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I’ve never been more shocked to see a movie I hate rated so highly before. I don’t where I heard about this and when I added it to my watchlist…but like yeah, a movie about a rejected teenage girl’s plan for bloody revenge on the boy who rejected her to prom sounds like a wildly fun movie. It’s too bad that The Loved Ones is an hour and twenty four minutes of pure torture porn.

I don’t say any of what I say in this review to be prudish…I like violence and gore in film. I think showing the grotesque is one of the most effective tools a filmmaker can use and art should be bloody and nasty…but this is terrible. The barebones plot is a cover for nonstop torture that, somehow, isn’t even excruciating to watch…it’s just boring and incessant. The victim never speaks, begs for mercy, or does anything interesting besides attempt to escape in some of the most obvious ways possible. The movie objectifies teenage girls, especially in its opening and its completely unnecessary subplot (I don’t care if it had a thematic point, the point wasn’t made well at all). There’s also some weird incest shit which, like most of the movie, is completely there for shock value. 

Once again, because I feel like I need to highlight how barebones this movie is, the protagonist is straight up awful. Zero personality, zero interesting things to say or do, and a tragic backstory that does very little to give him some character (until it’s called back to at the end of the film, which I’ll it, was a somewhat interesting idea).

This thing looks terrible and sounds terrible too (wallpaper ass score). Genuine cinematic garbage. I am in utter disbelief that this is rated so highly.

Cute, if not forgettable little buddy comedy. SZA and Keke Palmer need no intro…very iconic people. Also there’s a certain ing character in here who plays one of my favorite characters in Abbott Elementary that I absolutely loved. I think my biggest let down with this is that it’s not really as funny as I thought it would be, even though the potential is clearly there. Take that stupid fuckboy, Keshawn, for example. He’s that loser no job sit-on-his-ass-all-day type of man who fully believes his investments in crypto and drop shipping will make him rich, but his character doesn’t really *give* that enough. There’s like one mention of him trying to start a clothing line and it’s kind of funny, but I just wanted more from him. He’s not pathetic enough, he’s not whiny enough. 

It’s not without its moments of course. There’s one scene in a blood bank that reminded me of Freddy Got Fingered of all things. The end of the second act has everything crashing down in the craziest of ways (although…I feel like it barely tests the duo’s friendship). The climax of the film is also crazy but I’m kinda meh about it. It’s silly but not in a way I found particularly funny or charming.

That payday loan scheme is the funniest stuff in the whole movie. The ive aggressive employee, the bounty board, the 1,9005% APR, the man outside warning others about it…now that’s some good predatory capitalism funny shit.

I didn’t expect to like Presence as much as I did, but I fucking LOVE Presence, and it’s easily one of the most underrated films of the year and one of my favorite horror films of the decade. This is my type of Paranormal Activity: a formally experimental, emotionally charged HAUNTING. It is what it says it is: a presence. We are aligned with the voyeur spying on this family. Invested in their secrets, their lives, their dynamics. Opinionated on who they are and what they do. More often than not, we’re restricted to the form of a moving camera, but in those moments of interactivity this shit becomes terrifying. Piercing reality, time, to intervene where we can. God I don’t know dude I just dug so much about this. 

This feels like the first Soderbergh film where I’m actually really invested in its characters (I’ve only seen his more recent work). There’s so much complexity to this family introduced in the short runtime. A loving father, a mother with a clear favorite, a grieving daughter, a shitty son, an ailing marriage…I was on the edge of my seat for their story. So much of that is helped by the gorgeous and detailed production design. Chloe and Tyler’s rooms are so immaculately detailed and embroidered with distinct personality. A movie set in a house should have great PD, duh, but I was still so impressed by just how much the work shines here.

I honestly think this could grow on me even more with repeated viewings, but the key thing holding me back from rating this higher is the ending. While I don’t have any issues with the way the story works out (I find it to be absolutely devastating btw)…I do have issue with some jumps in logic. PHYSICAL logic, to be precise. It’s just the way the climax was handled was so jarring that it took me out of an otherwise incredibly engaging film. Still cried though. Especially at the very end.

