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Like Gomorrah but in Rome, which is no surprise as it's made by the creators of Gomorrah. Visually and dramatically great, it's a tale of greed, treachery and corruption.

The M83 soundtrack is also stunning.

Interesting well acted little drama about the bleakness and mundanity of a Portugese immigrant working as a 'picker' in a warehouse for online shopping customers. Set in Scotland. Very raw and real.

Continuing on my Susanne Bier quest, this is her best yet. Shot in almost but not quite the Dogme style that she was a part of. Mads Mikelsen stars as the owner of an Orphanage in India who gets an offer of funding from a wealthy businessman back home in Denmark. From there things get tense. The whole cast is great. More drama than thriller. Not without flaws, but very interesting and once again Bier’s directing chops shine through.

Enjoyable film. Comendable movement.

I saw this film described as 'biting', and I can't think of a more suitable word, it's exactly that. Social hierarchy in English Public School starts to break down when a few students go rogue. Felt like a olini film or something.

Through his work at a morgue, an incarcerated young man trying to build a new life starts to come to with the crime he committed.

Very good film from Karl Markovics who seems so have gone down the acting route since directing it in 2011. Thomas Schubert is very good as a young offender who needs to turn his life around quickly. It has echoes of Dolan's 'Mommy' and maybe Andrea Arnold's 'Fish Tank'.

An aging horror star contemplates retirement amid the modern culture of random violence, while a disturbed young gun collector embarks on an unprovoked killing spree.

Bogdanovich's debut, which was given to him by a trusting Roger Corman. And it shows Bogdanovich's chops. He puts himself in one of the roles too. Dark film.

Servicable espionage thriller from 2009. Clive Owen in a James Bond type role but as an Interpol agent trying to foil an arms dealing bank. Dialogue a little ropey at times. I'm no fan of shoot outs and over the top action but there's a decent set piece in this film, set in the Guggenheim Museum, for which they built a full size replica in .

Clive Owen's earlobe appeared to grow back in a matter of minutes at one stage, but maybe that's nit picking. It's a decent Saturday niught flick.

Rather enjoyed this. it works as a tort, neat film based on a single catastrophic event.

It's kind of like when one of your favourite bands locks themselves away and does a rather short album in a different direction, just because they can. And it turns out to be pretty cool.

Portrait of lower class family life in 70s Los Angeles, working your finger to the bone, poverty etc.

Not quite the masterpiece tag that other seem to give it, though clearly a very important and poignant film.

Climbers Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell embark on an expedition to conquer Alaska's treacherous Devils Thumb, pushing their limits through perilous climbs across daunting peaks, while their unbreakable bond is put to the ultimate test.

Breathtaking views of North America. These climbers can't be human. They have zero fear. Absolute mad men.

Armand, a 6-year-old boy, is accused of crossing boundaries against his best friend at elementary school.

A very bold picture by Norwegian debut filmmaker Halfdan Ullmann Tønde (Ingmar Bergman's grand-son). It takes risks, has surreal moments and some disturbing subplots. This is a film about parental stress, ethical dilemmas, family secrets and discovery of youth.

It may not please all viewers as the final act is rather challenging and disconnected. But this film is worth seeing alone for Renate Reinsve's performance, which is outstanding.

6.9/10

Finally got round to watching my 4K disc, which is beautiful. It's a really great film depicting teen angst, alienation, outsider, father figures etc. James Dean could really act, he wasn't just a pretty boy.

It was notable how many films like The Lost Boys and Back to the Future borrow from subplots and tropes / characters from this film.

8.7/10

This is a really quaint, funny, small, charming film about community.

The local baseball diamond, is due to be bulldozed to make way for a new school. The men gather to play a full day’s worth of a baseball game to say goodbye.

I'm a fan of baseball so maybe I enjoyed it more than the average watcher but I'd recommend turning on subtitles because there are so many funny little throwaway bits of dialogue in the background. Mostly when the players are bantering with each other. This is what Director Carson Lund has does so well - writing the characters. There seems to be an array of them, we have the town drunk, the old baseball fanatic, the moody guy who takes the game too seriously, the college kid who may turn pro, the overweight guy who can barely move, the middle aged guy who thinks he could have made it if things had turned out different. It's all here, and they are all funny.

I normally recoil at sports films as they are so choreographed and derivative, but this one is very watchable. It's just a fun way to spend 90 minutes smiling.

