of writing. To say I think this “mystery box” style is annoying would be an understatement, it’s downright lazy. Instead of exploring characters’ backstories or explaining important story aspects, Abrams would rather leave it a mystery. A move that in hindsight was surely to leave room for whatever the fans preferred because it’s clear by the use of his “mystery box” that no planning went into the future of the trilogy. 

The film brings together a solid new cast of characters, with a cadre of returning veterans (which is a whole other can of worms) but knowing anything about these people besides the most basic characteristics would go against the “mystery box.” So all you really get is that Rey is a scavenger orphan who has a mysteriously powerful connection to the force, Finn is a former stormtrooper and Poe is the Resistance’s best pilot, anything further wouldn’t leave room for JJ to make it up on the fly. Perhaps the biggest knock on this film from online commenters is that Rey is a so-called “Mary Sue” because she is perfect at everything from the jump. I personally do not feel that she is and that much of the discourse surrounding her is rooted in sexism. That being said though I do think her character does have some issues, more that come from poor writing than anything. She is good at a lot of things from the jump but I think a lot of them are explained by her experience as a scavenger mixed with the fact it’s a movie trying to tell a fun story. However since JJ is using this “mystery box” it ends up writing future installments into a corner with Rey, for example she is so inexplicably strong in the force without training that there is going to be a major power scaling issue later on (Which they found a solution for that is maybe the stupidest thing to ever happen in Star Wars). The long and short of the film is that they should have had a plan in place for the trilogy instead of letting JJ set up things on the fly. If they had one we could have prevented the big “twist” of the three and also fully utilized characters like Poe or Finn, but no we just had to have a dozen unfulfilled mysteries shoved into A New Hope redux. 

JJ feels like an impressionist painter who really really likes Van Gogh and for his magnum opus tries to make his own version of The Starry Night only to leave major areas of it unfinished with subjects who are often just blurry smudges of paint. JJ is content with his piece to be finished by another, along comes another painter who puts some new touches and adds further details to JJ’s missed areas and subjects but observers hate the changes so much that JJ comes back and paints over the entire painting to appease them.

Watching this immediately after finishing the magnificent Andor feels like a bit of a mixed bag. You get to see more of the best Star Wars character (yes I said it), surrounded by even more grounded action of the rebellion, the downside is you are confronted with problems in tone, pacing and find yourself in ground zero of Glup Shitto-land. Sure I can understand in theory why Leia, Tarkin and Vader should appear but ultimately I feel like they are distracting from Rogue One, the team and the movie. And don’t even get me started on some of the other miscellaneous appearances. I wish the film focused more on Cassian but I know that isn’t something that would happen, though I am happy to see his finale (and got very emotional for it) but the film just overall feels disted from Andor itself.

Look I think the Vader hallway scene is cool (rubber Leia isn’t) but it should have ended with Cassian and Jyn’s embrace, the movie would be better for it.

Feels like the first time Kiarostami begins to blend narrative and documentary styles so overtly. To do this he made a courageous about revolutionary mindsets during a time of major social unrest in Iran. In fact the day they shot the interviews, people stormed and occupied the television station they were at. Kiarostami remarks how this film couldn’t have been made at any other time except when it was made, a perfect confluence of factors led to its creation. He said “you can only make a film like this during a transition of power,” he expands with “although it wasn’t my intention at the time, this film is a historical film. People who were caught by surprise at this specific moment in history helped to make the film. If I was to make it again with the same people, the same film wouldn’t be made.”

Is an outlier from Koreeda’s wider filmography for a multitude of reasons but that classic Koreeda heart is still front and center.

Enjoyable, relaxing and informative. Missed this one on my Kiarostami journey but got to it before I was too far past it.

Watched on Wednesday May 14, 2025.

Not only is it racist and a really bad movie but it’s also 3D! Final boss of “what the hell just happened” movies.

Whole movie felt like this: 
youtu.be/YLSW7Soq4tI?si=-Dd5Oa4NcJ7TBMbj

“-What about the people who don’t read?
-There’s a movie.” 

