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“The world is God’s hiding place.”

Ferrara’s digitally dominated dystopia where the only thing we have left is our obsession for the internet’s endless cascade of images. Paranoia and fascism grained into its own cameras, our cameras and the actors cameras. We have no choice but to film everything. Terrific stuff.

“We live three times as long since man invented movies.” 

Glad everyone seems to be in a collective agreement that this is possibly film of the century.

Watched on Tuesday May 27, 2025.

“Sorry baby, I tried the best I could. Honest.”

Love the lived-in feel it brings to its sci-fi world. Something very touching about its decrepit environment and the limited spaces it places our characters. Unfortunately, its dealings with all sorts of paternal and maternal questions in a not so distant future, seem washed out by its sea of unfortunately placed hysterics found within its peculiarity. 

They slowly form into competence by its closing minutes. However, the way the whole ordeal is mannered, it struggles to form many compelling resemblances of erotic and parental nuances, amidst a world which can’t muster the word ‘life’. Limited in its own oddities. Not bad.

Images reflected straight from the gates of heaven. About as singular as a visionary fantasy film has ever been. What a sight to behold.

Propaganda I’m not falling for: this is a good movie .

Love the scene where Martin Sheen goes fishing, only to give up halfway through and just start shooting at the water. Some of the greatest movie clouds there is. A Malick picture. Kino.

Watched on Saturday May 24, 2025.

“Are you men or mice? You should be liars!”

I’m not one to obsess over the Wes symmetry that many have grown to love. Its exceptions are those which are complimented by his images on display and those that have genuine heart. Something like Asteroid city possessed both, but frequently his directional motifs become more of an obsessive chore.

Whilst carried along wistfully by the ever funny Michael Cera, I couldn’t help but feel Wes had overstepped his symmetrical luck on this one. Its direction frequently poses to be more of a bug than that of any compositional advantage. It lacks a narrative spark, whilst shaping his direction around nothing at points; almost to the point of doing it for the sake of things. 

Despite its fairly futile directional efforts, and never truly becoming the sum of its parts, its scene to scene disposition is at times hilarious. Stupid one liners frequently finding themselves hitting, providing this film with a much needed sense of place and necessity. Too bad they’re few and far between. It’s just fine.

Could do with some more humping if we’re being honest.

“I know a guy who was dyslexic but cross eyed, so everything came out right.”

Empathy as an endless blockade of one way mirrors. Self acceptance blinded by the lurking grief that not everyone chooses to acknowledge, even though it’s right there in front of them. Talk about a final shot. Felt like I’ve been hit by a tonne of bricks. Speechless really. 

Those heavily digital, home video retrospective images are conceived with such potent intent. Egoyan has seemed to master that; and there’s only like a couple shots of it.

“Being an artist is solitary, but if you’re ionate about it, it’s worth it.”

Watched on Sunday May 18, 2025.

I love movies so much man.

Sexy split diopter. You guys really seem to love this one though huh.

For better or for worse, the Mission: Impossible franchise is something that has never felt stylistically intact. From the highs of De Palma’s classic, to the lows of Abrams’ shoddy Tony Scott impersonation, it is a collection of films heralded by one of action’s most iconic but yet all of them feel their own. Even with Christopher McQuarrie taking over the reins for the back half of the franchise, his eye shifts from film to film. However, there is something weirdly defective nestled into its penultimate outing, Dead Reckoning, that never fully weakens the foundations of the film. The Final Reckoning, however, is a disappointing misfire, bringing to light all of the nestled defects of the previous outing and caving into all of the franchise’s worst and occasionally best tendencies. 