This is a fairly solid film about grief and addiction. Halle Berry plays a widow, Benicio del Toro plays the addict. They both give good performances, and even though the film is bordering on being a tiny bit awards baity / melodramatic, it's a decent drama. Susanne Bier shows her chops with an artfully directed piece complete with close ups etc and as this was her first English language film, I intend to take a coser look at her filmography.

follows a lifelong thief in Los Angeles who struggles to assimilate in society after serving a six-year prison sentence.

Very good film with Dustin Hoffman probably the best I've ever seen him. Theresa Russell plays the love interest. Reminds me of a Schrader like film with a man on the edge.

Interesting first hour, but meanders towards the end.

Claimed to be the first ever docu-drama hybrid. It's very interesting given it's over 100 years old, but it does get a bit repetitive after about an hour

Really great film, stylishly directed by Richard Fleischer with lots of split screens etc. Brian de Palma must have been a fan.

It tells the story of Janice, the mother of a teenager who committed a terrible crime.

I've been waiting for Michael Shannon's directorial debut for months. Maybe the lack of distribution was a clue. It' a real disappointment. Judy Greer is pretty solid as the mother, but other characters are not - Paul Sparks' character as a pastor is cartoonish at times.

Maybe it's because the content is similar to a popular well known TV show that aired recently (Adolesence). It's also a lite version of the film 'Mass' which dealt with the same subject better and had better performances.

A missed opportunity but hope Shannon still directs.

Fantastic spy film that focuses on the human side of being involced in espionage. The toll it takes on the body and mind and relationships etc. Richard Burton epic as usual.

Great ending too.

I've heard some people say this is the best USA gangster film of the 90s. But it didn't really do it for me. Very basic plot. I liked the scenes with the Italian mob boss but other than tha it's forgettable.

Watched on Tuesday April 15, 2025.

Based on the play by Edward Albee. It examines the complexities of the marriage of middle-aged couple Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive unwitting younger couple Nick and Honey as guests, and draw them into their bitter and frustrated relationship.

Astounding film.

Absolute tour de force from Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, who were married at the time so naturally critics compared it to their real life as it's so believably acted out. It's a really witty script too. And shot by Haskell Wexler!

Did not expect that poignant and rather sad ending but it totally worked. Brilliant film.

"Don't you ever say that! You are PUNK as FUCK"

Pretty funny film about being an outsider. Doesn't take itself massively seriously. Good music.

Watched on Friday April 11, 2025.

It's an ok film. But nothing more really. Winona Ryder is probably at her beautiful best here, but the dialogue I found pretty bad. It's pretentious, and I get that the characters are pretentious but that line where Ethan Hawke answers the phone and says something like "Hello, You've reached the Winter of our discontent". Eugh.

Watched on Wednesday April 2, 2025.

Quite a funny crime mystery from Gus van Sant. A young Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck star as delinquents who help out Nicole Kidman's character advance her TV career.

Watched on Friday March 28, 2025.

The main 3 cast were in coming of age movies that I love and have recently been re-watching. So this is like a re-coming of age for 35 year olds who are shit scared of the whole family thing.

Bit surprised Kristen Stewart is in this role. Not much to play with.

Fun saturday night film

Watched on Thursday March 20, 2025.

The hype is probably real with this one.

This is a really good film. Kristen Stewart showing she could really act even at a young age. She plays Mel, a teen that is shunned after she phones the cops at a house party. There’s more drama than comedy here with some quite gritty subplots. Good, under the radar coming of age film.

7.7/10

Never seen this before, but more or less loved it. Thora Birch is great in this, totally outshines Scarlett Johansson. Both are kookie, not so popular teens fresh out of high school wondering what to do with their lives.

Steve Buscemi plays an older version of them in an eccentric record collecting forty something. Very funny moments too with some peripheral characters.

Pretty sure Chuck Norris is in the background of the diner scene at one point too.

7.8/10

Watched on Friday March 14, 2025.

A mother is forced to defend and raise her family when her life is shattered by an act of arbitrary violence.

I’m still reeling from it. Difficult to write about with no spoilers. But the final 30 minutes is mesmerizing. It reminded me somewhat of another stellar film of recent times - 'Quo Vadis Aida'.

Fernanda Torres gives one of, if not THE performance of the year. Fine film.

Really excellent drama about a young couple facing addiction in 70s New York. Pacino great as usual (this might have been his first leading role?) but I think Kitty Winn just outshines him. It’s essentially a gritty, tremendously acted love story.

