4v291o

Watched on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

Several moments I thought it was going to tip over into good but generally people chatting shit in rooms and then more rooms. There was a decent visual style, I like the production but it was kinda nonsense in an irritating way, rather than a fun way. Criminal underuse of Conner O’Malley

half-watched, boy he was handsome

Some lucky fucker out there has this bloke as their uncle; imagine that.

It's only mediocre cos of a couple of decent stunts and, of course, Hoffman literally makes every scene he's in, in this film or any for that matter. Editing is awful

Park Chan-wook adaptation of a John le Carré spy novel set in the 70’s starring Michael Shannon. Yippie.

The person who created the "Sinners Cinematic Universe" photo was onto something. This plays out exactly like a bottom-rung Marvel film; you don't care about any of the characters, it's bland, the writing is god-awful, and it ends in such an unoriginal, flat note. And then it comes back again for some reason, like a fucking Marvel end credit scene. Crikey Moses, it also doesn't make logical sense at so many points, plot armour, motivations, and film logic. It's just Michael B Jordan pointing his gun at people all the time. They also have to say every single thing out loud. They need to shut up. There's a scene where the evil people are singing this song outside the barn, which we heard them playing just 20 minutes ago, and Michael B. Jordan has to say, "That's the song they were singing," to ensure we know what's going on. What the fuck? If someone says, "If this happens, promise me you will do this..." then be sure to keep watching, because that exact thing will happen within 10 minutes.

I often think about the scene in The Godfather when Michael visits Vito in the hospital and there are no bodyguards around, so he and the butcher, or whoever it is that's with him, have to pretend to be gangsters with guns and stand outside the front when a group of Sollozzo's men drives past. The butcher is really nervous, struggling to light his cigarette because he's shaking so much that Michael lights it for him and notices that his own hands are completely still and in that moment, he realises he has the nerves required for this life of crime. It's a great example of simple, visual storytelling that says all you need to know about what this moment means. It's also just normal filmmaking, not even that special.

Saving graces- Delroy Lindo is acting circles around everyone. He is the only person who manages to turn the awkward dialogue into something funny, genuine, and layered.

Needed to watch a big lizard beat the shit out of a three-headed dragon this evening.

Sweet and funni, kinda lost in the middle but ends strong.

I don’t know what this is

It’s probably the best film of the century

It’s really just sketches or funny or sweet moments compiled. Some good, some a bit off the mark. The little boy playing Ronnie was great; sometimes, it may be trying too hard to have this Todd Solondz vibe

It’s been a month. I’m not sure I realised how paralysed I was while watching this film because of how depressing and dark it is.

‘I was jus saying you’ve got a gloomy job’ 

It’s this impressive balance of humour, realism but overall an expert reflection on life and to live within one’s mind and body, personal and collective history and environment. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking. It’s no wonder Hollywood was eager for Schlesinger to the American equivalent of the new wave European film movement.

Watched on Tuesday April 15, 2025.

It’s incredibly stupid. Which is precisely what I wanted/needed, but not 3 hours worth. I’m actually a fan of the 8k, super wide, ridiculously over-the-top, over-lit, over-edited set pieces. It feels like you know what the budget went into, and I think it does a lot more with 100 million than other films do. And I also thought the music was pretty good

But some characters are so stupid, and almost all the dialogue is trash. I think only Ian McShane does a good job with it, and Laurence Fishburne takes it into a silly but entertaining arena that I don’t mind. 

Donnie Yen playing the second blind swordsman in his career was ridiculous. I hated that character. And the bloke with the dog, I don’t even know what his vibe was at all. 

And Keanu looked tired. He looked old. This has to be the end of this.

It's a little more than just a goofy version of The Social Network. Incredible needle drops.

Watched on Thursday April 10, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 8, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 8, 2025.

Watched on Monday April 7, 2025.

Watched on Sunday March 30, 2025.

Watched on Friday March 28, 2025.

I watched this last night, and I didn’t really know what to make of it; I knew I liked it, but there’s a lot going on, and the essence of the film is quite unique, but I woke up at 5 o’clock this morning after some vivid dreams weaving in characters from the film with people in my own life. It was one of those intense nights of sleep that waking feels like a weight being lifted off you, and there’s some Scooby-doo-esque imprint of my body in the mattress and pillow as if like I got punched into the bed by Popeye. 

