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Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 29, 2025.

Adapting Jane Austen is like shooting fish in a barrel but, in its own right, this is a lush and beautiful movie. Matthew Macfadyen is a perfect Mr Darcy

God, what awful writing. I really dislike this kind of wink wink, self satisfied, witless, juvenile Tarantino-adjacent script peppered with corny/strained humor, misogyny, early aughts casual homophobia, etc. Not to mention characters with no internal logic and a needlessly/stupidly convoluted plot with zero stakes 
But even though the movie’s ass, its likable leads (RIP Kilmer; your career was cut too short) suffuse it with enough charm to make it a bearable watch.

Watched on Saturday May 10, 2025.

Easily the best entry in the Be Gay. Do Crimes canon, featuring the OG demon twink. But seriously, this movie is incredible and I love it so much.

The Cornucopia tour was the first post COVID show I attended and, even from the cheap seats, it remains one of the most memorable evenings of my concert going life. How could it not have been? It’s a sumptuous spectacle helmed by a badass earth intruding pagan poetess proselytizing love, hope and a better tomorrow. The concert film is a chance to experience Bjork’s utopian vision up close. It’s good insofar as Bjork and her music are great. But it’s not quite up to the task of capturing the visually rich stage show.

Film à la con, niais et sans intérêt

Goodness! The assembled cast (Gazarra! Bacall! Kidman! Baker-Hall!) is  just elite, truly the stuff of director dreams; its excellent work goes a long spoonful of sugar way in making Von Trier’s bitter medicine go down. I must also concede some ingenuity in the stripped bare setting. Though the film is unpleasant (by design), the experience of watching is not entirely so. Its three hour runtime briskly by and the narrative, predictable beats and all, makes for really good dramaturgy. But ultimately, this is a deeply cynical work, the kind that appeals to arthouse crowd. I can’t help rolling my eyes at Von Trier’s peddling his misanthropy as moral explorations into the dark heart of America, though I do give him credit for the self awareness of making the cowardly villainous Paul the writer-artist. Hot take: the black characters are there to exist solely in the proximity of the white protagonist being forced into labor. That’s our Lars: always taking the piss with empty provocations.

Watched on Saturday April 26, 2025.

*with a post screening q&a with Bill Morrison who zoomed in from a boarding plane* 

I cant praise enough Michael Gordon’s stunning score working in perfect symbiosis with Morrison’s collage of decaying film stock to render an emotionally resonant work about time (its ravages and all), technology (the tension between its unreliability and its endless possibilities), etc.

A thorny, strangely moving exploration of family  that occasionally frustrates with its pacing and its narrative ellipses.

Watched on Thursday April 17, 2025.

Watched on Thursday April 17, 2025.

Watched on Thursday April 17, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 20, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

This freaked me out, in a good way

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

Hits you like a ton of bricks. Stunning

A lovely note to end the festival on

As soon as Big Freedia said, ‘you’ve got lesions in your pussy’, I knew I was in for a wild romp and that I was going to love it. Irreverent, funny, effortlessly transgressive, gorgeous to look at and a killer soundtrack to boot! The best thing I’ve seen at the festival

The script is somewhat awkward and on the nose but the lead performance and the direction are really solid

Mm. Not sure about this one. It’s surprisingly humorous and things get a bit wacky in a way that is reminiscent of Pynchon. But the first hour is rather listless. And when things do pick up, they don’t really lead anywhere particularly interesting. I need to see it again though

*with a pre-screening wing eating contest* 

America is a wondrous place.

Watched on Saturday April 12, 2025.

*Opening Film of The Florida Film Festival with cast and crew in attendance* 
Fascinating piece of Disney/Florida lore about the underground world of Disney Urban Explorers and stolen memorabilia. All of the footage is smartly and concisely assembled into a coherent narrative that’s in turn humorous, suspenseful and even heartbreaking. Great stuff

Watched on Friday April 11, 2025.

Utter delight!

So unbelievably dumb and shallow. But it’s pretty and fun

Gnarly Kills abound in this anthology film, an unexpected and refreshing pivot from indie filmmaking duo Boden/Fleck who last got sucked into the Marvel machine. Their latest, Freaky Tales, is a nazi-butt-kicking good time that proudly boasts its influences (Tarantino/Kill Bill is an obvious one). It’s not a perfect film, at times clumsy and corny; the thread coursing through the anthology comes together neatly but the sum is greater than the parts, the four of them being of uneven quality (chapter 3 and 4 are vastly superior). But it’s never not entertaining and the cast is so good: Mendelshon is magnificent,Pascal has never been better and Jay Ellis (Insecure gang rise up!) is unveiling here some serious movie star bonafides with his acting and ass kicking chops; he is also cooly charismatic and v. easy on the eyes (the way I almost gasped when he appears shirtless!). I’m really glad I caught this one in theaters.

