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Watched on Friday April 18, 2025.

I just got to see this film with the director of the film, and one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, Ang Lee in attendance at the MSPIFF! My full review is coming soon.

MSPIFF №2.

MSPIFF #1

Full review coming soon.

Watched on Monday February 24, 2025.

Watched on Sunday February 23, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 21, 2025.

Watched on Monday February 17, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 15, 2025.

Watched on Thursday February 13, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday February 12, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 7, 2025.

This review may contain spoilers.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

A Real Pain / Prawdziwy ból (2024) (US/PL): A painful tour through Poland

“We’re on a fucking Holocaust tour. If now is not the time and place to grieve, to open up, I don’t know what to tell you, man.”
   Every year on Oscar nominations morning, there is always one movie that gets “snubbed.” Before the announcements, most predictions for best picture included this film, which it shockingly missed out on in favor of the 2024 Brazilian film “I’m Still Here.” Despite this, it still received two nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best ing Actor, being heavily favored to win for the latter. Because of this, I still feel it is important to talk about…
   The plot follows two Polish American cousins, David (played by Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed the film) and Benji Kaplan (played by Kieran Culkin in an Oscar-nominated performance), who have grown apart over time. Their grandmother recently died and she set aside some money for her grandchildren to visit her birth country of Poland, which she fled to escape the persecution of Jewish people during the Holocaust. They a tour group led by a gentile tour guide named James (played by Will Sharpe) to travel across Poland and see WWII memorials and former sites of Jewish life.
  …
   One of the locations visited in the movie is the Majdanek Concentration Camp outside of Lublin, and was granted special permission to film there. Instead of a period film asking to reenact unfathomable tragedies on these burial grounds, the contemporary setting of “A Real Pain” and its realistic depiction of Holocaust tours led to this unique exception. The scene is a startling wake up call, enabling the film to take a break and reflect on what it means to be observing suffering from a relative place of privilege.
   Eisenberg’s script is sharp and hilarious but still makes sure to treat grief and trauma with the respect and gravity that it deserves. This ability to balance these two disparate tones so well is a testament to his skill as a writer, and I would love it if he would be able to win the Oscar for it, but this is sadly unlikely. However, Kieran Culkin’s performance is both hilarious and quietly tragic, and he deserves his all but guaranteed Oscar.
   I watched the film with my grandma, and as our family is part Polish, we anticipated this movie heavily. Her thoughts on the film are down below:
   “I liked it even more the day after I saw it, so I rewatched it again the day after and loved it. These two people are so different and trying to enjoy each other’s company and their only thing in common is that they are cousins. They want to spend time with each other but it is just difficult.”
   I agree that the film was extremely heartwarming, and I hope more people check it out after its Oscar nomination. My final rating for “A Real Pain” is a heartwarming 9/10.
-A Real Pain is currently streaming on Hulu.

Watched on Friday February 7, 2025.

Watched on Monday February 3, 2025.

Watched on Monday January 27, 2025.

Watched on Friday January 24, 2025.

Watched on Saturday January 18, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday January 14, 2025.

Watched on Sunday January 12, 2025.

Watched on Saturday January 11, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

This review may contain spoilers.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

The Apprentice (2024) (US): The Art of Making “Fake News” Great Again

   “You wanna know how to win? I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. There’s rules. Roy Cohn’s three rules of winning. The first rule is the simplest: Attack, attack, attack! Rule two: it nothing, deny everything. Rule three: This is the most important rule of all. Okay? -No matter what happens… no matter what they say about you, no matter how beaten you are, you claim victory and never it defeat. Donald, you wanna win? That’s how you win.”
   Ever since Donald Trump’s ride down that golden escalator in 2015, he has been an inescapable presence in the lives of every single American. His fame stretches back to the 1980s when he became a real estate celebrity yuppie, to the launch of his 2004-2017 show “The Apprentice” and cameos in films such as 1992’s “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”, Trump’s image was linked with the idea of “success.” After his win over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, it seemed only natural for a biopic of America’s TV President to be greenlit.
   This came from the Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi, who wanted to answer how someone like Trump would be created, but from an outsider’s perspective. He somehow got funding from billionaire Trump er Dan Snyder (the disgraced former owner of the Washington Commanders, who the NFL fined $60 million for sexual harassment) because he was under the impression that it would make his buddy Trump look good. It did not.
   Despite getting good reviews on its premiere at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, few studios were willing to distribute the film for fear of legal retaliation from the Trump campaign. It was eventually released in October but bombed at the box office. Still, the crew looked forward to the awards season, and the movie managed to earn two Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best ing Actor.
   The film showcases how Trump (played by Sebastian Stan) was created at the hands of lawyer Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong, of HBO’s “Succession” fame), who is probably one of the most despicable Americans to have lived in the past century. His entry into the political world was spearheading the prosecution of the Rosenbergs, calling them derogatory antisemitic names despite being Jewish himself, along with taking. great pride in sending them to fry in the electric chair. He personally made sure that Ethel Rosenberg would also be killed, leaving her two young children to be orphaned because he had to set an example for traitors.
   Trump first sought Cohn out because the government was suing the Trump organization for alleged discrimination against black tenants, and Cohn was able to win the case. Cohn mentored Trump, and Trump soon opened his first hotel, but only after receiving a controversial tax subsidy from the New York City Council. Trump also met a Czechoslovak immigrant, Ivana Zelníčková (played by Maria Bakalova), who he would later marry.
   I watched this film together with my grandma, and she also had a little bit to say about the film and thoughts on the movie:
   “It was excellent, the entire dialogue was very authentic. We saw on screen the same thing that we see on the news every day. And the acting was very good.”
   This film is perfect for anyone interested in discovering more about this prominent political figure in American life. My final rating for “The Apprentice” is an 8/10.

Spirited (2022) (US) =
   “Good Afternoon.”
   I decided to end my 2024 by watching a Christmas movie with my extended family, and it was sweet. Will Farrell and Ryan Reynolds both make a great comedic pair, and give this twist of “A Christmas Carol” a bit of levity. Here’s to a great 2025! 7/10.
-Spirited is currently streaming on AppleTV+.

Watched on Wednesday December 25, 2024.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

Anora (2024) (US): A saucy screwball Comedy for the ages
“Listen to me, you do not know this guy. If you think this is going to be allowed, you’re dead wrong. This is not a real marriage. We’ll be getting it annulled, and you have no say in it.”
   After an explosive premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the south of , where this movie won the prestigious grand prize of the Palme d’Or, “Anora” immediately propelled itself to the forefront of awards contention. Despite its sensitive subject matter of sex work and prostitution, the film has been heralded as an Oscar frontrunner, including for Best Picture.
   The plot follows a young Russian-American woman named Anora “Ani” Mikheeva (played by Mikey Madison, who previously starred as a member of the Manson family in 2019’s “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”) who works as a stripper and prostitute in Brooklyn to make ends meet. She manages to start an ongoing professional relationship with Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov (played by Mark Eydelshteyn), the playboy son of a wealthy Russian Oligarch. He hires her to be “exclusive” with him and pose as his girlfriend for a New Year’s Eve party at his private mansion. They hit it off (in more ways than one…) and grow quite close. For Vanya to avoid returning to Russia, he proposes a Green Card marriage to Ani, which she accepts to keep using his money and receive a four carat diamond ring in return. They quickly have a shotgun wedding in Las Vegas and live happily ever afte-
   Upon learning of this elopement, Vanya’s godfather, an Armenian Orthodox priest named Toros (played by Karren Karagulian, a frequent Sean Baker collaborator), is ordered to annul the marriage to prevent the news from further damaging the Zakharov family’s holdings. He hires Garnick (played by Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (played by Yura Borisov) to assist him, and they corner Ani, but Vanya manages to escape.
The second act then turns into a twisted version of a screwball comedy, where Ani banters with her captors over the location of her husband, and they drive around frantically retracing his steps so they can drag him before a court of law and bring him back to Russia.
   The dynamics between the disparate characters had me laughing out loud several times, but the sheer quality of this act made the final third of the film fall a little flat in comparison.
   The writer-director, Baker, has previously made a name for himself by making films focused on the plight of marginalized individuals, particularly sex workers. His most famous film, 2017’s “The Florida Project,” actually earned Willem Dafoe an Academy Award nomination for Best ing Actor. Now, with “Anora,” he stands a great chance of earning a few Oscars for himself, especially in Best Original Screenplay. While I am not as confident in his chances of being Best Director, there is a very real possibility that he will still be able to pull off a victory come March.
   Despite Mikey Madison’s powerhouse performance, my favorite character was Karren Karagulian’s Toros. His role as the only straight man in a world of eccentric and depraved characters had me and the entire theater laughing uncontrollably.
   One warning that I would give about the movie is that if you are uncomfortable with prolonged amounts of graphic nudity and squeamish about sex in films, then you might be best putting this one off for a while. This is very much a film that pulls no punches and does its best to accurately depict the sex industry with as little stigma as possible. While the picture may not be for everyone, I would still highly recommend it if you are willing to give it a try.
   “Anora” will knock your socks off, and a whole lot more as well…” My final rating for the film is a saucy 9/10.
-Anora is currently playing in theaters.