Could see where this was going pretty early on but it never felt unearned or hokey, Sam Neill and his ever-changing accent are great and the story is ingenious.

A very tasteful documentary about the restoration of a palace on request from the Shah’s wife Farah. Kiarostami doesn’t have much to say about the film itself since he never even got to see it, he says that the day it was completed the revolution happened. So nobody was able to see it screened in Iran.

The time it took me to find this exceeded the length of the actual film, so shoutout to the Letterboxd who posted a link! 

Kiarostami got inspiration from this through a combination of personal experience and of an event he heard about happening in . Kiarostami described this film as a very small shoot, consisting of four people; himself, the soundman, the cameraman and the actor. Or five if you count the tire as a character, which Kiarostami seems inclined to do. He describes the tire as “as strong as Marlon Brando in front of the camera. It’s utterly powerful, independent, and it does what it wants. Sometimes it’s malformed.”

I think it’s important for any child growing up to have a go to movie to watch that is loved by both kid and adult. This was one of those for my mom and I. 

Spirit is near one-of-one, not that it couldn’t be made today but that rather it wouldn’t. A kids movie that is challenging and subversive of the American myth of the West is probably quite difficult to pitch to a studio, but here Spirit stands. Every once in a while a kids film presenting more adult themes comes along and is heralded, but not often are those stories critiques of American expansionism while also functioning as a call to resist colonialism and subjugation.  

Spirit still looks great, it sounds great, its music is forever memorable (even if Bryan Adams’ iconic songs are a bit out of place at times) and I like Matt Damon’s voice for this even if he at times sounds like he is the underprepared partner in a group project.

Has a Tim Robinson Chungking Express segment so gets my approval

The finale of the original trilogy is…. good, not great, but good. It has a lot going for it; a more experienced (and badass) Luke, some great set-pieces (even if Death Star 2 is a bit eye-roll inducing) and Vader’s (probably unearned but still poignant) redemption. I wouldn’t say the bad outweighs the good but the scale isn’t tipped nearly as far in favor of good as its predecessors. My biggest gripe is a tone that at times plays to the somber themes of Star Wars and at others seems to have the goal of selling more toys. Regardless, the film earns its existence solely through “just for once, let me look on you with my own eyes.” Gets me everytime.

This shit is so ultimate. Literally the perfect sequel.

Watched on Saturday May 10, 2025.

Figured I had to tear off this bandaid sooner or later. Undisputed masterpiece. 

Hard not to think of other films that orbit a similar topic; like Ghibli’s own The Wind Rises, Obayashi’s sweeping Anti-War Trilogy, or Kobayashi’s triumph of The Human Condition, among countless others. Grave of the Fireflies stands tall among the best of them.

The Report is Kiarostami’s second feature film and while there are some strong elements (particularly the performances), overall it feels a bit laborious. Kiarostami takes a look at contemporary Iranian society in a withdrawn way, saying about his story choices “politics and sociology exist in a film regardless…if you decide to approach something from a theoretical standpoint, there’s a danger of the theory becoming the dominant form.”  Kiarostami had another brilliant quote in this interview, saying about drama; “I think people can only tolerate drama to a certain extent. Afterwards there should be a silent moment so people can recharge. This is something special that’s found in literature but not really in cinema. When a chapter ends in a novel half the page is blank, then there’s another blank page after that, and then another chapter starts with a number. The reader at this point can decide to turn the book over and go to have a tea or go out. But cinema doesn’t afford the audience this luxury. Literature is kind to its reader, but cinema isn’t this way, it’s not kind.” It seems that Kiarostami tried to use this idea of pauses some in The Report, but it doesn’t work as well as it does in his later films.

Honestly kickass they gave Kevin Kline an Oscar for this

I wonder how long this originally was and just how much was lost, with that said a story is still here which is very cool. Can’t imagine how many stories and films have been lost forever and only live in people’s memories.

So much fun and so cute, thank you Agnes !