Anyway, the film starts and plods along like you’d expect from reading the blurb: high schoolers, coming of age, small Texas town. But these uncanny facets of human life in Anarene begin to expose themselves, the language people use to talk of others subtlety double-edged, and there seems to exist tangibly finite choices available to people as if one thing you aren’t born with in this town is the freedom to choose, a real choice, something of your own making. The only option is to die here or get out, which we discover is more complicated than it sounds; most seem to stay or at least be at peace with that way of life. 

The town has seen better times. There's the shitty high school football team indifferent about winning or losing, the old picture house and all its empty seats, the dilapidated pool bar only frequented by the men, the empty diner that seems to serve only hamburgers, and there are festive dances at the community centre for Christmas. The townsfolk mix and bump into each other like molecules within a dying cell, sometimes in pairs or trios or alone, but usually alone. Reality extends only as far as the town stretches- Mexico is down there somewhere and Dallas over there; we go to Wichita Falls once or twice (they have indoor pools there), but we’re standing here on Anarene soil, and that’s that. 

Everyone might know each other’s names, but they seem to exist alone, brought into this world to inhabit this land together; thus, they harbour all the beautiful intricacies of what it means to be formed by the dirt of Anarene’s ground, the taste it leaves in one's mouth, the air, and the whispers in the streets. Yet, they have no comprehension of these instruments and their power or how to use them to see anything more than themselves reflected in each other’s faces or sometimes nothing at all: ghosts or mirrors, that’s it. 

Only the solitary town elder, Sam the Lion, the guiding force of morality, a palimpsest of the town’s many lives, seems to have obtained through his years the ability to stiff through the people’s insincerities and self-inflicted woes. 

Parents see their own naive hopes and desires reflected in their children. Children fear they will or have already become their parents. A symbiosis of angst perpetuating generational struggles. 

No one seems to learn, harvesting regrets and manufacturing misfortunes. But the film does not blame its characters for such shortcomings. Everyone, regardless of wealth or age, seems to be carrying a blindness, allowing only that they see what is straight in front of them. In moments, the seconds on the clock slow and distend enough to be filled with entire lifetimes, so large and expansive does time breathe that the actions of those wrapped up in the unsightly undergrowth of the town have muted repercussions. Ill-conceived sexual encounters in the pursuit of social approval, people coupling and uncoupling as gracefully as two buckling bridges, one’s angst becomes another’s, not to be absorbed or diluted but to be ed around like an age-old letter, an heirloom. 

To be noticed, and in catching the eyes that glance your way, you turn your head away from the thing you truly desire so that the moment es and slips through your fingers like jewellery into the drain beneath you; such is the power of your name when called from another lips, no matter whose they are. 

Human impulse, human intrigue, human desire for company or solitude, distractions, and unobtainable dreams of dreams cycle through the air like the dust. The memories of those old and young and dead and those without names or yet to be and walk the ground and sing its songs. All that floats to the surface and is visible are the common courtesies of polite conversation, each one chronicling the collective vague consciousness of Anarene. Each acknowledgement of the town is a reminder of one's subjugation to live within its walls as time inches forward or backwards or whichever way it chooses; it doesn't matter. It's out of your control. 

“Boy, we finally got us a team!... Didn’t back in your day, did they?... When was it you graduated?” 
“Last year” 
“Seems longer than that...”

Expressive lighting, dynamic camera movement and some pretty good performances. Neorealist inspired but still have has a well crafted precise touch. Yeah, I thought it was very good. Well done.

The opening scene with The Walker Brothers song was beautiful. I’ve been listening to it all day. Scott Walker was made to make film music.

It’s just funny

Much more depressing than I . Easy Rider is the cool and mellow 70’s film on alienation, this is the cold and bitter one.

Watched on Sunday March 23, 2025.

This was great, Leone and Argento all over it. Pure sensory cinema.

Watched on Thursday March 20, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 19, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 19, 2025.

Gets pretty gimmicky at the end, scooby-doo basically.

