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Cabaret's eclectic arsenal of screwball comedy and quirky musical numbers is generally set up as a front: much like the Weimar Republic era's escapism, which masked a bleaker reality. But the film's feat goes beyond a simple bait and switch. It is one of cinema's most effective uses of juxtaposition, where such dramatic swings between tones should be all but impossible. It sounds counterintuitive, but Cabaret's cold, despairing heart doesn't undercut one bit of its sweetness; instead, cacophony and quietude not only coexist but sharpen one another in the process. More impressively what enables this paradoxical tonal gymnastics isn't precision, but a strange, unfiltered looseness, driven by intuition rather than deliberation.

8/10. Closer to a 7 than a 9.

AFI 100 Ranked

It poses as reflective urbanist poetry in the vein of Yi Yi, relying largely on two things: naturalism and character driven thematics. Neither works. Let's talk about each.

Any sense of naturalism is immediately destroyed by its music choices, which range from the lamest, most blatantly manipulative iterations of saccharine piano cues imaginable to something outright baffling, like the goofy orchestral piece played during the funeral sequence. Its stylistic language exists in a strange space: definitively heavy handed, yet with a striking absence of intentionality in how each scene is executed.

The death of a character often reminds us how much we care about them - bad news for A Sun. The characters are either so generically inconsequential to as to be an afterthought, or so poorly executed that they edge into self-parody. We are dealing with a melodrama that isn't smart enough to play pretend as a character study. Worse still, it seems to assume its audience operates on the same intellectual level, which compels it to repeatedly explain things already made either visually or contextually clear. The writing cannot be taken seriously.

It's frankly just embarrassing. It is one thing to make blockbuster slops, mumble something about family, and call it a day. But to try this hard and fail this thoroughly? That's just tough.

4/10.

Also 2:30:35 features the best actor in the movie.

In theater, followed by Q&A with Mong-Hong Chung

2019 Ranked

It is very much a film where Tim Robinson's personality becomes larger than anything it's trying to do, with the parts that feel like one of his skits working far better than the ones that don't. Fortunately for Friendship, there's a lot more of the former than the latter.

7/10. Closer to a 6 than an 8.

2024 Ranked

It is not uncommon for war films to quietly mutate into slashers in disguise, often complete with heightened, performative drama where token ensembles are taken off the board one by one to drum up fear or gesture at some noble comraderies, or the likes.

Warfare walks the opposite path. It understands one of the oldest rules in storytelling: if you need drama, don't make drama - make contrast. Tension lives in the relatives. The film is immensely patient, specifically, in its long winded rhythm; the pauses in between become more of an ordeal than the danger itself, because it recognizes that war, presented as is, is the best Chekhov's gun there is.

At the same time, it's not afraid to get messy. The hyperreality in warfare exists not just in the constructed world, but also in its perception: how people broke down, froze, crumble. The essence of war here is not heroism. It's the absence of it.

8/10. Closer to a 7 than a 9.

Edit: 7/10. Closer to an 8 than a 6.

2025 Ranked

Sinners starts with character work that could've gone anywhere: average to good plot beats that situate each character in places that allow for more interesting explorations later, or, if the film's willing, to provide a serviceable backdrop for some campy B movie action.

The film chooses neither.

What comes after is a surrealist sequence that attempts to marry any contemporary Blues/Jazz-inspired music, and for some reason, Chinese opera (and no Coogler, you can't just throw in Chinese opera because there happens to be two Asian characters in the scene) with some sense of mythical, visceral universality. This loosely echoes its overarching conflict between religious identity and cultural freedom, but there are two problems: one, it doesn't look very good, and two, the film is too timid to let the scene carry any kind of lasting consequences, plot-wise or thematically. As it stands, it might as well be an elaborate GEICO commercial.

It then completely forgoes any trace of curiosity towards its characters and instead has one of them explain to us what vampires are and how to kill them. An important part of this five-minute exposition is why they need to be killed: because they are no longer the same person - the friend you once knew is dead, and what you're looking at is effectively just a skinwalker wearing their face. Otherwise it'd hard not to think that vampires are just slightly altered versions of your friends who aren't truly gone - after all, vampires are not zombies, and they can talk.

