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Watched on Tuesday May 13, 2025.

A rewatch of one of my 4Fs. 

Still five stars, still a work of genius.  As fantastical as the world Miller conjures  is, it’s  utterly believable partly because the actors are so convincing as these outlandish creations, especially all the various actors  in the background like the War Boys.

Famously they spent swaths of time  together while various parts of the production came together, and I think that shows through, there’s a kind of culture that is on film that could not have been able to be generated any other way. If there was an Oscar for extras, this would win.

Another movie that comes to mind watching this is Sorcerer, another famously difficult and grueling physical production. That film has the same kind of riveting physicality  that comes from actually staging something so crazy and those  high stakes are a huge part of the drama of what  we are watching.

 As AI generated fx becomes even more ascendant within the industry these already rare  instances of of super intense physical productions will become rarer still. Fury Road may stand as the apotheosis of this kind of film before their  terminal decline.

It’s crazy to think this movie is 25 years old. It’s so wildly ahead of its time.

Watched on Tuesday July 2, 2024.

Watched on Friday June 14, 2024.

It’s kind of inevitable that you sit down expecting that same level of insanity as Fury Road, but this  is a different movie,  a slower burn and more conventionally structured, but set in the same astounding world.  It's a character study, not a car chase.

No one can match Charlize’s Furiosa, , but Taylor-Joy’s eyes are their own kind of practical special effect. 

Is it as utterly amazing as Fury Road? No it’s not. But that is too high a bar. Four stars.

#unitedair

Cannes 2024 second film watched

Cannes 2024 first film

Rosebud.

The first part of the movie had some Life of Brian moments.

Watched on Monday April 1, 2024.

I could have ridden the trail with Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges, gorgeously illuminated by Roger Deakins for hours more.

The starlit, near wordless final scene with the two of them is bursting with tenderness, heartbreak, tragedy and humanity. Fucking Cinema. It took my breath away.

The Coen’s movies are so damn entertaining it’s sometime easy to miss that they, and their collaborators, are master film makers.

Very relatable

Tilda is an absolute force of nature. The film was original and clever.

Wow.

If you break down the plot, you've actually seen the basic contours before many times, so this is a cinematic trimuph of the how over the what.

Seeing it again soon,

Berlin Film Fest film #1

Past Lives/The Abyss

A delightful movie about aging that is beautifully underplayed against the inherent weirdness of the plot.

I haven’t watched this movie in 40 years (To think I’m old enough to write that sentence) And although I ed the film fondly, it’s so much better than I thought it was.

The film is kind of an update on The Day The Earth Stood Still. But where that film was a sort of didactic exercise in putting the human race in its cosmic context, this film tugs on all the heartstrings.

Thanks to an amazing, luminous and mournful performance by Karen Allen It all works so much better than you think it would. The last shot on her radiant face bathed in an unearthly light is lovely.

John Carpenter’s most un John Carpenter film.

Kind of a perfect, if inadvertent, double feature paired with last nights rewatch of Groundhog Day. Both movies use a science fiction concept to explore how a life of meaning can be achieved through simple virtues.

The film is a profound depiction of a person who learns how to live through a series of failures that ultimately lead to a Stoic (in the philosophical sense) acceptance of limitations and a serene embrace of what is possible.

Anchored by Bill Murray’s indelible performance, the humor makes the wisdom of the script relatable and profound.

This movie is kind of a one off. I can’t think of another film like it.

Andrew Haigh you bastard. That was unfairly moving. And also in these days of bloated run time, this film was the perfect length and every scene was like the cut of a scalpel,

This combines the mundane with the horrific in a way that is truly chilling.

And the sounds, a steady drumbeat of muffled atrocities that is another off screen character in almost every scene.

Grazer has also layered in, and I mean this absolutely in a good way, some artistic touches that are relatively subtle but powerfully communicate his point of view. These are evil people in a diseased society. Our fellow humans.

This movie tried to do a lot of things. It was a crtitique of capitalism, a deconstruction of the nuclear family and an observation of the human condition.

It just liked how weird it was.

Also giving it extra points for a brief but compelling scene from one of my favorite actors, William Jackson Harper.

SD film #5. Who knew the most important and timely film at Sundance 2024 would be about a band from the 70s. Breaking my rule about not rating films I see at Sundance. Someone buy this film and take it to the people!

SD film #4 This was a film maker with a lot to say and share. It def. felt like a slice of a real life.

SD film #3 I enjoyed this film a lot. You know those horror movies where you’re silently exhorting the character not to go into the basement and it cranks up the tension because you just know that is where she is going ? There were a lot of moments like that in this film where I was like “just say something man” But my own 13-year-old self was the same way.

SD movie #2 was bookened by 2 fantastic scenes. To name something is an act or power, love and hope.

SD movie #1 continues my love of all things Irish.

In the words of Commander Quincy Taggart: “Never give up - never surrender!”

Kind of juvenile I know but it’s fun to see Gandhi cursing everyone out and smacking them around.

