4v291o

You have to respect this movie for never ending.

American cinema has not explored the ive observer Holocaust angle like Europe. Would love to pair this with Mr Klein.

Visually quite compelling and an interesting slant on the source material (although my friend who watched it with me and was unfamiliar with Dracula/Nosferatu was noticeably confused). Too few scares and one too many mustaches. Depp was great.

This was fun. Moves pretty fast. I sense some studio interference in the last act which kinda falls off, though.

Murray’s time to shine. 

Somehow both trite and substantial, it runs a little long and Hulce’s acting can’t quite rise to the challenge of the third act’s demands, but he’s charming for most of it and the music is exquisite.  Looks good, too. Stands apart from other biopics thanks to the specificity of its perspective.

Watched on Thursday March 6, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday March 4, 2025.

I was appreciative of the artistry all along, but feeling sort of indifferent and unsure if the flashback storytelling was really helpful, but I will be haunted by the final moments for the rest of my life. I feel like one of the strangers in the film. It was all building to that and Ms. Varda, of course, knows how to stick the landing.

Like watching an okay play, but worse

Great performances across the board, although I find Morgan to be operating in lower key than the rest (maybe because of some of distasteful things he had to enact, in a roll that seems written for a white man, which changes the way much of his story lands, not always successfully imo) and the kid’s performance—who, to his credit, could have been much more annoying—doesn’t add much to the film for me. Hackman in god mode. Harris, Rubinek, and Clint all fantastic. If I’m being honest, the movie is good most of the way, but doesn’t kick into masterpiece territory until the final act.

Watched on Friday February 28, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday February 25, 2025.

Watched on Monday February 24, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Sturges was a hater. Gotta love it. Final 30 seconds had me dying.

A lot of familiar faces and some very good laughs, but a little thin as a feature. Would have been a great hour long special.

Watched on Saturday February 1, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 7, 2025.

Marshall makes a tepid romantic comedy out of a bittersweet look at loneliness. I don't mind that the actors cast are considered more attractive physically than the "plainness" required by the roles, however, it is a stretch to me, not that Pfeiffer could be alone for so long being as beautiful as she is, but that someone that beautiful would fall for someone as needy, self-centered, and annoying as Pacino's Johnny (operating here with a charisma near zero). However, this is easily the best performance I've ever seen Michelle Pfeiffer give. I was very impressed and even fell in love a little myself.

Watched on Monday January 27, 2025.

Watched on Friday January 24, 2025.

I enjoyed myself. Good satire, great gore, nice ass. Makes its points without being preachy or sacrificing its entertainment value. Dennis Quaid could have been a great choice if he had just been himself. Instead he seems like a man wearing a mask on top of a mask.

Watched on Wednesday January 22, 2025.

There’s nothing like the melancholia of a winter western. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis struck gold with this score.

Me trying real hard to care which creep gets elected pope. Spoiler: they made the right choice. But is this really the process for picking the pope??? If so, I have no comment.

I loved everything about this except the movie itself. It’s making me think, though. And that’s what I like. Gonna keep chewing on this one…

Rewatched episodes 17 and 18. The last 90 minutes are the finest in all of Lynch and Deming’s oeuvre. I was not prepared in 2017 for this ending, but it occupies more space in my imagination now than even the finale of Season Two. God mode. Godspeed.

Still not my favorite. Might be even worse than Dune? (I don’t know - haven’t seen Dune.) And yet, it’s not supposed to be more than it is: a ridiculous romp through Lynch’s love of movies. All of his worst impulses are riding up front here, but it is always engrossing and ultimately even moving, in spite of itself. Oh, Sailor! 

RIP to an American giant, master artist, and inspiration; the gift that keeps on giving. 💙

Not funny enough to power a 90 minute  screwball comedy let alone 140, but I had a decent time. Why does she say f****t so much??

This review may contain spoilers.

If you’re going to make stuff up, why not make up interesting stuff? A waste of Henry Fonda. Tony Curtis is good in the final scenes (during which, no joke, he stands in the corner of a white room maniacally strangling thin air). Three stars because it isn’t BAD, per se. It’s just flat as hell. Makes you appreciate Zodiac even more.

Yes, times have changed. Used to be you could kidnap a teenage girl and take her to Mexico and not lose your guest spot on Oprah. Not so, today. Something something green hair nose ring

we’re so screwed

I loved the book so much in high school that I always struggled to get into the movie. Now, having finally watched it all the way through, I have to wonder if even the book is any good? 

In this version, the miscast Nicholson’s MacMurphy gets what he deserves.

Watched on Wednesday January 8, 2025.

Not the master’s best but Liv is outstanding and Sven’s cinematography never disappoints. Some freaky shit in here. as usual. Thanks to Kanopy for streaming it !

Probably Wes’ warmest film, but still very sad. I really appreciate his affinity for the aesthetics of live theatre, now I just wish he’d see an actual play.

Far and away the best Mattel commercial ever.

This misunderstood and under appreciated film's visceral grasp on what its like to have a mental illness is unlike anything I've ever seen. Despite making me laugh regularly, this was devastating--an almost unbearably painful look at a private struggle. Brie's performance is heartbreaking. Rest in peace, Jeff. I'll always look up to you.

Watched on Thursday January 2, 2025.

This is a beautiful movie. Hepburn is wonderful.

Watched on Monday November 25, 2024.