This motivation is later cheerfully betrayed by the film itself, when the protagonist's vampire brother turns out to have been alive this whole time, and more importantly, the film seems to still treat him as the same character we saw before. Something like this could be overlooked and forgiven if Sinners were any less tonally uptight, but here it completely topples the foundation of its characters' actions. Are they actually killing their friends? Are the vampires even bad?

Coogler shows a surprising amount of control over suspense, and nothing on display here could be called incompetent, but Sinners is stuck in a weird spot. As a fun, vampire busting thriller, it needs more pulp and air to breathe. And if we're meant to indulge its stuffy, self-serious tone, then it simply doesn't care about its characters enough to earn it.

5/10. Closer to a 6 than a 4.

2025 Ranked

Watched on Friday May 9, 2025.

Its daring formalist strokes alone are a sight to behold. The flairs that would later define Wong's cinema are here met with a less refined, more visceral approach to writing. Characters blend into one another through sheer sensuality - something that can easily be mistaken for monotony. It isn't perfect. Wong's sensibilities at this time are often consumed by form, occasionally even juvenile, and the film never stands a chance against the Bechdel test. But simplicity is exactly what Days of Being Wild needs; the film never plans to entertain thematic nuances, and its quiet erotism calls for a simple fuel.

7/10. Closer to an 8 than a 6.

WKW Ranked

The wistful sorrow of the 400 Blows is perfectly encapsulated in one scene, where Antoine lights a candle for Balzac but inadvertently burns down the makeshift shrine - something born of a hazy, circumstantial intuition that spirals into mishaps and bleak disappointment. Such swings recur throughout the film, which is fueled by this blend of dreamy, hopeful follies and stark realism. It breaks its fair share of formalist grounds and perhaps signals some kind of lament for a lost generation, but the essence of the 400 Blows will always be larger than itself: it is the quiet rebellion of embracing such sorrow and moving forward.

7/10. Closer to an 8 than a 6.

It may repeat itself a bit too much, but the Idiots never fails to find ways to make its observations fascinating. Despite its provocative nature, the film's intent lies in something far more ive and measured than aimless insult or provocation. A group of idiots are placed in a glass box with ideologies as subversive as they are utterly pointless. It effectively becomes a microcosm of our most demented selves, observed with a cold, sneering gaze. This ultimately leaves viewers with a message that's neither social nor political, but instead deeply human: in the end, all of our problems and trivialities exist within the same paradoxical, completely ridiculous confines - such is the way of human nature.

7/10.

Sibyl is split into two halves.

The first unfolds in fragments not too dissimilar from the multi-faceted psyche it orbits around, which, at first glance, may appear deceptively cacophonous, but Efira's performance points to something unequivocally singular - a character who exists somewhere between fascination and villainy.

The second half is a cheeky, at times completely absurdist, exercise in the manifestation of the protagonist's desires. The film transforms into a feverish, explosive, intentionally oversaturated anti-melodrama, literally staged beside an active volcano, and teeters on a level where you aren't sure if it would be cruel to laugh at its playfulness. But it's funny, uncomfortably so.

For all the chaos and dissonance Triet conjures, she's also patient enough to arrange it in picturesque yet meaningful forms. A common pitfall would be to search for some sort of tidy juxtapositions between characters, a la "what does he or she represent", when the true intention of Sibyl has always been, through these rough-edged silhouettes layered atop each other, to show us the curiously messy creatures that humans are.

8/10.

2019 Ranked

It dances between allegorical pensiveness and spontaneous immediacy, and once again offers the same self-insert set of reflections on Hong's personal life as in his other works. Still, Claire's Camera is not nearly as tedious as its premise might suggest, largely thanks to one of the best qualities in Hong's cinema: he knows exactly where to stop - you can't poke too many holes in something kept intentionally low volume in the first place.

7/10. Closer to a 6 than an 8.

Edit: 7 -> 6

2017 Ranked

Notting Hill seems to draw its sensibilities from a distinctively British brand of ive aggressive optimism, which, unfortunately, also inherits a common issue that plagues this school of writing: much of the film's assumed wit and sweetness eventually devolves into something invariably saccharine and uninteresting. It ultimately boils down to two beautiful people chewing on lines so contrived and inconsequential that they might as well be parodies of themselves. Worst of all, these predictably exaggerated antics do not invite camp or charm, but rather, boredom.

5/10.

Watched on Wednesday April 23, 2025.