Another coming of age film. Not sure how I haven’t seen this one before. Blinding soundtrack, based on a novel by Stephen Chobsky, and directed very well by him (loosely based on his early life). It’s not flawless but it really evokes memories and times. And that David Bowie tunnel scene is great.

I love this film. Rewatching as I’m going through a coming of age phase. The Haley’s are great and I get that we are supposed to sympathize with rich teenagers who have swimming pools etc but it’s still a good film, and possibly the funniest coming of age film of recent years.

Fairly decent drama about a dancer in Vegas who's show run is coming to an end. Pamela Anderson is good as the lead. It's a little like The Wrestler. But where The Wrestler had a few subplots that kept you engaged, this one needed a bit more meat on the bones. It sort of fizzles out. Felt like only half a story.

Stefan, a migrant construction worker living in Brussels reconnects with local family over gifted bowls of homemade soup, and forms a connection with Shuxiu, a Chinese-Belgian scientist studying the local moss.

‘Here’ is a beautiful, small film by Bas Devos. It’s about tiny moments in life, progressiveness and how roots of relationships can grow in the unlikeliest places. It’s a film that leans towards the art-house variety, so don’t expect heavy plot and action.

The cinematography in this film is astounding. Grimm Vandekerckhove surely has an amazing career in the form. There is one shot in particular (a train reflected in a window) that I rewound several times as it was so strikingly beautiful, and reminded me of the films of Edward Yang.

7.8/10

Amazing movie. Robert Altman's anti-Hollywood film about Hollywood. Possibly the most ridiculous cast ever in a film.

Kim Sae-ron took her own life last week at the age of 24.

She plays the 9 year old girl in this sad but beautiful film. Her performance in this is unreal.

Stop fucking bullying people South Korea.

‘Jazzy’ is Morissa Maltz’ second feature film after ‘The Unknown Country’ (2022), which starred Lily Gladstone, who also has a brief cameo in this one. It follows the titular character Jazzy (Jasmine Shangreaux) who is going through a hard time with her friend Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means)

‘Jazzy’ took 6 years to make apparently, which means Maltz was shooting it before and probably during ‘The Unknown Country’. It’s also a sequel / sister piece to the Unknown country as it contains the same characters. It spans several timelines as Maltz clearly goes back to the same community to shoot these youngsters – and as a result is like a micro version of Richard Linklater’s film ‘Boyhood’. The first 30 minutes is rather disconnected but by the end I was fully invested in these girls and their community.

It has an almost documentary feel at times and like Unknown Country, is very raw, neo-realistic, with plenty of non actors and fills the void that Chloe Zhao’s career shift has left. The photography is stunning, making lovely use of natural light and there’s one scene late on when the two girls go up to a clifftop that takes your breath away.

7.5/10

Sanstosh is the name of the main character played by Shahana Goswami who gobes an outstanding performance as a widow who takes on her late husband's job as a policeman. She then has to resort to rather unethical means to solve a local murder.

The film dissects caste, corruption, everyday life and death and community hierarchy in rural India. I've never been there but the film seemed to do an extremely good job of convincing me that these events was fairly commonplace in India. Sandhya Suri's debut film and looks like she has a pretty good career ahead.

7.7/10

A fine film, perhaps a little bloated in the second part, but a major accomplishment nonetheless, especially given the budget. Hopefully this will give Brady Corbet the exposure and means to actually get paid a bit more to make films so he's not living in bedsits making adverts in Portugal to survive.

There was a spate of romantic dramas from South Korea around the turn of the century, lots with cheesy scores and ridiculous subplots including flying saucers, time travel etc. This is no different and dabbles with re-incarnation. If you know what you’re letting yourself in for it’s fine but I could see why some people are put off by this type of film. It’s bloody ludicrous.

The film stars Lee Byung-hun (A Bittersweet Life, I Saw the Devil) and is in two timelines – one where the lead character is in love with his soulmate, the other 17 years later. It’s written pretty well though and the camerawork is superb – there is one early scene on a cliff which is beautifully shot, and must have involved a crane. But the premsie of the second timeline is a bit much, even for me.

The film though has taken on more meaning since researching the actors and learning that the lead lady in it Lee Eun-ju, took her own life ages just 24, four years after filming this. Absolutely tragic :(

A look at how a family disintagrates due to mental illenss and grief. Marianne Jean-Baptiste great as usual as the lead who plays an angry, bitter woman named Pansy. Her anger and miserableness is almost suffocating at times, it is relentless on screen, but this is deliberate to make the viewer uncomfortable and ask "Why is she like this all the time".