This review may contain spoilers.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

Wicked: Part One (2024) (US): Defying gravity with glee
“Together, we’re unlimited. Together we’ll be the greatest team there’s ever been. Glinda, dreams the way we planned ’em. If we work in tandem there’s no fight we cannot win. Just you and I, defying gravity. With you and I defying gravity, they’ll never bring us down.”
   When considering the greatest years in film history, one year that keeps coming up is 1939. With such notable and timeless films as Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” John Ford’s “Stagecoach” and the eventual Best Picture winner “Gone With the Wind,” directed by Victor Fleming. Fleming would also go on to direct one more film that year, an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s book “The Wizard of Oz.” It, more than any other film from 1939, would leave an indelible and everlasting mark on American popular culture.
   So, when the original novel entered the public domain, it was only a matter of time before someone would continue the story. The most famous of these was a reinterpretation called “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” painting the villain of the original story (named Elphaba as a tribute to L. Frank Baum) as a misunderstood protagonist. That book was turned into a popular Broadway musical, which won three Tony Awards in 2004.
Jon M. Chu, the director of 2018’s “Crazy Rich Asians” and 2021’s “In the Heights,” was brought in to direct the film adaptation and made the decision to split it into two parts. He cast the two time Academy Award nominee Cynthia Erivo (star of 2019’s “Harriet”) as the titular Wicked Witch of the West and pop star Ariana Grande (star of the 2021 Best Picture nominee “Don’t Look Up”) as her friend and rival, Glinda the Good Witch.
   The plot of the film adapts the first act of the original play, with Glinda (then known as Galinda) recounting her time at Shiz University, where she was roommates with Elphaba. Their fellow students include Elphaba’s sister Nessarose (played by Melissa Bode), Prince Fiyero (played by Jonathan Bailey), Galinda’s friend Pfannee (played by SNL star Bowen Yang), and the Munchkin Boq (played by Ethan Slater).
   While Elphaba and Galinda started out on bad , they soon became very close friends and studied together under Dean Madame Morrible (played by the legendary Oscar Winner Michelle Yeoh, in her second film with Jon M. Chu after “Crazy Rich Asians”). But when their history professor, Dr. Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage), is persecuted for being a talking goat, they both decide to go off to the Emerald City to see The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (played by Jeff Goldblum) to help save the animals. What Elphaba learns shocks her to her core, and she takes a stand against the Wizard, being labeled as “Wicked” in the process.
The music featured throughout the film was fantastic. The songs all sounded great, and the cast did a great job with their vocals.
   While the movie was a bit long, I struggled to think of any scene that I would elect to delete. While a few minutes could have been trimmed off the runtime, the filmmakers did a great job adapting as much of the original play as they could.
   If I had to share one major criticism I had about the film, it would be that the dull color grade and washed out lighting significantly detracted from my enjoyment of the film at times. As a reinterpretation of “The Wizard of Oz”—one of the most famously colorful movies of all time—they really should have increased the saturation throughout the film’s runtime. They were able to use color properly for the “Popular” number, so this was simply a poor creative decision. #Make Oz Technicolorful Again.
   The technical craft that went into making this film is nothing short of astonishing. All of the sets were built practically, including a field consisting of nine million hand planted tulips and a set of 360° rotating bookshelves. However, this was to be expected as the production designer, Nathan Crowley, previously worked on Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film “Interstellar,” where he similarly planted 300 acres of corn to be used for set decoration and sold them for a profit after filming concluded. He is now the frontrunner to win the Academy Award for Best Production Design on March 2.
   I am excited to see how they will follow this up with “Wicked: Part Two,” coming out in Nov. 2025. My rating for “Wicked: Part One” is a wonderful 9/10.
-Wicked is currently available for purchase and rental on demand.

Watched on Wednesday December 25, 2024.

Watched on Monday November 25, 2024.

This review may contain spoilers.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

Emilia Pérez (2024) (FR/BE/MX/US): A Trans Story of Redemption and Love in México
   “♪ I want to love the little girl that I was never allowed to be. I want to love the grandmother that one day I might become. I want to love myself every day, every hour, every second. I am, and that is enough for me. That’s being a woman, isn’t it? I want to love myself the way I want to be loved. ♪”
   This year, the 2024 edition of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival occurred in south and saw the premieres of several noteworthy films, including the screwball comedy “Anora,” the body-horror hit “The Substance,” and a Spanish language musical from the acclaimed French auteur Jacques Audiard called “Emilia Pérez.” While it did not earn the grand prize of the Palme d’Or, for the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition, it won the Best Actress award, split between the four lead actresses in the ensemble. When the film was being sold for distribution, Netflix managed to submit the winning bid, and the film was released on Nov. 13. has announced that the picture will be their submission to the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. Most industry analysts are predicting that it will not just win that award, but also receive a Best Picture nomination.
   The plot follows an underappreciated lawyer in México City named Rita Mora Castro (played by Zoe Saldaña, most famous for her role as Gamora in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series) who is abducted by the feared cartel boss Juan “Manitas” (Español para “handyman”) Del Monte (played by Karla Sofía Gascón). Manitas reveals to Rita that she would like to disappear and become the woman that she has always dreamed of being: Emilia Pérez (again played by Gascón). In exchange for facilitating her lifelong dream, Rita will receive millions of dollars in payment. Rita accepts and arranges for an Israeli surgeon named Dr. Wasserman (played by Mark Ivanir) to perform the procedure, which manages to be a success.
Del Monte’s death is faked, and Pérez leaves her previous family for her new life.
   Understandably, her ex-wife Jessi (played by Selena Gomez) is heartbroken at losing the love of her life and moves to Switzerland with their children for safety at Rita’s behest. After four years, Pérez misses her children, and she reintroduces herself to Jessi as a distant cousin of her former spouse so she can help raise her kids once again.
   Upon returning with her family to México, Emilia realizes that her previous life as a drug kingpin has resulted in a trail of kidnappings, grief, and bloodshed. She decides to make amends and starts a non-profit named “La Lucecita” (A Small Light) using her cartel connections and drug money to find and identify thousands of deceased kidnapping victims. In the process, Emilia meets and falls in love with Epifanía Flores (played by Adriana Paz) and manages to make a positive impact on the lives of others.
   But Jessi has moved on, distrusting Emilia’s strong devotion to her children. She reconnects with her former lover Gustavo Brun (played by Édgar Ramírez), and she tries to leave Emilia, taking her kids with her in the process. While I refuse to spoil the climax of the film in this review, I will say that it managed to be a thrilling and satisfying conclusion to this emotional story.
   If I had to share a slight criticism I had with the story, it is that the heavy focus on the role of gender confirmation surgery for gender transitioning seems a little oversimplified. Some transgender individuals are unable to afford such procedures, but it does not make them any less of a man or woman for it. This is not to diminish the great psychological and mental health benefits that the procedure can bring, but several steps are required to get to that point that could have been further fleshed out in the film.
   The other technical standout of the movie would be the cinematography done by Paul Guilhaume, which manages to consistently amaze throughout the entire runtime. The musical numbers are shot with a frenetic and almost electric pace making each frame look like a visual marvel.
   I have a tradition every year where I watch all of the Best Picture contenders and nominees with my Grandma, and “Emilia Pérez” was no different. I always find that having a second opinion can help you think more critically about a subject, and her thoughts on the movie are down below:
   “It would have been a better novel than a film. The story was good and the acting was excellent, but there were too many songs. The movie could have been about 40 minutes shorter.”
   While I felt like several songs were able to help move the plot forward and serve the film as a whole, I would agree that there were quite a few times when the music was unnecessary. Specifically, the two English language songs were extremely stilted and stood out among the rest of the musical numbers. My favorite songs from the film were the penultimate “Perdóname” (Forgive Me), “El Mal” (Evil), and “Mi Camino” (My Path). The latter two are likely to be in contention to win the Oscar for Best Original Song.
   In of the film’s Oscar prospects, I am nearly 100% certain that it will win for Best International Feature Film, and that Zoe Saldaña will be the frontrunner for Best ing Actress. Karla Sofía Gascón is predicted to become the first trans woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and only the second trans performer ever to receive a nomination after Elliot Page’s (pre-transition) role in the 2007 comedy “Juno.”
   So, despite my issues with the pacing and a few plot points, I greatly enjoyed watching “Emilia Pérez,” and my rating for the film is a moving 8/10.
-Emilia Pérez is currently streaming on Netflix.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