🫄

1/10.

2017 Ranked

A Hollywood take on a character study that's wrapped in a by the book legal drama, which, combined with its early 2000s optimism, ends up smelling more like an elaborate Hallmark movie than anything resembling what it set out to be, with eye rolling scenes and conflicts seen from a mile away. Erin Brockovich has its moments, but somehow the craziest part of this film is that a neck surgery without insurance only cost $17000 back in 2000.

5/10.

A screenplay so tight it's almost suffocating, yet despite that, Black Bag never feels sterile. When the film has fun with its spy thriller game, it also recognizes that the genre's true strength lies, deceptively, in its deeply human implications. Faux esoteric dialogue and clever plot twists are certainly exciting, but what's truly fascinating about spies has always been the flawed human problems behind those icy facades. To that effect, Black Bag is clinical, alternating between snappy genre beats and more elusive, subtler complexities in ways just like its characters would themselves.

7/10. Closer to an 8 than a 6.

2025 Ranked

Watching a film from this era is generally an experience driven by historical curiosity and appreciation rooted in its cultural or artistic context. To a degree, the same largely holds true for Metropolis. But every so often, when the set pieces and sensibilities of 1920s German expressionism lead us to expect one thing, the film surprises with something entirely subversive and experimental - so much so that these sentiments still somehow come through a whole century later.

7/10.

This movie is a masterpiece. You will NOT be able to grasp the genius that is A Minecraft Movie unless you are a pro gamer like myself: someone with thousands of hours in Minecraft under their belt and hundreds of videos watched from esteemed content creators such as Dream, DanTDM, or Technoblade.

The scene where the villager goes on a date with Jennifer Coolidge? Cinema. The moment when General Chungus says "unalive and stuff"? Absolute, unadulterated, verified KINO. The full man sandwich Jack Black and Jason Momo pull off while going through a tunnel? Holy fuck. The level of artistry on display here is so high, it is dangerous. And, of course, the chicken jockey scene. Oh god the chicken jockey scene. We will not talk about the chicken jockey scene because it is so profound, so brilliant, that it's going to melt your brain if we dare unpack its mastery.

You can disagree with me, but if you have any understanding of how much thought, love, and care went into lines like "Flint and Steel", you will appreciate this movie. If you can fathom how intricate the automated chicken lava farm design is, you will appreciate this movie.

It is like Lawrence of Arabia meets Citizen Kane. The cinematic landscape will never be the same. I have become a better person after watching this movie. The world is now a better place because this movie exists.

2/10.

2025 Ranked

Watched on Monday April 14, 2025.

It has a sharp focus and a deluge of styles, and eventually evolves into something that's as obsessive as its main subject. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On captures a persona in Okuzaki that's as performative as it is revelatory of his deeper self. It's a character study of both sheer implausibility and the preordained, but, in the end, wins viewers over with charm and conviction: this is a man fighting a lonely battle, against his own demons as much as for the entire universe.

8/10. Closer to a 7 than a 9.

Mon Oncle's affinity for comedy is quickly overshadowed by its far more ionate inclination toward formalism. It's much more drawn to the presentation of an idea rather than the mechanism behind it (and the same, in turn, applies to its comedic sensibility as well). As a result, the film isn't particularly funny or profound, but rather aims at something purer in nature - a specific mood that captures its intended message with elegance rather than brute force.

7/10.

Watched on Saturday April 5, 2025.

Its venture into world-building is unfortunately lackluster: it seems to see itself as something inspired but, in reality, takes enough shortcuts that it becomes a derivative montages of the all-too-familiar.

But then again, the same type of willfully myopic, fast-tracked eagerness is exactly why Snowpiercer is surprisingly effective - it is, quite literally, a fast train that doesn't stop. This uncaring, video-game-esque forward momentum, where the protagonist hacks through an onslaught of sci-fi tropes and clumsy metaphors, sets out a sense of fun that's simplistic, but, above all, intuitive - much like Fury Road, only with fewer visual flairs and perhaps a tad more self consciousness. At that point, when the film becomes so explicit in proclaiming "we live in a society" while the main character receives a note that literally just says "train", no plot hole is glaring enough to ruin a film that never planned to be reasonable in the first place.

7/10.