McQuarrie's directional efforts peaked with his franchise opener of Rogue Nation, one of the best of the lot. It’s set pieces and striking compositions, a breath of fresh air coming off the back of 3 and 4, but yet as he’s tried to keep this franchise running, his efforts behind the camera have fallen to superfluous Dutch angles and egregiously excessive talking heads, put together by an editor who's trigger-happy for that cut button. Standing at a tall 170 minutes, notably a franchise record, The Final Reckoning spends its entire first act, roughly 75 minutes in length, dedicated to delivering endless expository dialogue. Dead Reckoning had moments of this, but never to this extent. Don’t worry if you didn’t rewatch any of the franchise beforehand, it makes damn well sure you know every nitpick that happens in most of the previous films! When you think it couldn’t get any worse, it does. I’m talking continuous flashbacks to futile moments, forcing the viewer to be dragged along by an inert hand that has zero interest in moving its narrative forward. Its entire opening act could be cut from the film, and we’d just about end up with the same film.

CLICK HERE FOR MY FULL REVIEW 

Watched on Wednesday May 14, 2025.

It’s tough to put into words just how miraculous this film, and Jia’s entire career in which it encomes, really is. Silence has never been so painfully loud. Wow, wow, wow.

To see two contemporary, trauma centred ideations back-to-back, both of which project images of refreshing intent, is a joy to see. JCS directs the absolute hell out of this. His compositions linger and grasp onto you, whilst the lighting pierces its way through resulting in some stunningly lit faces. There is nothing stale about his direction. A film with no memorable shots is a lost cause. We need to stop with this referring to studios as directors. Giving Blumhouse the A24 treatment. Put some respect on JCS’ name. Shock of the year.

Trauma as a thematic and narrative propelling choice, is commonly misconstrued and poorly visualised across contemporary film, but what Atom does here feels reinvigorated. 

His images are deeply layered through visual barriers from shadows to reflections even digital grain. Monologues unable to resemble its sense of reality, whilst moving far beyond the regular visualisations of lasting anguish. 

Love the way he frames and nuances a slight tech themed subtext into its story. The unlawful level of success achieved through violence shot in digital photography is fascinating. I’m tired of cheaply reflected trauma screenplays as much as the next person, but when its images actually resemble further than is being spoken about, then we can get somewhere. Really good stuff.

Federico Fellini from Wish. Was there something I missed? The motion picture definition of banal.

“I’m communist, I don’t drink coca cola.”

Knew this was an all timer when the words “this is a place to get laid” were immediately followed by a ‘House of the Rising Sun’ needle drop.

Tony Todd has got screen presence to last an eternity. RIP legend.

Tony Todd has got insane aura.

Its runtime is a little bloated, and its first half lacks the MI momentum propelling it forward, but everything beginning with and after Venice is absolutely riveting. Properly finds its gear. The way it’s exposition is delivered is hilarious.

This review may contain spoilers.

#CancelBenWillis

Kelly Reichardt’s Badlands

Stupid, stupid, stupid film.

Felt this on a million different levels in every fibre of my body. Blessed to have a filmmaker like Reichardt operating on such a divine level. One of our best.

LONG LIVE ROCK AND ROLL BABY

Doesn’t come as a surprise that one of the best working filmmakers made a really fantastic film, but I hadn’t felt this continually stressed whilst watching a film in some time. Eco-politics drenched in a bleak coat of internal, humane conflicts. 

Its environmentalist side is almost drowned come the second half, and I don’t even mean that in a bad way. This reality of environmental activism is achieved by our characters blindness to its eventual cause and it only leaves them in the wake. What a score too. Stellar.

“Don’t touch this fuckers blood, it’ll contaminate us.”

Uncontrollable nihilism. Nothing but blood, death and malice coming out of every single breath. Does Serra even know how dooming this whole thing is? I don’t even know, but it conveys this micro-sector of Spanish culture in a somewhat fascist light. Its lack of sympathy is totally unreserved, and it works perfectly. Anything that puts up a fight is an enemy.

“You killed those two bulls so truthfully. Absolute truth.”

It’s boiling with unchecked authority and a camera that refuses to pan to an audibly relevant audience, such is the ignorance of its focus. Serra knows he can’t control the actions of the image, but he can control the music and its eyes. Completely captivating in its refusal to guide a single frame away from its fixations. Brutally unswerving. Such direct, objective vision.