I understand why Presence may not be for everyone, but I’m going to be singing my praises for it for a very long time. Horror is a genre that begs for experimentation more than any other genre of filmmaking, I’d argue. Maybe I only feel that way because so much horror routinely disappoints me, but like…how do we expect to keep scaring audiences if we show them the same old tricks? One of the most noteworthy films of the year.

“Oh good, my dog found the chainsaw.”

Surprised this wasn’t a bigger part of my childhood movie canon. The importance of family is obviously a very common theme in any form of literature, but I think there are few films out there that really drive it home as well as Lilo & Stitch does. The concept of found family here is cranked up to the max because, well, of Stitch. And everything about it: the dysfunction, the looming threat of the social worker, the unique Hawaiian milieu…makes for such an endearing and heartwarming film. It’s an easy tearjerker for me.

This thing is just very funny as well. “Elvis Presley was a model citizen” will never not be a hilarious line. 

So interesting to think about this movie in the context of one of its directors, Chris Sanders, who went on to make last year’s The Wild Robot. A similarly amazing film that wrestles with found family. Yet, imo, both films feel so artistically distinct. Obviously they have different art styles, but I think the science fiction and animal kingdom aspects of the new film play into the family concept in interesting and different ways (the science fiction of Lilo and Stitch feels much more reserved to me). 

My expectations are on the floor for the live action version. They shouldn’t be though… Dean Fleischer Camp is helming that one, and his Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is one of my favorite kids films of all time. It’s just unfortunate that literally everything I’ve heard about the adaptation, including a big detail I may have had spoiled for me (unless this guy on Twitter was rage baiting LOL)…it all just sounds not good.

I’m more interested in why people enjoy these movies more than these movies themselves. I feel like other horror movies just aren’t as gruesome, and the entropy of how people die in these movies is thrilling. I honestly love love love the concept of death as an antagonist: battling against one’s environment. I just think everything about this franchise comes off as so cheap. Like, the opening of this movie looks goddamn awful. So fake, so pitifully unreal…and not in any sort of charming way either. The characters in the movie are forgettable. It really is just an hour and a half of watching people die in the most horrible and improbable ways possible, and it makes millions of dollars. We as people just love watching people die!

Not trying to make some snarky moralistic stance either. There’s enjoyment derived from watching people die in cinema in hundreds of different ways, I just find Final Destination’s brand of it to be so uniquely gruesome and shockingly popular. Like, even other horror films get their deaths in through much more tame ways. Even the stabbing of a slasher feels so much more tame.

3.75 star kind of film for me. Simultaneously my worst fears about this that I heard from early reviews were true, not true, and exaggerated. It’s big, has a water sequence that genuinely rivals James Cameron’s career, and absolutely fucking nails this somber, apocalyptic tone. It has some of McQ’s most interesting filmmaking yet; there’s a particular scene involving EYES early in the film that is visually striking and chilling. The action, the suspense, the set pieces…some of the best in the franchise and I’m very happy about that.

As a finale, well…I feel kind of torn about how this all ends. Because it doesn’t feel like McQ wanted to make this feel like the end. And for a movie that spends a lot of time calling back to previous entries, I find it both nostalgic and disappointing that the ending feels like a call back in and of itself. 

I also feel like maybe this just…isn’t long enough? Luther has a huge role in this movie but it feels like they cut his part of the story short for time. The movie is also too long, though, because I really do feel like we spend too much time reminding the audience of plot points from other MI films in order to explain things happening in the present. This isn’t as annoying to me as it seems like it was to a lot of reviewers, though. There is also a sort of revisionism going on here that I actually do kind of like. There are literally characters from the first film that have their background expanded on in interesting ways. 

This was one of my most anticipated films of the year. I never doubted it would deliver, and it did, but there are some things I wish were different. I’m going to mulling over how I feel about the ending in particular for quite a while.

This still holds up so well for me. Probably the most romantic film in the franchise: Cruise and Atwell so close to each other, literally handcuffed to each other, literally holding onto each other for dear life. “Do you trust me?”

And man, that airport sequence is one of my favorites. The deepfake hacking shit in this is so next level. I also love it when he parachutes off of that motorcycle. And when he runs. And when Tom Cruise does anything…

Read somewhere online that this, number 3, and Dead Reckoning are the three movies to watch before Final Reckoning. Unfortunately, J.J. Abrams directed the third one and so it’s impossibly mid despite PHILLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN the GOAT starring in it, so I’m opting for 2/3 of those rewatches. 