2013 Ranked

Bong Ranked

It unfortunately adopts a brand of humor that's more grating than charming, oftentimes treating stories and characters as mere setups for certain musical numbers rather than the other way around. This is not to say that the set pieces or dance choreographies Singin' in the Rain works hard to introduce are unimpressive - they are as brilliantly executed as they come - but musicals, at their core, are a medium that expresses internalized conflicts through highly externalized performances, evoking emotions at the risk of challenging the basic premise of make-believe. In that regard, the film seems to have misplaced its priorities: individual scenes are entirely captivating on a technical level, yet when viewers ask why, they're met with a blank canvas of weak plotting and paper-thin characters, often in the hope that its lackluster comedy can fill the void left behind.

6/10. Closer to a 7 than a 5.

AFI 100 Ranked

Tabu has this strange quality where the more contrived its methods, the more spontaneous it feels. Its ever-escalating, wildly meditative, and detached formalism doesn't push the audience away but instead creates a unique sense of intimacy. Gomez is a filmmaker who converses through the implicit - ideas unspoken in between frames of allegories and poetry yet undeniably present - swinging between episodes of euphoric highs and melancholic lows; and somehow, more impressively, its penchant for intricate exercises in experimentalism, however flamboyant, never steals the spotlight from its tucked-away, tender, affecting heart.

8/10. Closer to a 9 than a 7.

2012 Ranked

If nothing else, Novocaine is aptly titled because it makes you feel absolutely nothing.

4/10.

2025 Ranked

It gets all too caught up in melodrama, with a 4 hour runtime that feels like 8 - an endless stream of overly sentimental slop cramming in so much plot yet barely any potency. Much of the camera work, sets and costumes are nonetheless excellent, and perhaps as a byproduct of its drawn-on pacing, the film has a strong grasp on the age of time. But to someone living in 2025, Gone with the Wind's most intriguing quality is, ironically, also its most controversial: its unbelievably skewed, time-capsule sensibility - one that invites a morbid curiosity about an era best left in the past.

6/10.

AFI 100 Ranked

Okja does not shy away from its crowd-pleasing core; this also means it fully recognizes the limits of its one-dimensionality, and whatever it may lack in ambition and thematic nuance, it makes up for in charm and pizazz. There's a bit of something for everyone in Okja, but it doesn't become a hodgepodge of loose ideas like many other auteur projects masquerading as blockbusters (or vice versa). At its most fundamental level, Okja's throughline remains crystal clear: it is a story of a kid fighting for her dream, only to realize the larger defeats hidden within her immediate victories.

7/10.

2017 Ranked

Demy constructs a candy-colored parallel universe of implausible coincidences - one of simultaneously low tensions and high stakes, built on exuberance and saturated romanticism. Yet, it exists with no real interest in the saccharine; rather, its world is fueled by a sense of optimism so intensely concentrated that, paradoxically, it taunts the melancholy lurking in the invisible cracks of those vibrant colors. Or perhaps The Young Girls in Rochefort has long transcended notions of theme or plot, living instead in pure viscerality, where much of its magic manifests in ways that are all but ineffable.

9/10. Closer to an 8 than a 10.

Watched on Saturday March 22, 2025.

Watching it, this entirely foreign setting - a seaside resort in 1950s - somehow feels exactly like being on vacation. It's not quite nostalgia, since I know next to nothing about vacations in 1950s . But something about Monsieur Hulot's Holiday - specifically its slapsticky, overly lit, breezy escapism - hints at the notion that to be on vacation is to escape. When Hulot turns the music all the way up to drown out the radio, he also sternly shuts out the world and the realism beneath it, which, for a film so structurally simplistic and pure, it has captures something so timeless and universal that many films have tried hard to replicate but never quite matched.

7/10. Closer to an 8 than a 6.

Watched on Saturday March 15, 2025.

It shifts effortlessly between its spy thriller aspects and comedic backbone, evolving into something rather distinct: amped-up, palpable stakes are reinforced by unexpected comedy, while, on the flip side, those same stakes make its inherently ridiculous premise even more absurd.

It may seem silly and full of antics, but To Be or Not to Be commands an incredibly clinical script. There's an almost impossible level of symmetry to its structure: it continually finds new ways to escalate, yet somehow always emerges unscathed and impressively balanced, all the while retaining its full ability to entertain.

8/10. Closer to a 7 than a 9.