Nice little surprise

French colonialism through the lens of a surreal parasite. Right up my alley. New addition to the ‘every frames a painting’ collection. One of the decades finest.

Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

Everyone in this film is just shooting, and when they’re not doing that, they’re jumping.

This is what I live for.

"Horses can't fly."
"Why do you think that?"
"I've never seen a horse fly, have you?"

Dea Kulumbegashvili has created some of the most potent images in this decade thus far. Deeply unnerving slow cinema.

You guys will put up with anything. A film that spends most of its time continually dumping contrived emotions, only to try and salvage the remains by becoming a parody of itself. Last act is at least watchable - you don’t have to put up with sorry trauma backstories that they in turn make fun of. Instead it actually forms something that isn’t totally incompetent. Nothing worse than a film having to remind you it has obligations to the MCU.

"The field is staying, they're just going to put a bunch of bricks on top of it."

Baseball as a myth fading out of time from these men and the country it inhabits. It's like watching a fable spanning eons, all detailed in just over 95 minutes. Struck me deeply - those who've seen it all come and go, and those who've hardly seen anything, many wanting this game in particular to end, but not what it sits on.

Nothing exists outside of its space, only surrounded by autumn trees and a lost wilderness. The words "that's a nice cloud" nearly brought a tear to my eye.

"Is there anything more beautiful than a fat man stealing second base?"

Rooted in its country's history in tandem with baseball's cinematic journey. Hit me deeper than I ever expected it to, then again, how can you not be romantic about baseball? Wow.

Watched on Tuesday April 29, 2025.

“Some of us can’t afford to be romantic.”

Such richly textured landscapes of nonexistent love that forces those genuine feelings to shine through. Unfortunately, those genuine feelings are nearly as lost as its counter part. Solid stuff, nothing more.

Watched on Monday April 28, 2025.

Got to be the saddest bank robbery in cinematic history.

Democracy is just a resealable label they use at their own disposable. Fear controls all. Stunning muted photography.

“Manchester United… fuckin’ team, I got screwed. Their goddamn goalkeeper sucked.”

20 years and things still haven’t changed lmao. This guy is too good to be true.

Watched on Sunday April 27, 2025.

Life and death, one after the other, back and forth, potent images that so harshly juxtapose any shot that precedes it. Places the firmly, and bravely signalled pro-abortion stance onto the shoulders of one woman who, even in a vast Georgian landscape, can’t escape the patriarchal annihilation that dominates her countries laws. 

Cuts that unsettle and disturb the picturesque skies and fields. Implicit and explicit depth filled compositions; actions just out of sight censored by the world around it. So internal to its protagonist whilst able to reflect its nations inhumane horrors. Constantly looking inward despite frequently shifting perspectives. Deeply unnerving.

Images as flat as a pancake filled with nothing to fulfil its faintly trauma centred narrative. Nor is there anything to signal a competent sense of direction. Welcome to your average studio horror film in the 2020s. Oh brother this stinks.

• One Battle After Another
• The Mastermind
• Resurrection
• Alpha
• No Other Choice
• Avatar: Fire and Ash
• The Shrouds
• Highest 2 Lowest
• Nouvelle Vague
• Die My Love

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Blow Out
2. Carlito's Way
3. Phantom of the Paradise
4. Mission: Impossible
5. Body Double
6. Snake Eyes
7. Carrie
8. Dressed to Kill
9. The Untouchables
10. Casualties of War

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

All films that I would consider an all time favourite ordered by release year

• Napoleon
• Metropolis
• Bride of Frankenstein
• Meshes of the Afternoon
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Black Narcissus
• Gun Crazy
• Sunset Boulevard
• Singin' in the Rain
• Rear Window