Opinions haven’t reallllly changed on this one. I like it! The opening is still excellent and I think if I feel any different about anything it’s that I have even more love for the CIA infiltration sequence. It’s more than just tense. I mean I really do think it is great nail-biting cinema; a sequence that to me is just impossible to look away from. Watching the temperature numbers and decibel meter fluctuate, watching the sweat start to drip from Cruise’s forehead, eyeing the rat in the vents! De Palma pulled that off excellently. This also happens to be one of the better looking films in the franchise because of his vision and love for the split diopter (which as far as I know has only been used again in the more recent McQ films). 

The CGI set piece at the end is not good, but I think I have a lot of appreciation for it. Maybe just because it feels like a historical artifact. The director of Carrie on the cusp of the 21st century experimenting with technology that would change movies forever. Idk, I dig it. Speaking of technology…god, these movies get it. So much cool tech. 

Plot in this one is still bottom tier btw. Couldn’t give less of a damn about it.

Watched with the gurlllllfrienddddd (I feel like this comes off as gay oops) and she liked it!! We love Barb, Star, and Trish! And I would kill to go to one of these places and just have the piano man singing about boobs

Hmmmm you know this movie kinda fucks because utterly psychotic teenage Winona Ryder who is in love with a hot 26 year old man with a depressing story and is also for some reason really obsessed with Catholicism…her character is everything. BUT idk if the movie really cares enough to commentate well on that relationship, but that isn’t even my biggest concern. This movie takes a sledgehammer to your balls halfway through it by making everyone go through the whole JFK was shot thing. Either way, Cher’s looks in this are all stellar and I enjoyed it!

Watched on Sunday May 18, 2025.

Just a fun, silly little adventure about two girlbosses maximizing their t slay or some shit like that. Barb and Star’s dynamic is one that’s hard to find that is this good on screen. Just so much genuine chemistry between these two leads. A pretty funny movie, especially if chaotic and very random humor is your thing like it tends to be for me. Thinking a lot about Trish…

So many good bits in this, I shall only mention a few. The piano guy singing about how much he loves boobs, the one at the very start of the movie with culottes (and one later in the film), and a talking crab. There’s also a million more good bits, so you should watch this!

My biggest complaint is really that I wish there were a couple more musical numbers. The one when they first get to the hotel is utterly amazing: such a dynamic and vibrant sequence of movement. This shit made me want to go on a cruise again. I’ve been swimming in a couple lakes recently and while it’s nice I simply yearn for the much clearer waters of Mexico. And a good cocktail. Am I a middle aged white woman at heart?

Thunderbolts wasn't as good as people made it out to be and this isn’t as bad as (some) people made it out to be. Completely serviceable but I don’t blame people giving it lower ratings for maybe being just such a waste of potential in many ways. Honestly for me it’s somewhere between 2 and 2.5 stars. I feel like the other MCU films I’ve rated 2 stars (like Love and Thunder and Quantumania) are just quite a bit worse than this.

This movie commits many crimes. One: why would you typecast Giancarlo Esposito and then underutilize the fuck out of him? The writers clearly had no idea how to capture even a tenth of the intensity his Breaking Bad character had, and that’s the obvious role to compare this to imo. Two: Israeli superhero (cringe, and why I didn’t pay to see this shit in a theater). Three: the Red Hulk thing reeks of “we got the Hulk at home.” Not only is it completely pointless and brief, but to me it reads as desperate. A lot of this reads that way in that I feel like this attempts to recapture the coveted “political thriller” genre praise often given to 2014’s The Winter Solider (full disclosure: haven’t seen it, so this is just suspicion on my part). 

What does work for me is Anthony Mackie and the tension between his character and Harrison Ford’s. I also think the plot of this one is more interesting than most, alongside the villain’s motivations and pointings to some shady government shit (of course, it’s a Marvel film, so it’s not too critical). 

Also, Marvel just gave up on revealing things in their post credit scenes this year, didn’t they? This one is a total nothing burger just like Thunderbolts. Good for them for not revealing too much I guess, but like, they’re kind of trapped into needing to make a scene now and it’s kinda awkward.