It is nonetheless beautifully executed, and for a fleeting moment, its methods seem to have worked: these highly formalist, carefully framed shots constantly hint at something more between the lines and within their rhythms. Yet at the same time, the film never moves beyond this coyness, fueled by a strange sense of confidence that remains unfounded throughout. We could always use words like "poetic" or "meditative", but the truth is, First Cow says far less than it believes it does.

6/10. Closer to a 5 than a 7.

2019 Ranked

It hints at a specific flavor of realism where sorrow and misfortune is drowan out by the sound of moving traffic and the chatter of people who are here to stay - largely in the vein of the Dardennes, though with perhaps a few softer edges. Wendy and Lucy owes much of its effectiveness to the simplicity and small scale of its conflict, generating an idealistic sense of warmth in a world of hardship: a microcosm with no groundbreaking revelations, but none needed either.

7/10.

It stumbles upon a rather fascinating premise - an incredibly high-concept, snarky, poignant analogy that turns existential dread tangible while retaining all of its deeper aspects. The tone practically writes itself. However, for something like this to work, it needs to be compact, with sharp edges and symbolic notes that bite. Mickey 17 is the opposite of that: a giant, slow-moving colossus full of antics and stiff, obligatory sci-fi slop. It confuses tongue-in-cheek with obtuseness and unspecificity. Clumsy exposition and lukewarm character work amount to so impressively little thematic significance that the film loses more of its meaning the further it progresses. It makes pathetic, incoherent attempts at unraveling the conversation it initiates, plodding through its flat humor and slapstick obsession toward an ending sequence that's both screechingly unstructured and obviously test-screened to death.

There's still a bit of playfulness in Bong's direction, and Pattinson's performance has a physicality that makes its charm difficult to deny. But make no mistake - this is Bong skipping dinner and going straight to dessert, and given the context of its production, Mickey 17 indeed feels like the 17th iteration of itself, with each reprint stripping away more of its identity.

5/10. Closer to a 6 than a 4.

2025 Ranked

It steers a tender, deeply affecting character study that reflects on the days of past regrets and bygone glory, which is a definitive state of mind that transcends its immediate subject; yet, at the same time, set forth by Shepitko's stern but sentimental direction, Wings manifests in starlingly intimate ways at its least expected moments. 7/10. Closer to an 8 than a 6.

It benefits immensely from its smaller scale, and, as a result, walks a fine line between intimacy and solemnity - Shepitko has crafted a perfect blend for a religious film, yet, beyond the its metaphors and imagery, the Ascent shows little interest in religion. Instead, it repurposes these elements to create a grand sense of mythicism among its characters - so much so that their grounded, realist aspects begin to dissolve into something almost purely symbolic, which, on one hand, results in sublime, breathtaking visual feats, and, on the other, comes full circle, echoing its anti-war message in ways more harrowing than it ever could otherwise. 8/10.

A mostly beat by beat - if not overly constrained - adaptation of Camus' original work, which nonetheless retains much of its source material's fundamental quality. A moody, nihilistic piece that favors questions over answers. Yet it begs the question: if the lion's share of its staying power comes from the text anyway, what has Visconti brought to the table here besides some visually pleasing shots and clever blocking? Or perhaps, for a work as simultaneously dense yet singular as the Stranger, credit is due simply for maintaining a tone that allows the inferred to exist between the lines. 6/10. Closer to a 7 than an 8.

Finally finishing the last hour of the Brutalist, I feel compelled to rewrite - or at least revise - my previous review. That is not to say the many criticisms I had with the film no longer hold true. The Brutalist is still, unfortunately, not without excess - both narratively and thematically, but the final third does reach an unprecedented level, vastly elevating both its existing and newfound merits.

It turns feverishly symbolic in an instant, flipping the table completely, sprawling across a massive web of thematic ambition - one that oscillates between the euphoria of a false promise and the harsh withdrawal of an immigrant's reality. Under the guise of its 90s-style character epic tendencies, it unsheathes a character study that is immensely sharp and complex, paired with a display of power dynamics in the most classical sense. And only then do we realize, that the Brutalist isn't a character epic at all - it's the very antithesis of one, the bleak shadow that lingers beneath the genre's deceptive warm, uplifting optimism.

