n8_m_nguyen Pro

Favorite films

  • The Wailing
  • Parasite
  • A Bittersweet Life
  • Burning

All
  • The Phoenician Scheme

    ★★★½

  • Ballerina

    ★★★

  • Bedevilled

    ★★★★

  • Bring Her Back

    ★★★½

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Thunderbolts*

2025

★★★½ Liked Watched

In a post-Endgame era where the movies have diminished in quality with the storytelling, and resort to CGI explosion fests in the third act, Thunderbolts dares to be different and subverts expectations by flipping the script. It puts real effort into its characters and tackles the conflict in the third act from a psychological angle instead of CGI action sequences. It feels like a two-hour therapy session on loneliness, depression, and existential nihilism, in a good way. It’s not your…

Ne Zha 2

2025

★★★★★ Liked Watched

There was so much hyperbolic praise around Ne Zha 2 that I figured there was no way it could live up to the hype. But imagine my face, jaw wide open, when it actually did. A completely mysterious animated production from China I had never even heard of suddenly became impossible to ignore due to the word-of-mouth, the box office records, the sheer phenomenon of it all. And now I can confidently say I haven’t seen an animated film this…

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The Phoenician Scheme

2025

★★★½ Liked Watched

Is this a return to form for Wes Anderson? Sort of, but your mileage may vary. It depends on if you like the charming, heartfelt, whimsical Wes Anderson, or the... "Asteroid City" Wes Anderson, which bordered on self-parody and which I found so artsy, pretentious and incomprehensible. The Phoenician Scheme is a lot more straightforward and approachable with its plot. Which is to say, I had a blast and it comes as close as it could to recapturing Anderson' glory…

Ballerina

2025

★★★ Liked Watched

How does a spin-off film in the John Wick universe fare in of the action? The action's fantastic! *pretends to be shocked
However, the script doesn't hold a candle to any of the mainline John Wick films, not that the John Wick movies have ever had deep plots or character. But Ballerina is absurdly shallow and generic with its script and how it handles its already existing characters that we know from the previous films. It definitely feels like…

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One Life

2023

★★★ Watched

TIFF 2023

It felt like Oscar bait. Basically a watered down Schindler's List. The execution is ordinary. The film itself is formulaic and leans hard into sentimentality, though it did make the audience tear up. Anthony Hopkins shines, as usual, with a devastating performance. But what truly made it special was the TIFF premiere with a deeply emotional crowd who sobbed at the end. Even real life Jewish survivors from the Kindertransport rescue operation in Prague that the film depicted, revealed themselves to be in the audience, to which we warmly greeted and applauded. The movie might be forgettable, but that TIFF experience was something else.

Fingernails

2023

★★★ Watched

TIFF 2023

Under the hands of a more experienced director, I actually think this sci-fi romance drama could have potentially been a 9/10 or 10/10. Because the concept is actually inventive and intriguing, essentially functioning as a critique on relationship matchmaking and dating in the modern era. It just fumbles due to poor writing, not taking the idea deeper, and then the third act I'm kind of lukewarm on.
NSFW warning: If you're squeamish towards fingernail-pulling, avoid this movie altogether.