Hillbilly Elegy (2020) (US): We should have seen it coming
   “Today people look at me, at my job and my Ivy League credentials, and assume that I’m some sort of genius, that only a truly extraordinary person could have made it to where I am today. With all due respect to those people, I think that theory is a load of bullshit. Whatever.”
   The election is over, the results are in, and he won. For the first time since George W. Bush’s victory in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, AP has projected the Republican Party to have won a majority of the popular vote. The people have spoken, and Donald J. Trump will become only the second president in history to have served two non-consecutive (the other was Democrat Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President). But stepping back, there was another key winner of the election, and that was Trump’s running mate: the future 50th Vice President of the United States, JD Vance.
   While he entered into politics with his victory in the 2022 Ohio Senate election, he first became well known with the publication of his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.” Director Ron Howard (who also made the 2001 Best Picture winner “A Beautiful Mind”) sought to create a film adaptation of the book. After it was released in 2020 it further raised Vance’s national profile. While he directly opposed Donald Trump’s election in 2016, privately calling him “America’s Hitler,” Vance soon pivoted towards ing the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and by 2022 he was willing to tout Trump’s endorsement as a badge of honor.
   The butterfly effect from this movie being released to positive acclaim has directly and irrevocably altered the foundations of American democracy. This Netflix original film is unquestionably the most impactful and consequential American political film of the 2020s so far, and for that, it must earn recognition. It will go down in the history books among such movies as 2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth” (the origin of our modern discussion of climate change and debatably the reason former Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize), and 2008’s “Hillary: The Movie” (which directly led to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC)) as films that will have changed America for generations to come. It makes one wonder: “Just who the hell is this guy?”
   The story follows Vance’s early life (where he was played by Gabriel Basso) and upbringing in Appalachia when his mother Bev (played by Amy Adams) routinely abused him and became addicted to stolen prescription drugs. He was taken in by his “Mamaw” (played by the great Glenn Close in an Oscar nominated performance for Best ing Actress), who raised him to have a better future. He ed the Marines and attended Yale, where he met his wife, Usha (played by Freida Pinto). Many years later, he returns to Ohio and sends his now heroin-addicted mother to rehab. He later changes his last name from Hamel to Vance, which was his Grandmother’s maiden name.
   While Vance may have had a very rough childhood in Appalachia, the thing that struck me the most about the film was how his upbringing seems to directly contradict his party’s platform. One would think he would universal healthcare after having to forcibly put his mother into rehab. One would think he would advocate for financial for single mothers and caregivers like his Mamaw. One would even think that he would helping victims of teen pregnancies, like his Mamaw, who had to run away from home pregnant at the age of 13 because her parents disowned her. However, it remains to be seen how the second Trump istration will directly address these issues.
   The current Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, stated in an interview with Bill Maher, “In Harvard, I met a lot of people like [Vance], who would say anything they needed to get ahead.”
   In the end, this is supposed to be a review of this film, however inseparable it is from its subject. Howard stated in an interview with Variety that he was “Surprised and concerned by a lot of the rhetoric coming out of that [Trump/Vance] campaign.”
   Quite simply put, I don’t know how I should feel. The film itself was emotional and moving, but it also felt hollow at the same time. For these reasons, my rating for the 2020 film “Hillbilly Elegy” is a conflicted 5/10.
-Hillbilly Elegy is currently streaming on Netflix.

This review may contain spoilers.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (US): A Cold War Classic
“I tell ya, there’s something phony going on. There’s something phony about me, about Raymond Shaw, about the whole Medal of Honor business…I said: ‘Raymond Shaw is the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life,’ and even now I feel that way-this minute. And yet, somewhere in the back of my mind, something tells me it’s not true. It’s just not true. It isn’t as if Raymond’s hard to like. He’s impossible to like. In fact, he’s probably one of the most repulsive human beings I’ve ever known in my whole-all of my life.”
   While most of you may not have read or watched “The Manchurian Candidate” before, I can be safe in assuming that you at least recognize the name. As one of the most famous and influential political thrillers of all time, it has managed to make an indelible mark on pop culture, managing to become an adjective like very few other film titles. So let us go back to ‘62 and see how director John Frankenhimer’s masterpiece has impacted America.
   The story follows a platoon of American soldiers in the Korean War, but they are soon taken hostage by Communist forces. Later, they return to United Nations forces with only two casualties, and Captain Bennet Marco (played by the legendary singer Frank Sinatra, who previously won the Academy Award for Best ing Actor for his performance in the 1953 Best Picture winner “From Here to Eternity”) recommends his heroic Sergeant Raymond Shaw (played by Laurence Harvey) to be awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor. But the soldiers soon find themselves with a strange recurring nightmare: A gardening party from hell.
   Indeed, something much more sinister happened during those three days, as the soldiers were taken to the nearby Chinese province of Mǎnchūria and subjected to brainwashing at the hands of their Communist captors. In reality, Shaw is an amoral and cruel individual who was turned by the Soviets into a sleeper agent who feels no remorse for the assassinations he is ordered to commit. Against his own knowledge, he has been manipulated into climbing the ranks of the political apparatus to become a more useful weapon for the Soviets in their domination of America.
   In fact, “brainwashing” became a commonly used term only after the release of this film, which shows how influential its legacy has become.
   An important bit of historical context for the film is that one of the main characters, Senator John Iselin (played by James Gregory), is meant to be an analog for the infamous former Senator from Wisconsin Joseph McCarthy, whose role in the Red Scare is directly parodied in the film. Iselin’s inability to provide a consistent number of Communists in the federal government becomes a source of mockery, repeatedly stating random numbers ranging from “57” to “207” all while making a fool of himself in the process. His agency and intellect are also put into question, as he is shown to be a willing patsy of his wife, Eleanor Iselin (played by Angela Lansbury in an Oscar nominated performance for Best ing Actress), who is also the mother of Raymond Shaw. Their actions scaring America are also hinted at as being sinister in nature, as if it was a secret plot devised by the Soviets in order to tear America apart from within.
   The other notable stars are Janet Leigh (star of 1960’s “Psycho” and the mother of Academy Award winning Actress Jamie Lee Curtis) as Rose Chaney, John McGiver (who also appeared in 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) as Senator Thomas Jordan, and Leslie Parrish as Joclyn Jordan, the love interest of Mr. Shaw.
   One last historical parallel is that on Nov. 22, 1963, just over one year after the film premiered, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald. This is especially notable because the climax of the film takes place at a political rally and features an assassination by a lone sniper intending to seed chaos into the American electorate. As a result, the film would be forever linked with the tragic events of that day, forcing everyone to take the plot quite a bit more seriously.
   For all these reasons, my rating for “The Manchurian Candidate” is a thrilling 9/10.
-The Manchurian Candidate is available from the Criterion Collection.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

The Campaign (2012) (US) =
   “War has rules, mud wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules.”
   The story of the film follows a Democratic Congressman named Cam Brady (played by Will Ferrell) from the state of North Carolina, who has run unopposed in the 14th Congressional District for 16 years. When it is discovered that he called a constituent mistaking them as his mistress and left a sexually suggestive message on their answering machine, a local tour guide named Marty Huggins (played by Zach Galifianakis) decides he has had enough and declares his candidacy for the Republican nomination and several wacky hijinks ensue.
   These include punching babies and dogs in the face, shooting your opponent in a hunting accident (à la former Vice President Dick Cheney), and making a sex tape of your opponent’s wife and playing it as a campaign ad. While the film may be a solid 7/10, it is a hilarious time for anyone wanting to let some steam off about the election season.
-The Campaign is available for purchase and rental on demand.

This review may contain spoilers.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