Toth is a paradox of a character. He sees himself as an artist, yet the very essence of his artistry - this urge for expression - feels like a mere facade, a desperate attempt to mask his complete lack of control over the forces shaping his life. Perhaps it was never art he was truly devoted to, but power. And yet, when he is eventually celebrated as this architectural maestro, he remains powerless - his work bastardized, his vision distorted, while he rots in silence, bound to a wheelchair.

It is ironic - poetic even - that Toth is ultimately oppressed by the very thing he created, this sad, lonely concrete behemoth that, in the end, becomes one with his ab. This is the metaphor the Brutalist draws much of its power from - a bait-and-switch of the dynamic between power and art, where at first one seems to corrupt the other, only to reveal the horrifying possibility that they might be one and the same. And maybe, as Zsofia said, it was never about the journey—only the destination. 8/10. Closer to a 9 than a 7.

2024 Ranked

It is entirely spontaneous, and affecting with an oversaturated sincerity. It's no surprise that How to make millions before grandma dies is an audience favorite - it's built to be one. However, more often than not, the film struggles to resist the urge to trade subtlety for sentimentality, or to play its saccharine music cues over its many designated emotional payoffs - not to the point that those moments become entirely ineffective, but enough to challenge its already limited sensibilities. Any attempt at narrative callbacks beyond its simple slice-of-life approach feels immediately clumsy and contrived.

All this heart-tugging legwork ultimately serves to highlight the film's deeper, more socially motivated aspects alongside its emotional core - though, unfortunately, none of those observations are particularly interesting either. 6/10. Closer to a 5 than a 7.

2024 Ranked

Watched on Thursday February 20, 2025.

In its approach, Nickel boys manages to juxtapose two things - the tender, intimate perspective brought by consistent POV shots, and the fickle, stream-of-consciousness scene blocking, where objects in the frame, light and shadow, dialogue, and audio cues are orchestrated with an implausible, poetic rhythm that teases the surreal. Ross plays a trick on us. These unreliable, dreamlike formalist choices are subtly turned into devices that blur the outlines of his characters, and, in one elaborate design, become the driving force behind the film's narrative conclusions.

The second act stagnates somewhat, as its appetite for form clashes with the source material's functionalist nature. But by then, we are already too enamored with Nickel Boys' visual allure to care about its structural shortcomings. 8/10.

2024 Ranked

It is the year 2025. We are still churning out tepid, inoffensive, superhero pseudo-spy-thriller, with 80-cut-per-minute action sequences - movies that manage to say as little as possible while plodding along a predetermined path. It doesn't even have enough edge to function as a propaganda film, and seems strangely proud of how much fluff it's able to dish out. The brave new world this film foreshadows is one where scripts like this can be entirely written by AI, and everyone listed in the screenwriting credits should think really hard about that. 4/10.

Marvel Ranked

2025 Ranked

Its largely free-flowing narrative pattern is delightful to follow, and there's some incredible scenery along the way - much of it reminiscent of the flair of a Team Ico/Fumito Ueda game. That being said, as enjoyable as Flow is, it's difficult to ignore the many artifacts it inherits from its tooling. The way light reflects off of surfaces, the animations painfully cut and pasted onto low poly models, which is especially true for the dogs, and the overly simplistic toon shaders, are all fine in the name of artistic license - as long as they looks good.

They don't.

Flow was made with Blender, and, unfortunately, it looks like it was made with Blender too. It remains serviceable in all ways it intends to be, but style can only takes a work so far before the loose ends become too distracting. 6/10.

2024 Ranked

For something that relies heavily on tone and atmosphere, I saw the TV glow, for all its efforts, doesn't seem to have enough juice in its visuals to justify its overly formalist, faux-esoteric aura. It feels akin to a 15-year-old's attempt at Lynchian writing - half-chewed and misguidedly academic in its triviality, and no matter how appealing the underlying analogy may be, it never quite earns the weight it claims to possess.

The film's best moments come in its looser beats, when it simply indulges in its 90s, analog-fueled dreamscape, laced with a fun dose of existentialist withdrawal, which it has neither the confidence nor the self-awareness to capitalize on. 5/10. Closer to a 6 than a 4.