Quite possibly one of the best movies ever made. Outrageously funny, songs about how being blonde can get you anything, thirst trap aliens, and in the words of my girlfriend…”pure gay nonsense.” Jeff Goldblum is the dreamiest he’s ever been in anything. My words don’t do this shit justice. This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen. It is bursting with life and charisma and sexy ridiculousness. Jim Carrey fully extends his legs from one car into another as if giving into all primal desires. FUCK what a picture!!! Also, absolutely BONKERS title drop in the dialogue. I screamed!!!

Feels like a sin to say I didn’t care for Tampopo, but I didn’t care for Tampopo. It kind of had me at the start and I found the ending to be rather delightful, but none of it really left an impact on me. Its comedic moments are amusing, but never funny (although I would’ve killed to see more of that assistant being kicked by his boss in the upscale restaurant). Its delightful moments are nice, but they never really made me feel anything. Some of its more genre-bending moments don’t work for me, but I liked the concept of these other moments about food interspersed throughout. Maybe I can say the film did its job of making me appreciate food and desire ramen though, because I certainly did find myself wondering if I have any ramen in my pantry. Maybe this is one of those I just don’t appreciate now, but will later. TBD. Or it’s just that overrated for me.

Also, I am yet to determine if the egg sharing scene is sensual or completely and utterly gross. Either way…one of the craziest moments in an already pretty wacky movie.

Death of a Unicorn is decent “fuck around and find out,” or “I told you so” cinema. It has an absolutely stacked cast, including the wonderful Anthony Carrigan (who I haven’t seen since HBO’s “Barry” concluded) and a crypto bro snob Will Poulter (which I think is a great role for him). Its strong and very deliberate anti-capitalist messaging is cool and all, but it’s also this movie’s downfall, as it makes a lot of the who lives and who dies thing easy to clock from frame one. It all plays out as one would expect, but it’s a fine, sometimes fun film. Some barely serviceable VFX, a barely touching Paul Rudd/Jenna Ortega father/daughter bonding plot, and a whole lot of human and unicorn gore later…I’m fairly pleased with it!

Round 3 and the masterpiece just gets better (although it hurt missing out on the IMAX format) Generational movie. Saw it with my girlfriend and she liked it!

I just graduated film school, so naturally I followed it up with a viewing of the latest stinky Marvel movie in the theater. Watched it with my dad which was nice, been a minute since we’ve seen the latest MCU movie in the theater together.

Lots of people online championing this as a return to form for the MCU, and praising its focus on mental health…I don’t know about all that. This is a return to form in the sense that it’s a competent movie, but it pales in comparison to a lot of what I found so exciting about phase 3, or even the best parts of blundered phase 4, which are Wakanda Forever and “WandaVision” and (according to the Spiderman fanboy in me, No Way Home.)

I can appreciate certain aspects…Florence Pugh has yet to let me down, the action directing is pretty good, and there is something about this third act that feels (in some ways) genuinely different compared to other Marvel movies (and excitedly reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine and Inception) but ultimately it didn’t leave much of an impact on me. The mental health thematic aspects feel very plain and basic…as if they’re echoing the same vibe around mental health that was around when that Logic song came out. It’s well meaning but surface level. 

One of my favorite parts was honestly just this one sequence where the heroes actually, directly *saved* people. I think superhero movies can really get lost in the wacky shit they do that they fail to acknowledge why so many people love these heroes in the first place…it’s because they save people, goddamnit.

Also, the post credit scene that teases “what’s next” is so offensively not worth your time, unless there was some small detail about it that I’m missing.

Had to see this again in IMAX before it loses those screens to Thunderbolts*. Still blown away by this, even more than before. Little moments I missed or was confused about on first watch cleared up too.

I just find its combination of racial and immigrant politics; spectacle, and meaningful community/character relationships to be such an effective combo. I think I mentioned this in my first review, but that specific, very transcendent sequence in the middle of the film is an all timer for me. Tears running down my face, saying “this is so fucking cool” out loud as it all washes over me. One of the most emotional epilogues too: “the only time I ever truly felt free.” This is just one of those big movies that I feel like actually delivers on every front it pushes. It also happens to be deeply hilarious, and pitifully sad when you can’t stop thinking that Sinners is about all that could’ve been. But for one night, for just a sliver of the night, everything was what it should be.