The Candidate (1972) (US): “What do we do now?”
   “The time has ed. Got to be a better way, I say to you. Can’t any longer… can’t any longer, play off black against old… young against poor. This country cannot house its houseless… feed its foodless. [ADLAHDLAHDLAHDLAHDLAH] They’re demanding a government of the people… “peopled” by people. Our faith…our comion…our courage on the gridiron. [BWHOOSH] The basic indifference…that made this country great. And on election day…we won’t run away. Vote once…vote twice…for Bill McKay…You middle-class honkies.”
   As we enter the final stages of the 2024 presidential election, with all its controversy and strife, I find myself looking back to past campaigns, and how they seem so tame in comparison. I tried thinking about a film that may shed some light on our current moment, and I decided on the extremely dry 1972 comedic satirical picture “The Candidate.” So let us go back to ‘72 when the only “scandal” in town was Watergate, and you can see how little we really learned from history.
   The plot follows a young environmental lawyer from California named Bill McKay, portrayed by the great Robert Redford, the son of the former governor of the state, John J. McKay (played by Melvyn Douglas). He is approached by a Democratic political strategist named Marvin Lucas (played by Peter Boyle) with an intriguing offer: to campaign to become the Democratic nominee for Senator in a losing race against a popular incumbent, meaning that McKay can say whatever he wants with no consequences. McKay accepts, and everything goes off the rails.
   Once he has been given the “death sentence” of the official party nomination, McKay soon finds that in order to increase his poll numbers, he has to water down his message—making himself sound just like every other politician. Even though he becomes disheartened with politics, he still has to see the campaign through to the end against his opponent, Republican Senator Crocker Jarmon (played by Don Porter) in one last debate.
   In the end, McKay somehow manages to win a narrow upset, and it only then dawns upon him the crushing responsibility and consequences of what he has gotten himself into. His final question to Lucas: “What do we do now?” is both incredibly haunting and one of the greatest ending lines in film history, paralleling our modern disillusionment with politics.
   The historical background of the film’s production is also interesting as the screenwriter, Jeremy Larner, was previously a speechwriter for the presidential campaign of Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. In 1968, there was tremendous social unrest with President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) and the Democratic Party over the country’s continued involvement in the Vietnam War, leading several people to run as protest candidates to challenge LBJ for the nomination. The most famous of those were Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and the eventual nominee, Minnesota’s own Vice President Hubert Humphrey. After McCarthy’s loss, Larner began writing a screenplay about his experiences, which was turned into this movie.
   Upon the film’s release, it was met with critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1973. Due to this popularity, the picture has been misinterpreted by many viewers, including the future Republican Vice President and “potatoe” enthusiast Dan Quayle, who spoke about trying to model himself on the mannerisms of Bill McKay. This led Larner to reach out to Quayle in an open letter where he stated that “‘The Candidate’ is not a how-to picture, it’s a watch–out picture. And you’re what we’ve got to watch out for.”
   You may be asking yourself: What do we do now? How can I make any difference? Won’t everything just get worse no matter who wins? Let us find “A better way,” and think twice about who you cast your ballot for on Election Day. My rating for “The Candidate” is a cautionary 9/10.
-The Candidate is currently streaming on Turner Classic Movies.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

“So bad, it’s good: a celebration of horrible horror cinema” Part IV.

Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010) (US) = “Look at these birds! I wonder how they died like that!”
This is the newest movie on this list, and unfortunately, it is also the worst. The “plot” follows a couple with no chemistry named Rod and Nathalie as they go about their day working as a software engineer and a Victoria’s Secret model, respectively. Around them, the world is changing rapidly, as spontaneous wildfires appear and birds are dying constantly all around them. Then, the birds are revealed to be mutated by global warming and can now spit toxic acid and spontaneously combust in glorious 240p resolution. After they have a conversation with a self professed “Tree Hugger” where they learn the dangers of global warming, doves appear and the birds fly off into the sunset. James Nguyễn, the director, has stated the main inspirations for the movie were Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic film “The Birds” and Al Gore’s 2006 Oscar winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” While I may believe that climate change is an existential threat to the survival of our species, the potential for it to create mutant vultures was not high on my list of reasons why. The film has all the usual micro budget hallmarks: Washed out lighting, atrocious sound, wooden acting and so on. I wish I could enjoy the film like so many other people, but it lacks any real substance. My rating for “Birdemic: Shock and Terror” is a dismal 1/10.
-Birdemic: Shock and Terror is streaming free on Pluto TV.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

“So bad, it’s good: a celebration of horrible horror cinema” Part III.

Troll 2 (1990) (IT/US) = “They’re eating her! And then they’re going to eat me! OH MY GAHHHHHHHHD!”Often touted as one of the most ironically enjoyable movies of all time “Troll 2” (which has no relation at all to 1986’s “Troll”) still manages to “entertain” after more than 30 years. The story follows a family who decide to vacation in the secluded town of Nilbog (goblin spelled backward) for a month and have to fend off evil vegetarian goblins (not trolls) from turning them into plants. The reason the script is so terrible is that the crew only spoke Italian, and the director refused to let the cast improve on his broken translations. While the victims are supposedly killed by producing liquid “chlorophyll” out of every orifice, it just looks like they spilled antifreeze on them instead. The reason the movie was made is because the director’s wife was “pissed off” that all her friends were becoming vegetarians. I guess the moral of the story is to follow the advice of your dead and damned Grandpa Seth by urinating all over the family dinner table, eating a double-decker bologna sandwich and terminating all vegetarians on sight with extreme prejudice. At least “Troll 2” gave us a funny meme, so I give the film a low 2/10.
-Troll 2 is currently streaming free on Kanopy.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

“So bad, it’s good: a celebration of horrible horror cinema” Part II.

Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) (US) = “Manos, god of primal darkness. As thou has decreed, so have I done. The hands of fate have doomed this man. Thy will is done.” In the not too distant past, last Sunday A.D., I decided to watch a cheesy movie for these reviews. I landed on this absolute piece of crap courtesy of Minnesota’s own “Mystery Science Theater 3000” (which began airing on KTMA-TV, our local channel 23.) The plot follows a family (no last name was given, I guess they never thought that far) who go on a vacation to El Paso, Texas and stumble upon a shifty individual named Torgo. He offered to let them stay the night in his secluded house and then tried to sacrifice them to the deity Manos (Español para “hands.”) After a small round of polygamist shenanigans, the Father and the Dog are murdered, and the Mother and the (EXTREMELY YOUNG) Daughter are forced to become the Master’s wives, apparently standing still for all of eternity. The historical background of the film is also fascinating as the director Harold P. Warren funded the production from his job as a fertilizer salesman after losing a bet to his friend Stirling Silliphant, who would later go on to write the screenplay for the 1967 Best Picture winner “In the Heat of the Night.” If you are wondering how these characters eat and breathe, and other “science” facts, repeat to yourself it is just a bad movie, you should really just relax. My rating for “Manos: The Hands of Fate” is a shoddy 1/10.
-Manos: The Hands of Fate is a part of the Public Domain, and can be freely accessed by all.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

“So bad, it’s good: a celebration of horrible horror cinema” Part I.

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) (US) =
   “Greetings, my friends. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And , my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future.”
   For the longest time, when the discussion of what the worst movie ever made was, this film was crowned with that unenviable distinction. The plot follows the story of a grieving family, where an Old Man (played by Béla Lugosi, the star of 1931’s “Dracula”) got hit by a car and was buried in a grave next to his wife (played by Malia Nurmi). After hearing some disturbances at the local cemetery, detective Daniel Clay (played by Tor Johnson) discovered that their bodies had been taken over…by “GRAVE ROBBERS FROM OUTER SPACE!!!”
   Apparently, humanity had been advancing too quickly into the atomic age, and the aliens feared that Earth would soon build a bomb that would destroy the universe. So naturally, they decided to resort to their ninth best plan and reanimate the recently deceased from their coffins. The production of this film was depicted in Tim Burton’s 1994 Academy Award winning biopic “Ed Wood,” where Martin Landau won the Oscar for Best ing Actor for playing Béla Lugosi. Due to Lugosi’s untimely demise, an extra was often forced to stand in for him in scenes, a practice known in the industry as being a fake Shemp. My rating for “Plan 9 from Outer Space” is a surprisingly enjoyable 4/10.
-Plan 9 from Outer Space is a part of the Public Domain, and can be freely accessed by all.