Finally on the big screen. It’s very loud. The scope of the shots is incredible.

Although this is probably the only time this film hasn’t managed to cheer me up.

I really enjoyed the first hour. Pattinson is great, and I liked Ruffalo and Ackie, but some of the other casting choices were a bit odd, especially smaller roles. Some of the dialogue, especially exposition-heavy lines, was either poorly written, poorly delivered, or both. 
The story is super interesting but ultimately falls flat. Visually, it's cool, and the world-building is good, but overall, it was a little underwhelming.

Watched on Thursday March 13, 2025.

Closed my eyes for abit in the middle and woke up with half an hour left so will have to rewatch. Was really enjoying it tho. The scenes with the Dinah Washington song are gorgeous.

Shame that the music wasn’t great since it was one of the main plot devices 🫠

One of these wacky stories you only get in 50s films. To be honest it’s a slow start but the second half is pretty fun.

This film has been one of my favourites for a while. I never thought it would be possible for me to appreciate it any more than I already do or find myself relating to it more than ever. Honestly, I cry in three different places in this film; each time it’s a different emotional reaction.

Somehow it doesn’t feel as big as I . Phoenix is great.

I like that these films exist, there’s moments that shine, little lines or beats so that good but it’s pretty cold, a choice but yeah I was sad actually, generally but also because of the film, I guess that’s real.

It was absolutely not good enough to have The Prodigy on the end credits. Hellraiser in space, I’d fund it but climactically and stylistically lacking.

I think the bloke is interesting but as a documentary it fails to really capture anything new, perhaps that is nothing more than what’s in the surface idk

👑slow cinema👑

Corbet has incredible eyes and ears. Lol Crawley does just as an incredible job here as on The Brutalist and Scott Walker is an absolute fucking icon who fits sound to screen effortlessly. But what the hell happened with the time jump in this film, I was actually really enjoying the first half but Portman? What? The character didn’t feel natural at all, I didn’t believe it. They seemed like two completely different people. This was obviously not helped by him again casting Raffey Cassidy as her own daughter which he needs to either stop doing or make it his thing and do it in literally every film he makes. 

And in of message, not that anything has to have one nor do I actually care but it needed something to pep it up a little and I didn’t know what it was really saying. I liked the world building and if it wasn’t for the 9/11 moment I might’ve assumed it to be some parallel uncanny universe.

Its alright but it’s not for me.

Eh, it’s a ‘movie’, it’s just a ‘movie’

Actually not too bad, some genuinely clever bits but the ending is so bog standard

A lot of reasons for this. I’m also including films that brought out an intense emotional response, whether there were actual tears being irrelevant.

• LA 92

  Cried few times throughout

• La Haine

  The ending for sure 

• The Hunt

  The church scene and maybe one other time

• The Act of Killing

  Cried near the end definitely and once or twice in the middle I had tears 

• Bicycle Thieves

  The ending I cried 

• The Celebration

  During the speech I cry

• Arrival

  Every single time the music starts at the beginning I sob

• 12 Years a Slave

  Just the whole time Jesus 

• Heat

  Once or twice I cry at the end or at the bit when Pacino is hugging the woman

• Man on Wire

  A happy cry at the end 

...plus 54 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Double Indemnity
• His Motorbike, Her Island
• Laurence Anyways
• Open Hearts
• The Day of the Beast
• Ikiru
• Strangers on a Train
• The Rules of the Game
• Attack
• Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

...plus 37 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Interesting, expressive, unique, intriguing, clever or beautiful titles to films that regardless of their content are among my favourites.
Some titles come from the literary works that inspired or created the story of the film in which case 90% of my appreciation goes to the writer or author and 10% to the director/writer for keeping the original material’s title.