...plus 132 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Caught by the Tides
2. Eephus
3. Cloud
4. April
5. Seven Veils
6. Afternoons of Solitude
7. Sinners
8. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
9. Happyend
10. Black Bag

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

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Shaun of the Dead
• Hot Fuzz
• The World's End
• Get Out
• Us
• Nope
• La La Land

...plus 180 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Mission: Impossible
2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
3. Mission: Impossible II
4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
5. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
6. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
7. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
8. Mission: Impossible III

1. A Touch of Sin
2. Caught by the Tides
3. Still Life
4. Mountains May Depart
5. Unknown Pleasures
6. Ash Is Purest White

1. Certain Women
2. First Cow
3. Showing Up
4. Meek's Cutoff
5. Night Moves
6. Wendy and Lucy
7. Old Joy
8. River of Grass

1. Nickel Boys
2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
3. Challengers
4. The Beast
5. Evil Does Not Exist
6. Close Your Eyes
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
8. Queer
9. I Saw the TV Glow
10. Megalopolis

...plus 114 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Exiled
2. Triad Election
3. The Mission
4. Throw Down
5. Election

1. Heat
2. Miami Vice
3. Thief
4. The Insider
5. Blackhat
6. Manhunter
7. Ferrari
8. Collateral
9. Ali
10. Public Enemies

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

1. sex, lies, and videotape
2. Ocean's Eleven
3. Solaris
4. Erin Brockovich
5. Logan Lucky
6. Black Bag
7. Presence
8. Ocean's Twelve
9. Side Effects
10. Kimi

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

The greatest there ever was and the greatest there ever will be.

1. Lost Highway

   
   

2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

   
   

3. Twin Peaks: The Return
4. Mulholland Drive

   
   

5. Inland Empire

   
   

6. Blue Velvet

   
   

7. Twin Peaks
8. Eraserhead

   
   

9. The Elephant Man

   
   

10. Wild at Heart

    
    

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

1. Memories of Murder
2. Mother
3. The Host
4. Okja
5. Snowpiercer
6. Parasite
7. Mickey 17

• Tokyo Drifter
• Taste of Cherry
• The Cranes Are Flying
• Solaris
• Yi Yi
• The Thin Red Line
• Blow Out
• 12 Angry Men
• Eraserhead
• La Dolce Vita

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

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

1. Cure
2. Tokyo Sonata
3. Pulse
4. Retribution
5. Cloud
6. Chime
7. Creepy
8. Charisma

My favourite watch of each month!

• Altered States
• Song to Song
• The White Ribbon
• Fitzcarraldo
• La Jetée
• Demons
• 2046
• Napoleon
• Underground
• All the Vermeers in New York

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

1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. Once Upon a Time in America
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
4. For a Few Dollars More
5. A Fistful of Dollars
6. Duck, You Sucker
7. The Colossus of Rhodes

1. Altered States
2. The Devils
3. Mahler
4. Gothic
5. Tommy

1. The Thin Red Line
2. The Tree of Life
3. The New World
4. Days of Heaven
5. A Hidden Life
6. Song to Song
7. Knight of Cups
8. Badlands
9. To the Wonder

1. Melancholia
2. The House That Jack Built
3. Dogville
4. Europa
5. Dancer in the Dark
6. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
7. The Idiots
8. The Kingdom
9. Antichrist
10. Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

1. The Matrix
2. Speed Racer
3. Cloud Atlas
4. Bound
5. The Matrix Resurrections
6. The Matrix Reloaded
7. The Matrix Revolutions
8. Jupiter Ascending

1. Jurassic Park
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Jaws
5. Schindler's List
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. Catch Me If You Can
8. The Fabelmans
9. West Side Story
10. War of the Worlds

...plus 11 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Blade Runner
2. Alien
3. Alien: Covenant
4. Kingdom of Heaven
5. Prometheus
6. The Last Duel
7. The Martian
8. Legend
9. Gladiator
10. Gladiator II