#couplegoals

Watched on Sunday March 23, 2025.

A gut punch of a movie. That ending is going to stay with me for a long time

Sloppy, scattershot writing and a merciless runtime suck the joy out of a fun first half. Naomi Ackie innocent. Mark Ruffalo very very guilty (what the fuck was  that?)

Watched on Wednesday March 19, 2025.

*Synced with songs of R.E.M.*

*synced with the music of Amon Tobin*

I was excited to see Holland cast in the kind of role that, frankly, is rarely given to black actors (in American films). But as much as I wanted to love it, it did nothing for me: it blandly spins in place and then it ends.

Soderbergh agnostic here to say this is very good: a lean, briskly paced mystery/spy thriller scaled down (how easily could this have been bloated!) to be about a marriage; sharp writing with some memorable dialogue; great ensemble led by a smoldering Blanchett (she is SERVING) and a broodingly sexy Fassbinder; and incredibly entertaining to boot!

Yes, Sonny is a shitty abusive guy but Pacino gives him complexity and dimension. My god, what a fucking performance! 
Also, young Carol Kane!!

By any other shape, a vanilla rom com is still a vanilla rom com. All of the movie’s signaling towards transgression is one big empty gesture, mere tonal/(indie quirk) aesthetic window dressing; it’s oddly incurious about sexuality, that of its  protagonists or otherwise. It makes for an unconvincing journey to self discovery/unordinary love story (You know what is believable though: wanting to engage in inappropriate  office behavior with James Spader!). This is isn’t to say that the movie is without its charms. If you squint hard enough to blur out its flagrant flaws, it is sweet, cute and humorous: there are definitely worst ways to kill time than to watch two hot people like Gylenhall and Spader kinkily circle each other

Watched on Monday March 3, 2025.

One could crudely distill so much of Lynch’s work to be about networks of evil (often emblemed as menacing looking men in suits) disrupting the course of love. Wild at Heat might be his most straightforward variation of that theme. Yet it is his less successful/affecting. Not to say it’s not good (it is!) or any less marked by his oh so singular vision. But the vision here lacks the polish of his best work…Three cheers for the cast though: Cage and Ladd are absolute hoots; Dafoe is at his creepiest; and Stanton and Dern are just brilliant

Watched on Thursday February 27, 2025.

Watched on Sunday February 23, 2025.

Booed at Cannes

• Él
• L'Avventura
• L'Eclisse
• Gertrud
• Mademoiselle
• Seconds
• The Mother and the Whore
• La Grande Bouffe
• Taxi Driver
• L'Argent

...plus 33 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Everybody Knows
• Thunder Road
• Eden
• Free Solo
• Greener Grass
• Her Smell
• In Fabric
• Knife+Heart
• Avengers: Endgame
• Captain Marvel

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

• Point Break
• The Chef's Wife
• Capernaum
• The Third Wife
• Rafiki
• Beyond the Lights
• To Each, Her Own
• Private Life
• Eden
• Birds of age

...plus 19 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Her Smell
• Wild Nights with Emily
• Luce
• The Beach Bum
• High Life
• Hustlers
• Monos
• The Lighthouse
• Little Women
• Uncut Gems

• The Favourite
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Sorry to Bother You
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Madeline's Madeline
• Eighth Grade
• The Rider
• You Were Never Really Here
• First Man
• Burning

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

• Phantom Thread
• The Florida Project
• Lady Bird
• The Wound
• Get Out
• Good Time
• Coco
• The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
• Beach Rats
• Blade Runner 2049

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Paris Is Burning
2. Parched
3. Slums of Beverly Hills
4. Girl Asleep
5. Real Women Have Curves
6. Carrie Pilby
7. The Other Son
8. Home
9. Nora's Will
10. Signature Move

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Home Again
• mother!
• Lucky
• Brad's Status
• Beach Rats
• American Made
• The Room
• Loving Vincent
• The Florida Project
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

...plus 88 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Wanda
2. Bastards
3. Girlhood
4. Divines
5. Certain Women
6. Take This Waltz
7. Middle of Nowhere
8. The Babadook
9. First They Killed My Father
10. Citizenfour

...plus 133 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
• American Honey
• The Apartment
• The Battle of Algiers
• Beauty and the Beast
• The Big Lebowski
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
• Black Girl
• Broadcast News
• Captain America: Civil War

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

• American Honey
• The Handmaiden
• A Bigger Splash
• Captain America: Civil War
• The Witch
• Things to Come
• Fences
• Manchester by the Sea
• Love & Friendship
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople

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