• The Wages of Fear
• There Will Be Blood
• Throne of Blood
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Apocalypse Now
• Sexy Beast
• Lost in Translation
• The Seventh Seal
• Taste of Cherry
• Army of Shadows

...plus 84 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Sleuth
• Children of Men
• The Prestige
• Austin Powers in Goldmember

• Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy.
• I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
• The Stupid Teacher
• Take Care of My Cat

• Lost Highway
• Anora
• We Live in Time
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Boogie Nights
• Iron Man 2
• The Batman
• Zombieland
• The Social Network
• Bottoms

...plus 39 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Thing
• Phantom Thread
• The Hunt
• Goodbye, Dragon Inn
• Winter Sleep
• The Shining
• The Lighthouse
• Fargo
• In Bruges

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

• Superbad
• 12 Angry Men
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood
• Apocalypse Now
• The Master
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Dogtooth
• The Thin Red Line
• Sexy Beast

...plus 99 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Umberto D.
• Napoleon Dynamite
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• Anora
• Oppenheimer
• Carrie
• Donnie Darko
• Amadeus
• Stroszek
• Hud

...plus 122 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Tetsuo: The Iron Man
• Junun
• Paris Is Burning
• Porto
• Totally F***ed Up
• The General
• Le Bonheur
• Run Lola Run
• Elephant
• Ida

...plus 93 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

160+ minutes with special exceptions for films with recognised and popular extended cuts that take its runtime beyond 160.

• Winter Sleep
• Seven Samurai
• Magnolia
• The Wild Pear Tree
• The Godfather Part II
• The Deer Hunter
• Kagemusha
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• The Godfather
• A Hidden Life

...plus 66 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Fata Morgana
• Lessons of Darkness
• Leviathan
• Shoah
• Close-Up
• My Winnipeg
• HyperNormalisation
• Jill, Uncredited
• The Plains
• Black Mother

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Eraserhead
• The Ascent
• Mirror

• Fata Morgana
• Lessons of Darkness
• Leviathan
• Shoah
• Close-Up
• My Winnipeg
• HyperNormalisation
• Jill, Uncredited
• The Plains
• Black Mother

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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

Great child performances in films

• Good Morning
• The Florida Project
• Kes
• Sivas
• Where Is the Friend's House?
• Bicycle Thieves
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Ratcatcher
• Home Alone
• Moonlight

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 12 Angry Men
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Alien
• Apocalypse Now
• Beau Travail
• Children of Men
• The Dark Knight
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• The Godfather
• Heat

...plus 84 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Celebration
• Pulse
• Inland Empire
• The Blair Witch Project
• Faces
• Grey Gardens
• Videodrome
• The Idiots
• The King Is Alive
• The Backrooms (Found Footage)

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Mostly DVD's.

• 12 Angry Men

  Blu-Ray - Criterion

• 12 Years a Slave
• 13 Tzameti
• 2001: A Space Odyssey

  Blu-ray - HMV collection 

• The 400 Blows

  Blu-Ray - BFI

• The Act of Killing
• The Age of Innocence

  Blu-ray - Criterion

• Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

  Blu-ray - Arrow

• Alien

  Blu-ray 

• Aliens

...plus 269 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Arrival
2. Silence
3. Moonlight
4. The Wailing
5. HyperNormalisation
6. Manchester by the Sea
7. Nocturnal Animals
8. Jackie
9. The Red Turtle

1. The Hunt
2. The Master
3. The Act of Killing
4. Django Unchained
5. Leviathan
6. Holy Motors
7. Searching for Sugar Man
8. The Dark Knight Rises

1. The Tree of Life
2. Shame
3. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
4. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
5. Weekend
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
7. The Skin I Live In
8. We Need to Talk About Kevin

1. The Social Network
2. Incendies
3. Four Lions
4. Meek's Cutoff
5. Inception
6. Senna
7. Certified Copy
8. Somewhere
9. Toy Story 3

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Dogtooth
3. Fish Tank
4. Enter the Void
5. Fantastic Mr. Fox
6. A Prophet
7. The White Ribbon
8. The Cove
9. Black Dynamite
10. Up

1. The Dark Knight
2. Hunger
3. Synecdoche, New York
4. In Bruges
5. Tokyo Sonata
6. Let the Right One In
7. The Wrestler
8. Man on Wire
9. Still Walking
10. 35 Shots of Rum

1. There Will Be Blood
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Superbad
4. Hot Fuzz
5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
6. Silent Light
7. Ratatouille
8. Smiley Face
9. My Winnipeg
10. You, the Living