This review may contain spoilers.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror / Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Graunes (1922) (DE) =
   “Nosferatu. Does this word not sound like the midnight call of the Bird of Death? Do not utter it, or the images of life will fade—into pale shadows and ghostly dreams will rise from your heart and feed your Blood.”
   When one is forced to consider what the most influential and important films of all time actually are, the title “Nosferatu” is bound to come up. After premiering in the German Weimar Republic in 1922, the film was sued by the Stoker estate over violating the copyright of the 1897 novel “Dracula” and was ordered to have every single print destroyed. Despite this setback, five copies of the film managed to survive, and it is now hailed as a proper masterpiece in its own right.
   The plot followed a young German real estate agent named Thomas Hutter (played by Gustav von Wangenheim) who was sent to Transylvania to sell an abandoned manor to the reclusive and nocturnal Count Orlock (portrayed by Max Schreck.) After meeting with Orlock, Hutter accidentally cut himself while eating, and Orlock laments about the waste of “…precious blood” while also making suggestive comments about the neck of Hutter’s sick wife, Ellen (played by Greta Schröder.)
   While Hutter has begun to suspect that Count Orlock may have some nefarious motivations, he does not prevent the deal from going through. However, when he later learned of his true nature as a vampire, it was already too late. Orlock massacred the crew of a ship, and sailed it to his new property, and brought a deadly plague carried by rats along with him.
An important thing to consider is the historical background in which the film was made. Less than four years earlier, World War I came to a close and resulted in the Treaty of Versailles which crippled the German economy and led to a period of rapid hyperinflation and extreme social turmoil. The return of soldiers in 1918 also facilitated the spread of the Spanish Flu, a deadly pandemic that killed over 5% of the global population and forced the world into quarantines eerily similar to our experiences with COVID-19. When viewed through this lens, the film’s depiction of disease carrying rats becomes a lot more relatable to a modern day audience.
   Because the German people needed an escape from the hardships of life, many of them began turning to the cinemas for entertainment. An artistic movement, called German-Expressionism arose, where films began to eschew realism to best capture the emotions of the characters. This resulted in movies being made with more formalist and exaggerated elements, like painted on shadows, slanted camera angles and abstract set designs becoming commonplace in films (such as “Nosferatu”). This period lasted until the German economy briefly stabilized, which led to cheaper American films being bought in bulk, which caused a steep decline in the domestic German film industry.
   A surprising legacy that this film has had on popular culture is in giving the archetype of the vampire a fatal weakness to sunlight. Before this movie, vampires did not commonly share this foil, but Orlock’s iconic death scene has managed to reverberate throughout the collective unconscious so much that sunlight is as famous a vampire repellent as crosses and stakes are. An interesting technique that the film used to differentiate between day and night despite being shot on black and white film is the use of color tinting. Different rolls of monochromatic film were developed and tinted with a blue tint to signify night, which allowed the audience to distinguish between the two times of day.
   Despite being a horror movie, this is one of the very few films to be officially endorsed by the Catholic Church. In 1995, under the permission of Pope John Pauł II (who was a theater student in his youth) the Vatican published a list of 45 films in honor of the 100th anniversary of cinema, and “Nosferatu” was chosen as one of the 15 best examples of art in film. Quite simply put, it is very rare to have something be “Pope approved,” much less a horror movie with satanic elements, which only further serves as a testament to its quality.
As mentioned previously, the film has been critically acclaimed and heralded as one of the greatest movies ever made. One of the most influential and well respected film polls is the decennial Sight and Sound list, where in 2022 “Nosferatu” was tied for the 196th spot on the list.
   Despite being over 102 years old, this story will be returning to theaters. Director Robert Eggers, who is best known for 2019’s “The Lighthouse” and 2015’s “The VVitch” is releasing a remake of the film on Christmas this year. He has cast Bill Skarsgård (who is most famous for playing Pennywise in 2017’s “It”) as Orlock, with Willem Dafoe playing an analog for Professor Van Helsing and Nicholas Hoult playing Hutter. Interestingly, this is not the first time Willem Dafoe has been involved with “Nosferatu”, as he actually portrayed Max Schreck in the 2000 film “Shadow of the Vampire” and received an Oscar nomination for Best ing Actor.
So in conclusion, I highly recommend that you watch this public domain classic. My rating for the legendary “Nosferatu” is a 9/10.
-Nosferatu is a part of the Public Domain, and can be freely accessed by all.

This review may contain spoilers.

Review courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

Megalopolis (2024) (US): A Romantic Monstrosity

“When does an empire die? Does it collapse in one terrible moment? No, no… But there comes a time when its people no longer believe in it.”
   I can say with a high degree of certainty that I have never seen a film quite like “Megalopolis,” and I doubt that I ever will again. While that comment sounds like high praise, being unique and original is not necessarily the only bar for quality.
   The director, Francis Ford Coppola, has had a tumultuous career in Hollywood, with his first major breakthrough coming from co-writing the 1970 Best Picture winner “Patton” (which is also the favorite film of former U.S. President Richard Nixon.) He then directed the critically acclaimed “The Godfather” trilogy, winning two awards for Best Picture and the 1974 Oscar for Best Director for “The Godfather: Part II.” He also won the Palme d’Or twice, the top prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in the south of , in 1974 for “The Conversation” and for 1979’s “Apocalypse Now.”
   Beginning in the 1980s, his career took a major downturn, and despite a brief resurgence in the early 90s with 1988’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” and 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” he never fully recovered. He had at least one more idea for a film about a city in ruins after a tragedy being rebuilt by a singular visionary that would rival even the Roman Empire, but he had to abandon production in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks because of numerous similarities.
   In 2019, when Coppola announced his intention to finally complete his long-gestating ion project “Megalopolis” by financing the 120 million dollar budget with proceeds from his family’s vineyards, the filmmaking world waited with a degree of uncertainty. He entered the film into competition at Cannes in 2024, and the reviews that came out were extremely polarized. People were divided on whether this film served as a true testament to cinema or an abomination created by an out-of-touch director.     
   He managed to get Lionsgate to distribute the film, but it became a box office bomb after only grossing 4 million in its opening weekend. The theater where I saw the film only had another 10 people watching the movie, and the other showtimes did not fare much better. Even though the film may be a complete mess, I still found some redeemable qualities, despite the ludicrous and confusing story.
   The plot follows an architect named Cesar Catalina, played by Adam Driver, who is the head of the Design Authority for the city of New Rome. He has previously won a Nobel Prize (they never mention the discipline; Coppola must not have thought that far) for creating a material called “Megalon,” and he also possesses the ability to stop time with his mind, which is also never explained. He tries to renovate a destroyed neighborhood to create his utopian view of the future made of Megalon, called “Megalopolis.” He feuds with the mayor, Frank Cicero – played by Giancarlo Esposito, who you may recognize as Gus Fring from “Breaking Bad” or as Moff Gideon from “The Mandalorian” – over the future of their city, and Catalina falls in love with Cicero’s daughter named Julia, played by Nathalie Emmanuel. 
   There is also another subplot, which might be even more insane than the main story. Aubrey Plaza stars as the bafflingly named Wow Platinum, an economics reporter who is in love with Catalina and decides to seduce and marry his uncle, Hamilton Crassus III, played by Jon Voight, in order to gain control of his lucrative banking shares. She then teams up with Claudio, Crassus’ estranged nephew (played by Shia Labeouf in a quite terrible performance) to take over the company. They also have a weird, pseudo-incestuous relationship that I was extremely repulsed by.
   Despite these problems, the film does still have some redeeming qualities. One of these is the use of filming techniques from German-Expressionist cinema. It was the film movement that helped birth the main inspiration for the film, the 1927 masterpiece “Metropolis.” From the exaggerated use of shadows during the meteor shower to Catalina’s surreal and disturbing breakdown in the colosseum scene, the frenetic energy possessed in every shot helps to keep your attention throughout the entire film.
   In the end, this feels like 40 years of half-baked ideas crammed into one movie, made by a crew who were too afraid to ever just say no. It means that for better or worse, this film is the exact and singular vision of one man, and for that, it deserves some recognition and praise. If that vision was any good is what you, the viewer, must decide. While other films may be “well-made” and “coherent,” they are not original enough to name their characters “Wow Platinum,” so that must count for something. Overall, I did somewhat enjoy my time with “Megalopolis,” yet my rating is a tepid 3/10.
-Megalopolis is currently playing only in theaters.

This review may contain spoilers.

Text courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.com. Read the full story there!

Joker: Folie à Deux (2024): A Maddening Mess for Two.
   “I wanted to come out here as Joker. I was gonna go on an…angry rant. And blame all of you, and everyone, for this fucking miserable life. But it wouldn’t matter anymore, because I can’t do this anymore. ‘Cause I can’t be who you want me to be. It was all just a fantasy. There is no Joker. It’s just me.”
When the original “Joker” premiered in 2019, it surprised the filmmaking world by winning the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and went on to become the first R-rated movie to gross more than one billion at the global box office, only recently being sured by 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.” It then went on to receive a whopping 11 Academy Award nominations at the 92nd Oscars, winning two: Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix, and Best Original Score for Hildur Guðnadóttir.
   While I may have my problems with the film (the story blatantly follows Martin Scorsese’s plots for 1982’s “The King of Comedy” and 1976’s “Taxi Driver” without adding much new substance of its own), it is undeniable that it was a massive success, and that a sequel would soon be in order. When the director, Todd Phillips, announced that this next movie would be a musical co-starring Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, I was certainly intrigued. But when the film premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, there was much less glowing praise.
The plot follows directly after the events of the first “Joker” film, with Arthur Fleck (reprised by Joaquin Phoenix) arranged in Arkham Asylum awaiting trial for his crimes committed as the “Joker,” when he meets another mental patient named Harleen “Lee” Quinzell (played by Lady Gaga) and they soon fall in love. She brings a bit of song and dance into his humdrum life, and Fleck soon faces the full force of the law, as well as his own moral com.
   In of other additions to the cast, Brenden Gleeson (who you may recognize as “Mad-Eye Moody” from the “Harry Potter” series and from his Oscar-nominated role in 2022’s “The Banshees of Inisherin”) plays prison guard Jackie Sullivan, who has an antagonistic relationship with Fleck. Catherine Keener also has a small role in the film, playing Fleck’s defense attorney Maryanne Stewart.
   The film has been very controversial with critics and audiences alike, specifically in regards to how the film treats the strong and emphatic response that the first movie received, and repeatedly condemns the viewer for harboring any enjoyment for the previous picture. In the film, it is repeatedly mentioned that a “TV movie” was made about Fleck’s criminal escapades, and several characters criticize it for being senselessly violent and ruining their lives. Harley is portrayed as a stand-in for the superfans of the original film, claiming to have watched it “…about 20 times” and basing her whole personality around what she saw on the screen. Even though I have my issues with the previous movie, throwing your audience under the bus like this is just in extremely poor taste.
   In of the musical aspect of the film, it was not horrible by any sense of the word, but it was by no means exceptional either. After winning an Oscar for the previous movie, I expected Guðnadóttir to really steal the show with this film, but her score was noticeably more subdued this time around, and I could not particularly any moment where her work added to the ambiance of the finished piece.
   Most of the songs in the film are in the style of a jukebox musical, where characters spontaneously burst into dance to pre-existing tunes, and while Lady Gaga sounds phenomenal as always, Phoenix sings with a rather flat and raspy voice that becomes grating after an hour or so. I was honestly confused as to why he did such a bad job, given his excellent musical performance as Johnny Cash in the 2005 biopic “Walk the Line,” so it must be an issue with his direction. While I consider myself a fan of musicals, I felt bored with the numbers in this film because they interrupted the plot. In good musicals, the songs help move the plot along, in contrast to this film repeatedly dragging the same story beats over and over again.
   There was at least one aspect of the film that consistently excelled, and that was the cinematography. The frequent use of high contrast lighting, strong compositions and pops of color make this film a visual treat. It was the only part of the movie where I could feel the increased budget translated itself into the end product.
   In short, if you just want to see this film for Lady Gaga (such as the seven girls who watched the film in the same showing as me, the only other people there…), then you might enjoy yourself. If you want to see a satisfying continuation of the previous movie, just watch “The King of Comedy” instead – you’ll thank me later. “Joker: Folie à Deux” isn’t so much a bad film, but a bland and forgettable work, which leads me to give it a mediocre 5/10.