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

1. The Florida Project
2. Red Rocket
3. Anora
4. Tangerine
5. Starlet
6. Prince of Broadway
7. Take Out
8. Four Letter Words

1. The Favourite
2. Poor Things
3. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
4. The Lobster
5. Kinds of Kindness
6. Dogtooth

1. Marie Antoinette
2. Somewhere
3. The Virgin Suicides
4. Priscilla
5. The Bling Ring
6. The Beguiled
7. Lost in Translation

1. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
2. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Reservoir Dogs
6. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
7. Django Unchained
8. Death Proof

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

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Oppenheimer
2. Tenet
3. Interstellar
4. Dunkirk
5. Memento
6. The Prestige
7. Batman Begins
8. Inception
9. The Dark Knight
10. Insomnia

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

1. Bram Stoker's Dracula
2. Apocalypse Now
3. The Godfather
4. One from the Heart
5. The Godfather Part II
6. Megalopolis
7. The Conversation
8. Tetro
9. Rumble Fish
10. Twixt

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

1. The Batman
2. Batman Returns
3. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
4. Batman
5. Batman Forever
6. Batman Begins
7. The Dark Knight
8. The Lego Batman Movie
9. Batman & Robin
10. Batman

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

1. Nashville
2. Short Cuts
3. The Long Goodbye
4. The Player

1. Crash
2. Videodrome
3. The Fly
4. eXistenZ
5. Eastern Promises
6. Naked Lunch
7. Cosmopolis
8. Scanners
9. A History of Violence
10. The Brood

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

1. Alien
2. Alien: Covenant
3. Prometheus
4. Aliens
5. Prey
6. Predator
7. Alien Resurrection
8. Alien³
9. Predators
10. AVP: Alien vs. Predator

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

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

1. The Abyss
2. Avatar: The Way of Water
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
4. The Terminator
5. Aliens
6. Avatar
7. Titanic

1. Signs
2. Trap
3. Unbreakable
4. Old
5. Knock at the Cabin
6. The Village
7. Split
8. The Visit
9. The Sixth Sense
10. The Happening

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

1. Spider-Man 2
2. Spider-Man
3. Spider-Man 3
4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
6. The Amazing Spider-Man
7. Spider-Man: Far From Home
8. Spider-Man: No Way Home
9. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
10. Spider-Man: Homecoming

1. My Darling Clementine
2. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
3. Stagecoach

1. Oldboy
2. Akira
3. Spider-Man 2
4. Spider-Man
5. Speed Racer
6. The Batman
7. Spider-Man 3
8. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
9. Batman Returns
10. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

• Kneecap
• Female Trouble
• Grizzly Man
• Cocaine Bear
• Shrek 2

1. Fitzcarraldo
2. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
3. Grizzly Man
4. Lessons of Darkness
5. Nosferatu the Vampyre
6. Heart of Glass

1. Man on Fire
2. True Romance
3. Déjà Vu
4. Unstoppable
5. Top Gun
6. Crimson Tide
7. Days of Thunder
8. Enemy of the State

1. Before Sunrise
2. Dazed and Confused
3. Before Sunset
4. Everybody Wants Some!!
5. Boyhood
6. School of Rock
7. Before Midnight
8. Hit Man
9. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
10. Tape

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

1. Toy Story
2. Ratatouille
3. Toy Story 3
4. Monsters, Inc.
5. Coco
6. Toy Story 2
7. Inside Out
8. WALL·E
9. Finding Nemo
10. The Incredibles

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

1. Gerry
2. Good Will Hunting
3. To Die For
4. Elephant

1. Ran
2. Seven Samurai
3. Ikiru
4. High and Low
5. Dersu Uzala
6. Rashomon
7. Yojimbo
8. Throne of Blood
9. Sanjuro
10. Dreams

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Eyes Wide Shut
3. Barry Lyndon
4. The Shining
5. Full Metal Jacket
6. Paths of Glory
7. A Clockwork Orange
8. The Killing
9. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
10. Fear and Desire