Neal

Favorite films

  • Céline and Julie Go Boating
  • Vertigo
  • The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
  • Apocalypse Now

All
  • The Phoenician Scheme

  • The War of the Worlds

    ★★★

  • Bite the Bullet

    ★★★★

  • Mission: Impossible II

    ★★★

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The Phoenician Scheme

2025

Watched

Better than Asteroid City, not as transcendent as the best moments of The French Dispatch. A close cousin of The Grand Budapest Hotel with a less-wondrous script, but that film whiffed trying to make me feel something for its tragic characters. This was more restrained in that regard, and I appreciated its warmer denouement. Additional viewings might reveal more meat on the bone, considering all the religious content. Mia Threapleton is a revelation with perfect deadpan timing, Michael Cera also a welcome and overdue addition to Anderson's stock company. Del Toro finally getting another great role and delivering in spades.

Bite the Bullet

1975

★★★★ Watched

Richard Brooks. Gonna continue beating the drum on this underrated guy. Just banger after banger and a lot of range. This one isn't a tight crowd-pleaser along the lines of The Professionals (and oddly feels more "classic" despite being made 9 years later in the mid-70s), but that film's all-star cast is matched here by Hackman (a legit career highlight), Bergen, Coburn, Johnson, Coleman, Vincent, and others. A much more sprawling narrative that hits several western tropes done better by…

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

2000

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

One of the very best films of this young century. The story manages to be so simple and yet so profound, Ang Lee letting the characters' looks between the words carry so much weight. While I love that this is the most successful non-English film in USA box office history, and I'm glad it was showered with awards and nominations, the cast was largely ignored in that regard, unfortunately. Yeoh eventually got her due, but Chow and Zhang equally great…

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

2005

★★★★½ Liked Rewatched

I'll stand by what I've said many times before: in of visual storytelling with widescreen compositions, Lucas is nearly without peer in genre filmmaking. Only Carpenter is in this rarefied air. The wordless (or near wordless scenes) stand out the most for me. Anakin and Pe waiting in separate rooms across the city for the fate of the galaxy to be decided, connected only by their worry; Order 66; the montage at the end including that beautiful funeral procession…

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