Text courtesy of the Hamline Oracle.


Cure /『キュア』(1997 / 平成九年) (日本) = “People like to think a crime has meaning. But most of them don’t.” With the month of October now upon us, many people enjoy getting into the mood of the spooky season by watching Horror movies, so I would like to take my time to sell you on an under-seen Horror gem: “Cure.” The plot follows Detective Kenichi Takabe–played excellently by Kōji Yakusho, who recently starred in 2023’s Oscar nominated film “Perfect Days” / 『パーフェクト・デイズ』–as he investigates a gruesome series of serial killings in Tōkyō with an identical modus of operandi: The victim is swiftly killed and a large letter “X” is carved into their neck. However, the part which confuses the investigators is that the perpetrators have no relation to each other, and are unable to why they committed their crimes. While his working life transforms into a frustrating nightmare, Kenichi also has to help his wife Fumie adjust to her new mental illness, which only further serves to expedite the unraveling of his own mental health. 
Elsewhere, a man calling himself Mamiya-played by Masato Hagiwara-washes up on a beach with no memory of his life, his only possessions are the clothes on his back and a cigarette lighter; and wherever he goes death seems to follow in his wake. The Director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, got his start making low budget direct-to-video productions in the 80’s, and “Cure” was his first theatrical release, becoming a progenitor of the Japanese-Horror wave that swept the international film scene with movies such as 1998’s “Ringu” /『リング』and 2002’s “Ju-On: The Grudge” /『呪怨』. One of the things that most struck me when seeing this film was Kurosawa’s ability to capture the audience's attention and mesmerize them with simple, but immensely effective uses of repetition with the everyday elements of fire and water. By using such hypnotic and powerful imagery, he is able to fully enthrall the viewer within the world of the film, making them question themselves as to whether they would be able to resist Mamiya’s persuasive temptations. The sound design is also impeccable, utilizing droning background noises like a perpetually running washing machine or gusts of wind to never quite give you a chance to be fully at ease when watching the movie. The use of violence, while infrequent, is notable in its matter of presentation. There is no sudden buildup in tension, no musical score egging on the action, it is simply plain and understated. To depict tragedy without any excess flourishes, only contextualizing it with the mundane backdrop of our daily existence, is what makes it truly horrifying. As someone who fell in love with Japanese cinema after watching Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s 2021 masterpiece “Drive My Car” /『ドライブ・マイ・カー』, I was taken aback by the surprising amount of similarities in the filmic language of both pictures. The extensive use of wide shots, long takes and static framings shared between the two films seemed more than coincidental. After reading more about the director, I was surprised to learn that he is a professor at Tōkyō University of the Arts and that Hamaguchi was his college student. As a cinephile, to see the evolution of filmmaking techniques from their inspirations and recognize their use in other works is immensely rewarding. I am far from being alone in my adoration of this film, as “Cure” has also earned the praise of many industry professionals. When the great Bong Joon-ho (the director of 2019’s Best Picture winning “Parasite” / “기생충”) has been asked by the British magazine Sight and Sound to provide a list of the 10 greatest films of all time, he has always included “Cure” on his lists.
Another director that has praised this film is the legendary Martin Scorsese, who stated in a review for DirectTV that “This is one of the very best films by the extremely talented Kiyoshi Kurosawa… He’s an absolute master of light, framing and pacing, and he has so much control over all three that there are moments in his movies when the slightest gesture in the corner of the frame will send a shiver down your spine.” Kiyoshi Kurosawa is still making movies to this day, and his most recent picture, “Cloud” / 『クラウド』, has been selected as the Japanese entry for this year’s Oscar for Best International Feature Film, which we will soon be hearing more about throughout the year’s Oscar season. I hope that this review can persuade at least one reader to seek this film out, and you won't regret it. 10/10.
-Cure is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

Review from the Hamline Oracle.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) (US) = “The juice is loose!” After a 35-year-long slumber, Director Tim Burton has decided to resurrect the dormant cadaver of the “Beetlejuice” franchise and create a sequel to his beloved 80’s comedic cult classic. Thankfully, he has decided against developing the script “Beetlejuice Goes Hawai’ian” and instead continued the story of the first film, just without the ghostly machinations of Mr. and Mrs. Maitland and focusing only on the struggles of the Deetz family.
   The plot follows Lydia Deetz, reprised by Winona Ryder, who has a strained relationship with her daughter, Astrid Deetz, played by Jenna Ortega, who returns to work with Tim Burton after they collaborated on the hit Netflix show “Wednesday.”
   Astrid accidentally traps her soul in the land of the dead, and Lydia is left with no other solution but to call upon the being that terrorized her family when she was a teenager: Beetlegeuse, who is once again reprised by the great Micheal Keaton Douglas. She s him on a journey into the afterlife in an attempt to save her daughter’s soul, and all hell breaks loose.
The rest of the cast also gave good performances, including Catherine O’Hara reprising her role as Delia Deetz, Justin Theroux as Lydia’s new boyfriend Rory, Monica Bellucci as Beetleguese’s ex-wife Delores, Danny Devito as a janitor, Burn Gorman as the town priest, and Willem Dafoe as a B-list movie star turned afterlife detective named Wolf Jackson.
   Some of the best aspects of the original movie were its practical effects and wacky character designs, which helped it win the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling in 1988. This sequel has more than managed to live up to it, becoming a strong contender in the same category for this year’s Oscars.
   The gothic production design and art direction also manage to impress, allowing a ghoulish mood to permeate throughout the entire film. Another change from the first movie is that with a PG-13 rating, they can now show more gore and decomposition of the ghosts and corpses of the afterlife — adding a bit more realism to the picture, which I appreciated.
   While there has been some criticism of the multiple plot lines being hard to follow, I did not view it as an issue as I found the film relatively straightforward.
   Something else that I noticed is how both Beetlejuice movies parody the “Dune” franchise. The original based the designs of Saturn’s worms off the ones used in David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, and this film copied Denis Villeneuve’s depiction of vibrating sand from his 2021 remake. The last note I will make about the film is that the same comedic tone and jokes of the original continue throughout the sequel, making sure any audience who are squeamish about horror movies can still enjoy themselves.
   While I quite enjoyed this new addition to the franchise, I would not recommend it to anyone who has yet to see the original, as you would be missing out on too many references. However, if you are interested in returning to this wacky world, you are in for a shockingly good time in the theater. Overall, my rating is an 8/10.
-Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is currently playing only in theaters.