2024 Ranked

The film draws heavily from its high concept and innate zest, which is enough to intrigue but not enough to generate the specificity needed to match its confidence. Perhaps it's unrealistic - off the mark, even - to expect Dahomey to provide any answers when it only seeks to ask questions: it makes excellent observational choices - something I always appreciate in documentaries that take time to refine their approach rather than becoming consumed by the subject matter - and their de facto impact is, to much of the film's credit, as harrowing as it is hopeful. 7/10. Closer to a 6 than an 8.

2024 Ranked

Watched on Sunday February 9, 2025.

Watched on Sunday February 9, 2025.

Watched on Sunday February 9, 2025.

Movies I saw that are good, ranked.

1. The Master
2. Yi Yi
3. Her
4. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
5. 8½
6. A Clockwork Orange
7. There Will Be Blood
8. Persona
9. The Lighthouse
10. I Am Love

...plus 149 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My ranking, not AFI's
Everything I haven't seen is removed for now

1. A Clockwork Orange
2. Pulp Fiction
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
4. 12 Angry Men
5. Do the Right Thing
6. Casablanca
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
8. Cabaret
9. Apocalypse Now
10. Rear Window

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

1. The Lighthouse
2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
3. Parasite
4. Uncut Gems
5. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
6. Sibyl
7. The Irishman
8. Marriage Story
9. Pain and Glory
10. Jojo Rabbit

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. All We Imagine as Light
2. Grand Tour
3. The Substance
4. The Brutalist
5. Anora
6. Nickel Boys
7. The Girl with the Needle
8. Challengers
9. Kinds of Kindness
10. A Different Man

...plus 50 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Warfare
• Black Bag
• Sinners
• Mickey 17
• Novocaine
• Captain America: Brave New World
• A Minecraft Movie

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

1. Phantom Thread
2. Blade Runner 2049
3. mother!
4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
5. The Florida Project
6. Call Me by Your Name
7. You Were Never Really Here
8. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
9. Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
10. Good Time

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Die My Love
• Alpha
• One Battle After Another
• The Phoenician Scheme
• Bugonia
• The Mastermind
• Eddington
• No Other Choice
• The Running Man
• The Way of the Wind

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Reservoir Dogs
2. The Hateful Eight
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
5. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
6. Inglourious Basterds
7. Jackie Brown
8. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
9. Django Unchained

• Madame Web
• Megalopolis
• Catwoman
• Cloud Atlas
• Lucy
• Fateful Findings
• Twisted Pair
• Cade: The Tortured Crossing
• The Room
• Space Jam: A New Legacy

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

• Uglies
• Twisted Pair
• Twilight
• The Twilight Saga: New Moon
• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2
• African American Psycho: The Hip Hop Freak
• Rice Girl
• Baby Invasion

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

1. Parasite
2. Memories of Murder
3. Snowpiercer
4. Okja
5. Mickey 17

1. Her
2. Under the Skin
3. The World's End
4. The Grandmaster
5. Snowpiercer
6. A Touch of Sin
7. Pacific Rim
8. New World
9. Star Trek Into Darkness
10. Gravity

...plus 26 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Master
2. The Act of Killing
3. Tabu
4. The Hunt
5. Amour
6. s Ha
7. Lincoln
8. Django Unchained
9. Moonrise Kingdom
10. The Dark Knight Rises

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Marvel movies good to bad

1. Avengers: Infinity War
2. Thor: Ragnarok
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Spider-Man: No Way Home
5. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
8. Avengers: Endgame
9. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
10. Captain America: Civil War

...plus 26 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

DC movies raned post Nolan era

1. The Suicide Squad
2. The Batman
3. Joker
4. Shazam!
5. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
6. Aquaman
7. Man of Steel
8. Zack Snyder's Justice League
9. Wonder Woman
10. Joker: Folie à Deux

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

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

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once
2. The Banshees of Inisherin
3. TÁR
4. BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
5. Triangle of Sadness
6. Leonor Will Never Die
7. The Whale
8. Vortex
9. Aftersun
10. Sick of Myself

...plus 51 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

2021 movies ranked good to bad, not all the movies, just the ones I saw

1. Red Rocket
2. Titane
3. Licorice Pizza
4. Last and First Men
5. Spencer
6. C'mon C'mon
7. Dune
8. Petite Maman
9. The Hand of God
10. The Tragedy of Macbeth