Watched on Friday January 5, 2024.

Rewatched for the gazillionth time. The film is so well constructed, and every moment propels the film relentlessly forward.

There are many moments that still utterly chill and somehow there is a little joking in there as well.

Michael Biehn is so freaking intense as Kyle Reese, the product of a lifetime of pain and fear. That one quick smile he's allowed in the film after the only tender moment in his life is sort of heartbreaking.

Watched on Monday December 25, 2023.

Watched on Monday December 25, 2023.

I don’t think you need all this disorienting camera and editing technique to portray the inner state of people who are clearly disoriented. Also if you live in NYC you know this is a geographical impossibility. I did, however, add an excellent Kool and the Gang song from the soundtrack to my playlist.

KInd of Wes Anderson for grown ups. Emma is absolutely fantastic. Also the only movie I've ever liked Mark Ruffalo in.

Watched on Thursday December 14, 2023.

This film really gets Godzilla. A Godzilla film should never wink at the audience. He should never be a hero, but he’s something other than just a villain.

What makes this an excellent Godzilla film is that it’s not really about Godzilla.
But when the big guy does show up, it’s pretty riveting.

This film was very entertaining, starting as a sly comedy But then it takes a turn, in a very agile way, without changing its tone at all. Very few films pull it off like that.

Adroit filmmaking, with a really good script and a terrific performance by Cage.

Mood

My 12 year old son loved this movie and said it was one of his all time favorites, so I defer to his judgment.

I quite liked this movie and how the tension and stakes just keep ratcheting up. The actors are all excellent and the lead, Chris Galust is fantastic. He has a soliloquy that’s actually kind of heartbreaking.

This opening shot is complete misdirection; the movie evolves into something different than what you think it’s going to be and it’s a much more universal story - and a genuinely moving one - than just a horror movie.

Stay with this one to the last shot.

Four star production of a two star script.

An important story and well made.

Possibly Paul Giamatti’s best performance. Yes, I said it.

Very funny yet leavened with a sense that life does not owe us a Hollywood ending.

Watched on Sunday October 1, 2023.

4 stars for Glen Powell being an absolute hoot. He has a co writing credit as well. Richard Linklater makes yet another sly and entertaining film.

Watched on Saturday September 16, 2023.

Epic and entertaining. The casting was tremendous and the actors all brought their A game so that’s what I was focusing on. But I feel like there was so much more going on that I came out of this movie immediately wanting to watch it again.

• Leave One Day
• Romería
• Sentimental Value
• Exit 8
• Pillion
• Alpha
• Sound of Falling
• A Simple Accident
• Militantropos
• The Love That Remains

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

• MaXXXine
• Longlegs

• Bird
• Wild Diamond
• The Girl with the Needle
• Kinds of Kindness
• Oh, Canada
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• The Shrouds
• Anora
• The Substance
• Emilia Pérez

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

The Sundance Film Festival is back this year in-person and online from January 19–29. We’ve studied the lineup and tapped our sources to collate a preview of fifteen new films and fresh voices the Festiville crew are most eager to hear from. Read more about our pics on Journal, and follow Sundance’s HQ on Letterboxd.

• Magazine Dreams
• Polite Society
• You Hurt My Feelings
• Infinity Pool
• Eileen
• Cassandro
• Fancy Dance
• The Tuba Thieves
• Rye Lane
• Theater Camp

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• A Thousand and One
• Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
• Scrapper
• Beyond Utopia
• The Persian Version
• Shayda
• 20 Days in Mariupol
• Kokomo City
• Radical

• Earth Mama
• Past Lives

1. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
2. Fire of Love
3. Navalny
4. A House Made of Splinters
5. All That Breathes

1. Argentina 1985
2. The Quiet Girl
3. Close
4. All Quiet on the Western Front
5. EO

• Brother and Sister
• The Eight Mountains
• Tchaikovsky's Wife
• Forever Young
• Triangle of Sadness
• Holy Spider
• Decision to Leave
• R.M.N.
• Tori and Lokita
• Armageddon Time

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Eiffel
2. Benediction
3. Lost Illusions

• Top Gun
• Top Gun: Maverick

• Acidman
• American Dreamer
• Corner Office
• The Drop
• The Integrity of Joseph Chambers
• Next Exit
• Rudy! A Documusical
• Somewhere in Queens
• Space Oddity

Food and movies go together like Batman and Robin......

• Tampopo

  It's all about the ramen: www.grubhub.com/delivery/cuisine/ramen

• Babette's Feast

  dish of stuffed quails in puff pastry called cailles en sarcophage:
  cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/5670-babettes-cailles-en-sarcophage

• Good Burger

  What's better than Burgers?! : www.grubhub.com/delivery/dish/burgers

• Big Night

  Nest best thing to being in Italy: www.grubhub.com/delivery/cuisine/italian

Yeah a lot of these are in tanks and submarines.

• The Hunt for Red October
• Das Boot
• Cube
• Gravity
• Panic Room
• The Descent