Man With A Movie Camera / Человек С Киноаппаратом / Людина З Кіноапаратом (1929) (СССР-УКР) = “For the attention of the spectator: This film represents AN EXPERIMENTATION IN THE CINEMATIC COMMUNICATION Of visual phenomena WITHOUT THE USE OF INTERTITLES (a film without intertitles) WITHOUT THE HELP OF A SCENARIO (a film without a scenario) WITHOUT THE HELP OF THEATRE (a film without actors, without sets, etc.) This new experimentation work by Kino-Eye is directed towards the creation of an authentically international absolute language of cinema on the basis of its complete separation from the language of theatre and literature.” Life. Humanity. Cinema. These are the things that Dziga Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera tries to capture in their purest essence. Created in opposition to all forms of tradition, and serving to declare the independence of cinema as an art form, it revolutionizes the language of film itself, all while being almost 100 years old! The sheer variety of camera transitions and filmmaking techniques on display is astounding, and strikingly modern, which goes to show how influential its impact truly was. Showing people living their lives with no story or narrative to follow through on sounds boring on paper, its execution is one of the most beautiful things ever put to celluloid. To have the balls to to show its own editing process, calling attention to the picture’s own artifice, is nothing short of astonishing. While I wouldn’t quite say it is one of the 10 greatest films of all time (à la Sight & Sound), it certainly qualifies as one of the most important films ever made, and well worth your time, even to this day. 10/10.
-Man With A Movie Camera is a part of the Public Domain, and can be freely accessed by all.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) (US) = “The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live TV. 12 hours later, it was history. And it's all true.” I have previously sung the praises of the great Sidney Lumet when reviewing his masterpieces Network and 12 Angry Men, and I sincerely hoped that Dog Day Afternoon would be able to stand toe to toe with them in the pantheon of cinema. I’m glad to say that he has once again cemented himself as one of the greatest directors of all time with another home run. Adapted from the real life story of John “Sonny” Wójtowicz’s and Salvatore Naturile’s robbery of the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1972, and the subject media frenzy that ensued. The naturalistic acting from Al Pacino and John Cazale stand out as career best performances, with the screenplay also standing out as a work of utter perfection. The way the crowd plays off of Sonny is simply electrifying and disturbing, showcasing how parasocial relationships can quickly run amok. The (real life) twist of Sonny being a homosexual with the goal of stealing money for his husband's sex change operation was absolutely shocking, and absolutely unheard of for the 70’s. While it was nominated for best picture in 1975 (as part of one of the greatest lineups ever for the category) it ended up losing to Miloš Foreman’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and only winning an award for its screenplay. Still, I highly recommend this movie as one of the finest I have ever seen. A true masterpiece. 10/10.
Dog Day Afternoon is currently streaming on Paramount+.

All That Jazz (1979) (US) = “It’s showtime folks!” When I first watched this film a few weeks ago, I enjoyed it, but didn’t think much of it initially. However, it has stayed with me and I can’t get it out of my head. Right after that incredible audition sequence that features some of the best editing that I have ever seen, we switch to Bob Fosse’s compelling character study of… Bob Fosse. The film is loosely based off of his life during the editing of Lenny and during the writing of Chicago (a film that I quite enjoy, and would later on to win Best Picture in 2002), and his various moral failings during the same time. The musical numbers are incredible, with extremely catchy lyrics and incredible directing to make the sequences really stick with you. My favorite part of the film, however, was the Bye, Bye, Life! finale, bringing an expressionistic and experimental flavor to the movie picture, with the final shot managing to take my breath away. Even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of musicals, I highly implore you to give this incredible film a go. 10/10.
-All That Jazz is available from the Criterion Collection.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (AU/US) = “I’m going to die historic on the fury road, riding eternal to the gates of Valhalla shiny and chrome. Witness me!” Holy shit. I am absolutely floored and in pure awe at this magnificent piece of cinema. The visual splendor and kinetic action is simply bursting out of every frame in a glorious cacophony of color. The surprisingly feminist narrative and incredible performances also help the movie excell to new heights. The rest of the Mad Max series has now jumped up significantly on my watchlist, and I can’t wait to experience more excellent cinema like this picture. A true masterpiece on every conceivable level. 10/10.
-Mad Max: Fury Road is currently streaming on Max.

War And Peace / Война И Миръ (1965-1967) (СССР-РФ) = “What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person. On what condition are the wills of the masses transferred to one person? On condition that the person expresses the will of the whole people. That is, power is power. That is, power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand.” There is nothing to say about War And Peace, other than to simply be in sheer awe about its mere existence. It is quite possibly the single most grand, expansive (and expensive) film ever made. Its gargantuan runtime of over 7 hours and an estimated budget of OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS serve to mimic the quality of Leo Tolstoy’s original masterpiece. The director, Sergei Bondarchuk managed to get the full cooperation of the Soviet state in the production, being granted a nigh unlimited budget and the use of the Red Army in order to accurately recreate the scale of the Napoléonic Wars. The Battle Of Borodino was shot to scale, on location, with 15,000 soldiers serving as extras and hundreds of period accurate cannons being created for the film. Its 30 minutes duration may possibly be the most impressive battle scene ever put to film. The grand ballroom dances are also lavishly shot, and quite experimental in their execution. They also managed to shut down Red Square and film on location, and build a scale recreation of the city of Moscow solely so it could be burnt to a crisp. The acting is also quite good, with Ludmila Savelyeva as Natasha Rostova and Sergei Bondarchuk as Pierre Bezukhov being the standout performances. While the 7 hour runtime may seem intimidating, the film is broken up into 4 chunks that make it far more manageable to experience. I highly recommend this absolute masterclass in cinema. 10/10
-War And Peace is available from the Criterion Collection, and streaming free on YouTube from the official Mosfilm channel.

1. The Phoenician Scheme
2. Sinners
3. Mickey 17
4. The Wedding Banquet
5. A Minecraft Movie
6. La guerre des étoiles

A close to complete list of every single film that I own either physically or digitally.

1. The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
2. Whisper of the Heart
3. Kiki's Delivery Service
4. Princess Mononoke
5. Grave of the Fireflies
6. Spirited Away
7. The Wind Rises
8. Everything Everywhere All at Once
9. Drive My Car
10. West Side Story

...plus 1144 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Apartment
2. High and Low
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
4. The Great Escape
5. Tokyo Olympiad
6. Lawrence of Arabia
7. War and Peace
8. Yojimbo
9. Midnight Cowboy
10. Harakiri

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

1. Woman in the Dunes
2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
3. Mary Poppins
4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
5. A Hard Day's Night
6. Zorba the Greek

1. The Night of the Hunter
2. One Froggy Evening
3. Rififi
4. Kiss Me Deadly
5. Marty

1. The Silence of the Lambs
2. Raise the Red Lantern
3. Barton Fink
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
5. A Brief History of Time
6. Only Yesterday
7. The Commitments
8. Father of the Bride
9. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
10. Rhapsody in August

Note: I am counting every film to have been awarded the top prize at the Academy Awards, which includes Sunrise: A Tale Of Two Humans, and La La Land. I am also considering the prior films in a series for any Sequel best picture winner (The Godfather, and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy).

1. Amadeus
2. The Apartment
3. Parasite
4. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
5. Forrest Gump
6. The Godfather Part II
7. Schindler's List
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
9. Rocky
10. The Godfather

...plus 41 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Artist
2. Hugo
3. Moneyball
4. The Tree of Life
5. Midnight in Paris
6. War Horse
7. The Help
8. The Descendants
9. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

1. A Separation
2. From Up on Poppy Hill
3. Captain America: The First Avenger
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
5. The Muppets
6. The Artist
7. Hugo
8. The Adventures of Tintin
9. Rio
10. Moneyball

1. Flow
2. The French Dispatch
3. Isle of Dogs
4. Mahjong
5. A Confucian Confusion
6. Cairo Station
7. Saving Face
8. Compensation
9. Shoeshine
10. You Can Count on Me

...plus 1674 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. La La Land
2. Hacksaw Ridge
3. Moonlight
4. Hidden Figures
5. Manchester by the Sea
6. Hell or High Water
7. Fences
8. Arrival

1. The Searchers
2. Tragedy in a Temporary Town
3. The Red Balloon
4. Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

1. Train to Busan
2. Your Name.
3. The Handmaiden
4. La La Land
5. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
6. Shin Godzilla
7. The Red Turtle
8. Doctor Strange
9. Captain America: Civil War
10. Hacksaw Ridge

This is a list for the 22 films to have been seen by 4,000,000 individual Letterboxd as of May 24th, 2025.