An utterly breathtaking film. Slow and poignant while also shocking and violent, Kitano finds a balance perfectly emblematic of life itself. Kitano has a way of subverting classical filmmaking sensibilities in a way that elevates his storytelling techniques to a degree that is truly special. Nishi probably has less than 30 lines of dialogue in this and you still feel you like have seen straight into his soul because of Kitano’s direction and acting. Not to mention that the film itself is a mirror of Kitano himself with the art shown being his very own. Just also want to say the sequences of Horibe thinking about / making his art are some of my favorites ever.

This film is so sneakily poignant. The counter-cultural elements are still here even if the setting itself is dated. It shows the beauty that America is set against the ugly it contains. And god that ending, hearing Fonda and Hopper’s respective desperation and agony in it really got me.

I started Spaceballs and got a bit into it before I realized I didn’t want to watch it, so naturally I pivoted and watched a Godard X Truffaut t documentary!

How many directors can pull some of the tricks Marty does here and it not come off as tacky? Not many! Who else can suddenly add a second narrator or have a character look right at the audience for a monologue? All while having some of the greatest needle drops in movie history!

1. Magnolia
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Phantom Thread
4. Boogie Nights
5. Punch-Drunk Love
6. The Master
7. Licorice Pizza
8. Hard Eight

1. The Long Goodbye
2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
3. The Player
4. California Split
5. M*A*S*H

1. Close-Up
2. Through the Olive Trees
3. Certified Copy
4. Taste of Cherry
5. Life, and Nothing More…
6. Where Is the Friend's House?
7. 24 Frames
8. A Wedding Suit
9. First Case, Second Case
10. The Traveler

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Star Wars
3. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
6. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
7. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
8. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
9. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
10. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Working list of all of the Criterion Collection releases I own. Attempted by order of acquisition.

• High and Low
• After Life
• Still Walking
• In the Mood for Love

  One standalone copy
  
  One copy in “World of Wong Kar-Wai” Collectors Set

• La Haine
• Close-Up
• Yi Yi
• 12 Angry Men
• Cure
• Taste of Cherry

...plus 62 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
3. Mission: Impossible
4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
5. Mission: Impossible II
6. Mission: Impossible III
7. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

1. Still Walking
2. After Life
3. Monster
4. Nobody Knows
5. Shoplifters
6. After the Storm
7. Our Little Sister
8. Broker
9. Like Father, Like Son
10. Distance

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Schindler's List
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Jurassic Park
5. The Fabelmans
6. Saving Private Ryan
7. Jaws
8. Catch Me If You Can
9. Minority Report
10. War of the Worlds

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Very subject to change

• Children of Men
• Still Walking
• Aftersun
• In the Mood for Love
• After Life
• Cure
• Perfect Days
• Drive My Car
• La Haine
• Pain and Glory

...plus 57 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Hayao Miyazaki and otherwise

• The Wind Rises
• Princess Mononoke
• Spirited Away
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Howl's Moving Castle
• The Boy and the Heron
• Porco Rosso
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• My Neighbor Totoro
• Kiki's Delivery Service

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

List of my favorite films that I’ve seen released in each year of my life, in ascending order from my birth year 2001. Will be subject to change.

1. Ocean's Eleven
2. Infernal Affairs
3. Memories of Murder
4. Nobody Knows
5. Flic
6. Children of Men
7. No Country for Old Men
8. Still Walking
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
10. The Social Network

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. All About Lily Chou-Chou
2. Love Letter
3. April Story

1. The Thin Red Line
2. Days of Heaven
3. Badlands

1. Mikey and Nicky
2. The Heartbreak Kid
3. Ishtar

1. Real Life
2. Lost in America
3. Mother
4. Modern Romance
5. Defending Your Life
6. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

1. Cure
2. License to Live
3. Pulse
4. Charisma
5. Tokyo Sonata
6. Serpent's Path
7. Chime
8. Eyes of the Spider

1. Vive L'Amour
2. Goodbye, Dragon Inn
3. The Hole
4. Stray Dogs
5. Days
6. Rebels of the Neon God

• Inglourious Basterds
• Django Unchained
• Pulp Fiction
• Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
• The Hateful Eight
• Reservoir Dogs
• Jackie Brown