Pretty disappointed with Drop, Christopher Landon's new thriller that feels like something Continental Studios from the show "The Studio" would bring to the market. I quite like his Happy Death Day duology because those feel like inspired genre movies, but this is an incredibly uninspired thriller with a final 15 minutes that feels particularly out of place for the movie that it's in ("produced by Michael Bay"...unfortunately so). Cinematographer Marc Spicer gives this some fun camera moments and I think the film's game of "guess who" is pretty fun for most of the runtime...but this is ultimately a predictable thriller with one of the most underwhelming and strange endings in recent memory for me.

My personal rule is that if you’re going to make US military propaganda, at least make it entertaining. Give me characters and a story to care about, to potentially cry over. And have the balls to name the “enemy.” China? Russia? This film (and its legacy sequel) doesn’t have the balls to try and instill hatred for a specific country or group of people into the hearts of Americans. And even if that would be evil it’d at least be ballsy and I’d be able to laugh at its attempts to make Americans seem like the victims of another world power (conservative persecution fetish and all that). 

Also, this film presents an “ideal” world where you can just sort of harass a girl in a bar and she likes it. So it’s fucked in multiple ways. It still presents the idea of a chase when she tells him off (lightly dogging on Maverick’s g abilities)…but she’s presented as this extremely easy “get.” 

Crazy to me how the legacy sequel Maverick is 10x better than this. Just so much more entertaining, and a devastatingly emotional blockbuster. Has so much more juice.

Kind of lame that the third act of this thing is a quasi action set piece that is by nature unfunny but when it’s funny it’s really good. Thunder buddies for life. So many great comedy actor cameos! I was so pleasantly surprised when the prequel show came out and it was better. 

Fun fact: when this thing came out I was 9 years old and I really wanted to watch it but my parents wouldn’t let me. Little did they know that I had absolutely mastered using iTunes on my iPod Touch and I either bought that shit or my dad bought it and had family sharing turned on for everyone. So then I proceeded to traumatize my 9 year old self with the image of a teddy bear having sex.

Watched on Monday April 21, 2025.

I wouldn’t change a thing. When that aspect ratio expands and the music gets real loud and guns start going off and time starts twisting…that’s some of the most transcendent shit you’ll ever experience. Expertly switches genre gears, uses the vampire thing to fully twist your emotions, creates a fascinating picture of Jim Crow-era racial tensions: all dressed in the most fantastical mixture of fantasy and guitars and guns. Jaw to the floor many times. So many interesting creative jumps executed with utter confidence. Also, composer Ludwig Göransson is on a roll.

Wish I had more to say but after my showing of this ended I immediately had to jump over to the theater where they showed A Minecraft Movie so there’s a lot of tonal whiplash flowing through me right now but this is getting a second viewing ASAP. This shit was so cool. I totally get those John Carpenter comparisons. Instant classic. Coogler uses post credit scenes in a really interesting way!

I want a lobotomy. That was kind of funny: a decently sincere romp that tries to encourage creativity. It also felt inhuman. Like one day they will make a compilation of all this film’s “memeable” moments to be used as a torture device. And we’ll all be rocking back and forth: “chicken jockey! chicken jockey!” until we decide to go back to looking at TikToks.

At the end of this thing, everyone clapped like Jared Hess just landed a plane. And I’ve never felt more vindicated in saying that Napoleon Dynamite fucking sucks.

Alex Garland has made two films in the past two years about warfare that are strikingly different. I think Civil War is amazing and misunderstood, and I think part of the misunderstanding comes from the expectations people had with that film, the theoretical conflict it tries to handle, and its artistic flourishes. It’s so interesting then that Warfare strips so many of those aspects away in favor of a gritty, realistic, and utterly terrifying war film. Most of it is in realtime, documenting a Navy SEALS operation in Iraq as it happened, based off of the memories of the soldiers that were actually there.