...plus 35 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Alien
2. Alien Resurrection
3. Prometheus
4. Aliens
5. Alien: Romulus
6. Alien³
7. Alien: Covenant

1. Poor Things
2. The Zone of Interest
3. Beau Is Afraid
4. La Chimera
5. El Conde
6. Dream Scenario
7. Saltburn
8. About Dry Grasses
9. Anselm
10. Past Lives

...plus 55 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Hateful Eight
• Embrace of the Serpent
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• Kaili Blues
• The Witch
• Tangerine
• Anomalisa
• The Lobster
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• The Assassin

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

1. All We Imagine as Light
2. Grand Tour
3. The Substance
4. Anora
5. Queer
6. Emilia Pérez
7. They Will Be Dust
8. By the Stream
9. The End
10. Else

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. I Am Love
2. Call Me by Your Name
3. Challengers
4. Queer
5. Suspiria
6. Bones and All

1. Under the Silver Lake
2. An Elephant Sitting Still
3. Burning
4. Climax
5. Roma
6. Shoplifters
7. The Favourite
8. Happy as Lazzaro
9. Hereditary
10. Thunder Road

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2. Whiplash
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Inherent Vice
5. Nightcrawler
6. The Lego Movie
7. Gone Girl
8. Black Coal, Thin Ice
9. Ex Machina
10. Guardians of the Galaxy

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Red Rocket
2. The Florida Project
3. Anora
4. Tangerine
5. Take Out

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Rushmore
3. The French Dispatch
4. The Darjeeling Limited
5. Asteroid City
6. Moonrise Kingdom
7. The Royal Tenenbaums

1. Anora
2. The End
3. All We Imagine as Light
4. The Substance
5. Emilia Pérez
6. Caught by the Tides
7. Heretic
8. The Shrouds
9. Cloud
10. An Unfinished Film

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

• I Am Love
• Enter the Void
• Brüno
• Inglourious Basterds
• Thirst
• District 9
• The Hangover
• Avatar
• Sherlock Holmes
• Star Trek

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

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin
2. The Turin Horse
3. Drive
4. Midnight in Paris
5. The Cabin in the Woods
6. The Raid
7. X-Men: First Class
8. The Adventures of Tintin
9. Source Code
10. The Hangover Part II

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

1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Incendies
3. Dune: Part Two
4. Dune
5. Arrival

• Yi Yi
• A Brighter Summer Day
• Terrorizers
• Mahjong

1. Biutiful
2. Black Swan
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
4. Incendies
5. Inception
6. Toy Story 3
7. The King's Speech
8. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
9. Let the Bullets Fly
10. Shutter Island

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

1. The Zone of Interest
2. La Chimera
3. Anatomy of a Fall
4. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
5. How to Have Sex
6. Seven Veils
7. The Peasants
8. The Holdovers
9. Memory
10. I Told You So

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

1. Persona
2. Autumn Sonata
3. Fanny and Alexander
4. Cries and Whispers
5. Through a Glass Darkly
6. Wild Strawberries
7. To Joy
8. Summer with Monika
9. The Seventh Seal

1. The Zone of Interest
2. Dream Scenario
3. The Holdovers
4. Hit Man
5. La Chimera
6. How to Have Sex
7. Anatomy of a Fall
8. Memory
9. Monster
10. The Peasants

...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Marriage Story
2. s Ha
3. White Noise
4. The Squid and the Whale

1. The Piano Teacher
2. Amour
3. Happy End

1. Rashomon
2. Yojimbo
3. Ikiru
4. Seven Samurai
5. Sanjuro

1. Requiem for a Dream
2. mother!
3. The Wrestler
4. Black Swan
5. Pi
6. The Whale

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

1. Moonlight
2. Rat Film
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. Raw
5. After the Storm
6. Nocturnal Animals
7. Arrival
8. La La Land
9. The Handmaiden
10. Deadpool

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Y Tu Mamá También
2. Roma
3. Children of Men
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
5. Gravity

1. The Climb
2. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
3. Sound of Metal
4. The Father
5. Mank
6. The Wolf of Snow Hollow
7. Pieces of a Woman
8. Nomadland
9. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
10. Hand Rolled Cigarette

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

The only important film festival on earth

1. The Web

1. Hot Fuzz
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
3. Baby Driver
4. Shaun of the Dead
5. The World's End
6. Last Night in Soho