There's a really touching scene, shot on the steps of Trafalgar Square where Pansy's lonely son Moses has an interaction with a stranger.

Not vintage Mike Leigh but good.

• Essential Killing
• Caché
• Magnolia
• Open Your Eyes
• Peppermint Candy
• Kiss Me Deadly
• The Hunt
• Garden State
• Teddy Bear
• Beasts of No Nation

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Panic in Needle Park
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• The Shape of Night
• Double Suicide
• Ossos
• In a Glass Cage
• The Young and the Damned
• Combat Shock
• The Death King
• Kelly + Victor

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Ime
• Primer

Ranking of my 4K UHD discs by picture quality.

• Mulholland Drive
• Phantom Thread
• Apocalypse Now
• The Last Picture Show
• The Seventh Seal
• The Double Life of Véronique
• Jaws
• Blade Runner
• The Red Shoes
• 2001: A Space Odyssey

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Stalker
• The Red Shoes
• The Cranes Are Flying
• A Brighter Summer Day
• Through the Olive Trees
• The Tin Drum
• Au Hasard Balthazar
• The Life of Oharu
• The Ascent
• Desert Hearts

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Weekend at Bernie's
• Cocoon
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• King Solomon's Mines
• The Mummy
• National Treasure
• The Princess Bride
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
• Armageddon
• Independence Day

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

Movies by South Korean Directors that I've watched.

Ranked.

• Poetry
• The Handmaiden
• Oasis
• Oldboy
• Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
• Failan
• Lady Vengeance
• Memories of Murder
• A Tale of Two Sisters
• Christmas in August

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

1. Aftersun
2. TÁR
3. Great Freedom
4. The Quiet Girl
5. Happening
6. Parallel Mothers
7. Bergman Island
8. Vortex
9. Decision to Leave
10. The Souvenir: Part II

...plus 83 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Best films of 2021

• Drive My Car
• C'mon C'mon
• Quo Vadis, Aida?
• The Hand of God
• Petite Maman
• Titane
• Servants
• Beginning
• The Worst Person in the World
• After Love

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Never Rarely Sometimes Always
• Beanpole
• The Painted Bird
• Sound of Metal
• Saint Maud
• The Wild Goose Lake
• Ammonite
• First Cow
• A White, White Day
• System Crasher

1. Vertigo
2. The Shining
3. Amour
4. Three Colours: Blue
5. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
6. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
7. Let the Right One In
8. Ratcatcher
9. Lilya 4-ever
10. Take Shelter

...plus 66 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Airplane!
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Memphis Belle
• Wild Tales
• Almost Famous
• Tora! Tora! Tora!
• United 93
• North by Northwest

• Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Amour
• The Broken Circle Breakdown
• Life Is Beautiful
• Lilya 4-ever
• Blue Valentine
• The Champ
• Incendies
• Son of Saul

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

1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
2. The Lighthouse
3. Pain and Glory
4. Bait
5. Leto
6. Capernaum
7. Parasite
8. Monos
9. Birds of age
10. Waves

...plus 51 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My favourite film, in each of the years I have been alive

• Watership Down
• Alien
• The Shining
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Blade Runner
• Scarface
• Paris, Texas
• Come and See
• Platoon
• Full Metal Jacket

...plus 31 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Top 2018 movies that had a 2018 release in the United Kingdom

1. Shoplifters
2. Roma
3. The Rider
4. Cold War
5. Climax
6. We the Animals
7. Phantom Thread
8. Leave No Trace
9. Border
10. Lean on Pete

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

Movies with the greatest music scores

1. The Fountain
2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
3. Moon
4. Blade Runner
5. The Proposition
6. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
7. The Graduate
8. Casablanca
9. The Godfather
10. Jackie

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

2017 Movies. Ranked

[UK Release date of 2017]

1. The Square
2. Frantz
3. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
4. The Handmaiden
5. The Florida Project
6. Loveless
7. Blade Runner 2049
8. Gook
9. Good Time
10. A Ghost Story

...plus 39 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Flying Padre
• Fear and Desire
• The Seafarers
• Killer's Kiss
• The Killing
• Paths of Glory
• Spartacus
• Lolita
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• 2001: A Space Odyssey

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