1. Napoleon Dynamite
2. Shaun of the Dead
3. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
4. Pusher II
5. Nobody Knows
6. The White Diamond
7. The Incredibles
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
9. Troy
10. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

1. Goodbye, Dragon Inn
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
3. Lost in Translation
4. Memories of Murder
5. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
6. Oldboy
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
8. Elephant
9. Touching the Void
10. The Last Samurai

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. In the Bathtub of the World
3. Donnie Darko
4. Mulholland Drive
5. Y Tu Mamá También
6. Spirited Away
7. Ghost World

• Cross of Iron
• PlayTime
• Rocky
• Pearl

• The American Friend
• Sorcerer
• Straight Time
• Marathon Man
• All the President's Men
• Three Days of the Condor
• The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Chinatown
• The Parallax View

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

No musicals. No instrumentals. The song must be made for the film and relate to the plot and must feature in the film, not as a separately released single.

• The Blob
• 3:10 to Yuma
• High Noon
• Tokyo Drifter
• True Grit
• The Longest Day
• The Hanging Tree
• Ghostbusters
• Flash Gordon
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

• Godland
• Nomadland
• Siberia
• A Hidden Life
• Monos
• The Wild Pear Tree
• Leave No Trace
• Silence
• Call Me by Your Name
• The Revenant

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• The Thing
• The Pink Panther

Films I have strong memories of watching before I was a teenager.

• The Incredibles
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Blade
• The Bourne Identity
• Home Alone
• Inception
• The Iron Giant
• Nacho Libre
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Raiders of the Lost Ark

...plus 212 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Good Time
• Monos
• The Thin Red Line
• There Will Be Blood
• Phantom Thread
• The Dark Knight
• The Godfather
• Oppenheimer

• The Gospel According to Matthew
• The Decameron
• Accattone
• Mamma Roma
• Oedipus Rex
• Arabian Nights
• La Notte
• L'Avventura
• L'Eclisse
• Red Desert

...plus 107 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Blade Runner
• Brazil
• Her
• The Age of Innocence
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Alien
• The Empire Strikes Back

...plus 63 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Devil, Probably
• The Fifth Seal
• A Woman Under the Influence
• Lancelot of the Lake
• Stroszek
• Kanal
• Humanité
• State of Siege
• Why Man Creates
• World on a Wire

...plus 38 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Naked Lunch
• Enter the Void
• Fight Club
• From Russia with Love
• Dead Ringers
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

The best living film director IMO.

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

• Get Carter
• Naked
• Of Time and the City
• Morvern Callar
• The Italian Job
• Kes
• Withnail & I
• Fish Tank
• Hunger
• Four Lions

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Great Freedom
• A Hidden Life
• Escape at Dannemora
• Bridge of Spies
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• Incendies
• A Prophet
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Cool Hand Luke
• Escape from Alcatraz

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Monos
2. Parasite
3. Uncut Gems
4. The Lighthouse
5. Bacurau
6. A Hidden Life
7. Sound of Metal
8. Deerskin
9. Vitalina Varela
10. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

1. Cold War
2. At Eternity's Gate
3. Free Solo
4. The Favourite
5. Hereditary
6. Burning
7. Shoplifters
8. Mandy
9. The Wild Pear Tree
10. Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski

1. Phantom Thread
2. Good Time
3. LA 92
4. You Were Never Really Here
5. Song to Song
6. Blade Runner 2049
7. The Square
8. Dunkirk
9. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda
10. Call Me by Your Name

1. The Lobster
2. Son of Saul
3. Sicario
4. Junun
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
6. The Revenant
7. Mr. Gaga
8. A Syrian Love Story

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
3. Winter Sleep
4. Foxcatcher
5. Heaven Knows What
6. The Look of Silence
7. Leviathan
8. Interstellar
9. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
10. Sivas

1. The Wolf of Wall Street
2. Ida
3. Stray Dogs
4. 12 Years a Slave
5. Prisoners
6. Inside Llewyn Davis
7. Dallas Buyers Club
8. Nebraska

1. Children of Men
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. The Prestige
4. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
5. Nacho Libre
6. The Wind That Shakes the Barley
7. The Lives of Others