No rating because I couldn’t even make it halfway through. Was so relieved to see the bad reviews, as I thought the problem might be with me. No disrespect to every hard working mother on the planet, but they deserve a more enjoyable, less pedantic, and exhaustingly obvious film through which to vent their well-warranted frustrations. 

And before you accuse me of any ill will toward the fairer sex, know that after I turned it off I watched Summertime with Katharine Hepburn, instead!

Watched on Monday December 30, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday December 31, 2024.

I laughed more than a few times which was worth the ride, even if it didn’t move me, ultimately.

Connor Mherson, the great Irish playwright behind the Bob Dylan musical, Girl From the North Country, revealed in an interview that it was Dylan's people who had approached him about writing a play--any play--and incorporating Bob's songs into it, not the other way around, despite his not having ever been a Dylan fan (spoiler alert: he became one while working on the play). The point was: Dylan was a Mherson fan. But what else was revealed was the extent to which Dylan was actively curating his growing cultural legacy from behind the scenes.
Since every good Dylan fan knows Bob loves the movie Cop Land, Mangold's flawed but highly watchable early film, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that, much like the Dylan musical, this film was made at the behest of "Dylan Corp," and God Bless them for that. However, no project sanctioned by Bob Dylan, let alone created at his request, would ever let us see his face and live. Nothing is revealed, as they say. And the Dylan lyric chosen for the film's title winks at this inevitability, preemptively justifying the film's seeming disinterest in his motivations or inner life.
If you are not going to reveal anything to me about this person, you'd better play me a lot of great music, and, I'm happy to say they did. I can have my gripes about this or that but the team's love, respect, and iration for the music of Bob Dylan--and for protecting the creative spirit--are so clear, not to speak of the great care that went into reproducing it loyally, if not always faithfully.
Too much time is spent on the love/sex triangle, giving both women ample screen time while also reducing them to little. If we aren't going to reveal anything, play more music. This time the wrong choices were made, I think.
All the images glow with warmth and in that way it succeeds as comfort viewing, not dissimilar to Dylan's classic recordings themselves. (A friend once put on the record New Morning to bring me out of a bad acid trip and it worked!) It isn't talked about much, but I go to Bob's music just as often to feel swaddled up in the warm blanket of sound as I do for the lyrics.
All the performances are strong, but I wasn't expecting to see one of Edward Norton's best performances ever. He is marvelous and its a treat. I love that they featured Toshi so much, too.

I'll see it again, sure!

Watched on Wednesday December 25, 2024.

Drags a little toward the end 🥲

I can’t believe I slept on this for so long. Infectious joy of filmmaking. Ricki Lake is so good

Accepting the mystery? So important.

Cinematic Chicken Soup.

Beautiful films that have—either explicitly or implicitly—suicide on their minds.

• The Fire Within
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• La Dolce Vita
• I Knew Her Well
• The Tenant
• Our Father
• Manchester by the Sea

My favorites, in order, as best I could.

• Fargo
• The Big Lebowski
• A Serious Man
• No Country for Old Men
• Barton Fink
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Miller's Crossing
• The Hudsucker Proxy
• Blood Simple
• Raising Arizona

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

Regardless of what's better or best, these are ranked in order of my preference.

1. Taxi Driver

   Flawless cinematography, performances, direction, and score. Wildly inventive, mad, dangerous, and still shocking to this day. Containing many of my favorite sequences ever put on film. Actual horror.

2. GoodFellas

   Cinematic candy; you know its gonna make you sick but you just can't stop eating it. High in the running for most re-watchable film.

3. Mean Streets

   Not the best film taken as a whole, but the vibes are so strong, colors so vibrant, camera moves so thrilling, you hardly notice. Plus, we'll never see DeNiro play a character like this again, and Harvey's only lead role in a Marty film, which is too bad; he's wonderful.

4. After Hours

   Michael Ballhaus comes aboard to make one of Marty's most dementedly photographed films, propelled by Griffin Dunne's A+ masterstroke comedic lead performance, and littered with wonderful ing players.

5. Raging Bull

   I am fascinated by DeNiro's fascination with this character, who, he will be the first to tell you, is "not a cockroach." However, his story is not one that really resonates for me. Part of the puzzle of knowing what this film is trying to say exactly is what draws me back again and again, but it is touch sometimes to care what happens. The filmmaking, editing, and sound design, however, are on another level entirely; as good as it gets.

6. The King of Comedy

   Discovering this seldom discussed film in high school felt like discovering a portal to another timeline. This is a Martin Scorsese movie??? This is Robert DeNiro??? Talking to cardboard cutouts in his mother's basement??? Pinched a lifetime of quotable dialogue from this.

7. The Irishman

   The truth is I've probably binged this more than any other Scorsese. It became like comfort food. I could just put it on, anywhere in the film, and be warmly bathed in these beautiful colors and caring, careful, delicate performances. People who bailed early because they didn't like the de-aging of the first hour, missed out one of the most sensitive, selfless, and warm performances of DeNiro's whole career; his work here went wholly underrated. A personal favorite from him.

8. Casino

   Cold, assured, sicko stuff.

9. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
10. New York, New York

    Absolutely batshit. Stunning from start to finish. When Liza tearfully says, "I thought it would be different," and DeNiro angrily shakes her and yells, "It is different!" I died laughing.

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

• Ikiru
• Synecdoche, New York
• Punch-Drunk Love
• The Straight Story
• My Beautiful Laundrette
• Betty Blue
• Paris, Texas
• Being There
• Nosferatu the Vampyre
• The American Friend

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