Latest Additions:
№22: Dune (2021) on May 23rd, 2025
№21: Avengers: Endgame (2019) on May 22nd, 2025
№20: Up (2009) on May 5th, 2025

Fun Facts:

First Film To Be Watched By 4 million : Parasite (2019)
№1: Parasite in 1,908 days (Premiere)
№1: Parasite in 1,899 days (Theatrical Release)
№1: Parasite in 1,218 days (From 1M to 4M)
№1: Parasite in 666 days (From 2M to 4M)
№1: Parasite in 288 days (From 3M to 4M)

Fastest Film To Be Watched By 4 Million : Barbie (2023)
№4: Barbie in 413 days (Premiere)
№4: Barbie in 401 days (Theatrical Release)
№4: Barbie in 392 days (From 1M to 4M)
№4: Barbie in 310 days (From 2M to 4M)
№4: Barbie in 198 days (From 3M to 4M)

Films Released In Each Decade:
2020's (2), 2010's (14), 2000’s (2), 1990's (4)

Oldest Films In The Club:
№9: Pulp Fiction (1994), №14: Forrest Gump (1994), №12: The Truman Show (1998)

Director(s) With The Most Films In The Club:
Christopher Nolan (3), Damien Chazelle (2), Pete Doctor (2), Joe & Anthony Russo (2)

Highest-Rated Film:
№1: Parasite (4.6)
Lowest-Rated Film:
№4: Barbie (3.8)

Best Picture Oscar Winners: 2
№1: Parasite (2020), №14: Forrest Gump (1995)

Best Director Oscar Winners: 3
Bong Joon-ho (№1: Parasite, 2020), Damien Chazelle (№10: La La Land, 2017), Robert Zemeckis (№14: Forrest Gump, 1995)

Cannes Palme d’Or Winners: 2
№1: Parasite (2019), №9: Pulp Fiction (1994)

Berlin Golden Bear Winners: 0

Venice Golden Lion Winners: 1
№2: Joker (2019)

Films Not In The English Language: 1
№1: 기생충 (2019)
Films Directed By Women: 1
№4: Barbie (2023)
Films In The Official Letterboxd Top 250 List: 7
Films In The All Time Worldwide Box Office List: 7
Films In The Criterion Collection: 2
№1054: Parasite (2019), (Laserdisc) №271: Pulp Fiction (1994)

Next Films To :
The Batman (2022), Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), Midsommar (2019)

List Growth Each Year:
Films added in 2024= 7
Films added in 2025= 15*

Other Clubs:
One Million Watched Club
Two Million Watched Club
Three Million Watched Club
Five Million Watched Club

1. Dune

   №22: Date Added= May 23rd, 2025.

2. Avengers: Endgame

   №21: Date Added= May 22nd, 2025.

3. Up

   №20: Date Added= May 5th, 2025.

4. Whiplash

   №19: Date Added= April 30th, 2025.

5. Inside Out

   №18: Date Added= April 21st, 2025.

6. Avengers: Infinity War

   №17: Date Added= March 30th, 2025.

7. The Wolf of Wall Street

   №16: Date Added= February 22nd, 2025.

8. Knives Out

   №15: Date Added= February 20th, 2025.

9. Forrest Gump

   №14: Date Added= February 3rd, 2025.

10. Ratatouille

    №13: Date Added= January 29th, 2025.

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Sentimental Value
2. Ann Lee
3. Superman
4. The Adventure Time Movie
5. Evil Does Not Exist
6. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
7. Black Box Diaries
8. Wicked: For Good
9. The Life of Chuck
10. Highest 2 Lowest

1. Whisper of the Heart
2. Heat
3. La Haine
4. A Close Shave
5. Sense and Sensibility
6. The Usual Suspects
7. Fallen Angels
8. Toy Story
9. Mr. Holland's Opus
10. Jumanji

1. Grave of the Fireflies
2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
3. Elemental
4. The Wild Robot
5. Manchester by the Sea
6. The Platform
7. Scream
8. X-Men: Apocalypse
9. Sherlock Holmes
10. Heat

...plus 514 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Truman Show
2. Life Is Beautiful
3. Saving Private Ryan
4. After Life
5. Ring
6. The Big Lebowski
7. The Celebration
8. Following
9. Mulan
10. Pokémon: The First Movie

1. Ugetsu
2. Roman Holiday
3. Tokyo Story
4. The Wages of Fear
5. Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
6. Peter Pan
7. The Studebaker Story
8. The Seafarers

1. Malcolm X
2. Unforgiven
3. Bram Stoker's Dracula
4. My Cousin Vinny
5. Porco Rosso
6. Wayne's World
7. Army of Darkness
8. The Muppet Christmas Carol
9. Glengarry Glen Ross
10. Scent of a Woman

1. The Last Emperor
2. Moonstruck
3. Broadcast News
4. Fatal Attraction
5. Hope and Glory

1. Rain Man
2. Dangerous Liaisons
3. Mississippi Burning
4. Working Girl
5. The Accidental Tourist

1. Field of Dreams
2. Dead Poets Society
3. My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown
4. Born on the Fourth of July
5. Driving Miss Daisy

1. GoodFellas
2. Awakenings
3. Dances with Wolves
4. Ghost
5. The Godfather Part III

• The Silence of the Lambs
• JFK
• Beauty and the Beast
• Bugsy
• The Prince of Tides

1. Unforgiven
2. Scent of a Woman
3. The Crying Game
4. A Few Good Men
5. Howards End

1. Schindler's List
2. The Piano
3. The Fugitive
4. In the Name of the Father
5. The Remains of the Day

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Forrest Gump
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Four Weddings and a Funeral
5. Quiz Show

1. Sense and Sensibility
2. Babe
3. Braveheart
4. Apollo 13
5. The Postman

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. The Big Short
3. Spotlight
4. The Martian
5. Bridge of Spies
6. Brooklyn
7. Room
8. The Revenant

1. Vice
2. BlacKkKlansman
3. Black Panther
4. Roma
5. A Star Is Born
6. Green Book
7. Bohemian Rhapsody
8. The Favourite

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. The Big Short
3. Spotlight
4. Inside Out
5. The Martian
6. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
7. Steve Jobs
8. The Childhood of a Leader
9. Ant-Man
10. The Peanuts Movie

1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
2. Kiki's Delivery Service
3. Do the Right Thing
4. Field of Dreams
5. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
6. Back to the Future Part II
7. Dead Poets Society
8. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
9. A Grand Day Out
10. Batman

1. Ratatouille
2. Michael Clayton
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Hot Fuzz
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
7. No Country for Old Men
8. Spider-Man 3
9. The Simpsons Movie
10. Enchanted

1. Michael Clayton
2. There Will Be Blood
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Juno
5. Atonement

1. Incendies
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
3. Black Swan
4. Shutter Island
5. Toy Story 3
6. The Social Network
7. Inception
8. How to Train Your Dragon
9. Megamind
10. Tangled

1. Drive My Car
2. The Worst Person in the World
3. West Side Story
4. Belfast
5. The Suicide Squad
6. CODA
7. Dune
8. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
9. Spider-Man: No Way Home
10. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

• Alexander Nevsky
• Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations
• Olympia: Part Two – Festival of Beauty

1. Amadeus
2. Back to the Future
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4. The Empire Strikes Back
5. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
6. Ran
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. Kiki's Delivery Service
9. The Shining
10. Grave of the Fireflies

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

1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
3. Persona
4. The Battle of Algiers
5. Andrei Rublev
6. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
7. Patriotism
8. How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
9. Hawaii
10. The War of the Gargantuas

1. Brokeback Mountain
2. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
3. The Brutalist
4. The Wedding Banquet
5. Cabaret
6. Pride & Prejudice
7. The Hidden Fortress
8. Little Miss Sunshine
9. Flow
10. Close-Up

1. Malcolm X
2. Princess Mononoke
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Whisper of the Heart
5. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
6. Groundhog Day
7. Farewell My Concubine
8. Cure
9. Forrest Gump
10. GoodFellas

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

1. Network
2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3. Dog Day Afternoon
4. The Godfather Part II
5. Rocky
6. The Emigrants
7. Barry Lyndon
8. The Godfather
9. Alien
10. Apocalypse Now

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

1. Ikiru
2. Singin' in the Rain
3. Seven Samurai
4. 12 Angry Men
5. The Seventh Seal
6. The Night of the Hunter
7. The Hidden Fortress
8. Ace in the Hole
9. Rear Window
10. Sunset Boulevard

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

1. Ratatouille
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
3. Mulholland Drive
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
5. Elf
6. Memories of Murder
7. Brokeback Mountain
8. Spirited Away
9. The Prestige
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Shining
3. Raging Bull
4. The Blues Brothers
5. Kagemusha
6. Airplane!
7. Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
8. Spinal Tap: The Final Tour
9. Olympic Spirit
10. The Blue Lagoon

1. The Apartment
2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
4. Mulholland Drive
5. Brokeback Mountain
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
7. Metropolis
8. Fargo
9. Lawrence of Arabia
10. Train to Busan

1. Another Round
2. Minari
3. Hamilton
4. Palm Springs
5. The Trial of the Chicago 7
6. Onward
7. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
8. Soul
9. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
10. Bill & Ted Face the Music

1. Minari
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7
3. Nomadland
4. The Father
5. Judas and the Black Messiah
6. Promising Young Woman
7. Mank
8. Sound of Metal

1. Django Unchained
2. It's Such a Beautiful Day
3. Lincoln
4. Life of Pi
5. The Hunt
6. The Avengers
7. Skyfall
8. 21 Jump Street
9. Argo
10. The Campaign