1. Heat
2. Collateral
3. Manhunter
4. Ferrari

1. Hanagatami
2. Labyrinth of Cinema
3. Seven Weeks
4. Casting Blossoms to the Sky
5. House
6. Emotion

1. Memories of Murder
2. Parasite
3. Mother
4. Snowpiercer
5. Mickey 17
6. White Man

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Blue Velvet
3. Inland Empire
4. Eraserhead
5. Lost Highway
6. Dune
7. The Alphabet
8. Premonitions Following an Evil Deed
9. Six Men Getting Sick

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Malcolm X
3. Bamboozled
4. David Byrne's American Utopia
5. He Got Game
6. Inside Man
7. BlacKkKlansman
8. Da 5 Bloods

1. A Moment of Innocence
2. Salaam Cinema
3. Gabbeh

1. News from Home
2. Blow Up My Town
3. The Room

1. In the Mood for Love
2. Chungking Express
3. Happy Together
4. 2046
5. Fallen Angels
6. Days of Being Wild
7. The Follow

1. On the Beach at Night Alone
2. Right Now, Wrong Then
3. The Novelist's Film
4. The Day He Arrives
5. Claire's Camera
6. Small Flower

1. Nosferatu
2. The Lighthouse
3. The Northman
4. The Witch

1. Perfect Days
2. Paris, Texas
3. Wings of Desire

1. The Royal Tenenbaums
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. The French Dispatch
5. Moonrise Kingdom
6. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
7. Asteroid City

Keeping track of my favorite Samurai flicks

1. Ran
2. Samurai Rebellion
3. Harakiri
4. Goyokin
5. Seven Samurai
6. Throne of Blood
7. The Sword of Doom
8. Sanjuro
9. Yojimbo
10. The Hidden Fortress

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. High and Low
2. Ikiru
3. Dreams
4. Seven Samurai
5. Ran
6. The Bad Sleep Well
7. Throne of Blood
8. Sanjuro
9. Rashomon
10. The Hidden Fortress

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Interstellar
2. Oppenheimer
3. The Dark Knight
4. Memento
5. Inception
6. The Prestige
7. Tenet
8. Dunkirk
9. The Dark Knight Rises
10. Batman Begins

1. Flowers of Shanghai
2. A City of Sadness
3. Millennium Mambo

• Dog Star Man
• Mothlight
• Window Water Baby Moving
• The Dante Quartet
• Stellar

1. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer
2. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
3. The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
4. Harakiri
5. Kwaidan
6. Samurai Rebellion
7. The Inheritance
8. The Thick-Walled Room

1. Lady Bird
2. Little Women
3. Barbie

1. The Zone of Interest
2. Birth
3. Sexy Beast
4. The Fall

1. La La Land
2. Whiplash
3. First Man
4. Babylon

1. Killer of Sheep
2. To Sleep with Anger
3. My Brother's Wedding
4. The Horse
5. Several Friends
6. Quiet as Kept

1. Vertigo
2. Psycho
3. Rope
4. Rear Window

1. Killers of the Flower Moon
2. Taxi Driver
3. Silence
4. GoodFellas
5. The Departed
6. The Wolf of Wall Street
7. The Last Temptation of Christ
8. Shutter Island
9. The Big Shave
10. Cape Fear

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Inside Llewyn Davis
3. Fargo
4. Raising Arizona
5. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
6. The Big Lebowski
7. Burn After Reading
8. Hail, Caesar!

1. 12 Angry Men
2. Dog Day Afternoon
3. The Verdict
4. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
5. Network

1. Autumn Sonata
2. The Seventh Seal
3. Persona

1. The Face of Another
2. Woman in the Dunes
3. Antonio Gaudí
4. Pitfall
5. Ikebana
6. The Man Without a Map
7. Ako
8. Sculptures by Sofu - Vita
9. Jose Torres
10. Tokyo 1958

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Pain and Glory
2. All About My Mother
3. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
4. The Skin I Live In
5. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. The Shining
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
4. Paths of Glory
5. Eyes Wide Shut
6. Full Metal Jacket

1. Oldboy
2. Decision to Leave
3. The Handmaiden
4. Thirst

1. Yi Yi
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. Taipei Story