Ray Mendoza, an Iraq veteran, co-writes and co-directs with Garland. Probably the most respectful approach a filmmaker could take when making a war film about actual events: and the respect to the trauma of war is so inherent in the filmmaking. It’s uncomfortable. There’s stretches where nothing happens and the anticipation of a gunshot or an IED looms as a constant threat.

Also, favorite sound design of the year. Gunshots are ear-piercing, the aftermath of explosions are ear-ringing. There’s so much going on with sound here and it all works so well.

All of this begs the question of why the fuck any of this happened in the first place and um…all I have to say is Bush has blood on his hands. I’m sure some people like to place a lot of blame on American soldiers for their actions in wars our government funds, but I think ultimately any harm that everyday citizens may cause are the fault of a broader system that encourages and ultimately enforces bad behavior. That doesn’t make a lot of the actions of the group in this film/in real life okay, though. But the system is always the big thing at fault.

This review may contain spoilers.

Coogler's debut film might just be my favorite of his (pre-Sinners, which I should be seeing tomorrow). There is something to say about how Coogler shows us Oscar's world. His drive through Hayward, the family get together for his mom's birthday, him walking through his daughter's school to greet her, the encounters at the grocery store...there's something about every interaction here that feels incredibly genuine. Part of that genuine feeling probably comes from the fact that Oscar is not a character I particularly like. I think he is a liar, I don't like how he maneuvers around his girlfriend for the sake of protecting himself from criticism and of course...his interaction with the girl at the grocery store only reinforces another bad thing about him. But he's flawed in the same way many people are, and like other people, there are great things about him too. He's so obviously an excellent father, he's thoughtful towards his mother and sister, he's kind to strangers. All I'm trying to say is that I love his character.

That fucking cop knows the difference between a taser and a gun's feel in the hand. Those end titles explaining how he basically got off with a slap on the wrist made me genuinely angry. As I get older I feel like I'm just sort of accepting that there is an inherent unfairness to the world but fuck I hate it when cinema reminds me of that.

Also I just gotta say...I think this website extremely underrates Wakanda Forever as a result of (rightfully earned) phase 4 dread and apathy. That's one of the best films in the whole MCU and Coogler's direction and handling of the universe in the wake of Boseman's death is stellar in that film. Just sayin!

All film is ephemeral, but this was *so* ephemeral. The energy of New York City’s ballroom culture in the late eighties just washes over you. You meet so many people, many similarly invested in living a glamorous life of celebrity only afforded to straight people. You meet so many dreams, see so many served looks, learn so many stories about broken homes and homophobic rage. It’s all thrown at you so fast, and when a certain person’s fate is revealed near the end of the film it just strangles all the life out of you. Hearing the brutality of it all, seeing their supposed fate juxtaposed with the dreams and lifestyle they just professed to the camera over the last hour…that hurts. 

I find the entire concept of the ballroom so fascinating. Obviously the dances and voguing are super cool, but the ballroom as a place where you can become anything, be anything…this film sold me on a gay version of the American Dream. Great film!

Sometimes this feels like a parody of itself but between how hilarious this is and how wrong so many things are for much of the runtime it’s kind of incredible how dreadful and upsetting those final 25 minutes feel. Scorsese orchestrates that shit perfectly. The definition of fucking around and finding out. I have to read a book on this and do a discussion about it next Tuesday and I wish I gave myself more time to prep lmao but I’m glad I chose this movie to talk about for an hour.

Because like, this movie kind of hasn’t stood the test of time (12 years) at all. Or rather, Jordan Belfort should’ve figured out how to be Donald Trump. To get away with all of that juicy stock market manipulation…to be able to say some shit about tariffs and boom the DOW goes up or down a thousand points…to never, ever end up in prison. There’s a sense of ability and justice in this film that I think rings hollow to even itself a bit (I mean, did you see Kyle Chandler mentally debating everything in the subway?), but ultimately none of it is as distressed and meaningless as the current definition of “justice.” There is none of it in America,
obviously. Crime is legal, the president promoted a memecoin and did a pump-and-dump scheme.

Really great drug movie but imo so far removed from the stoner comedy simply because drug class divides are unfortunately such a real thing. When he’s tripping balls and has to get to a payphone…top 5 Scorsese sequence. Everything about it is just like the most absurd I’ve seen Scorsese operate so far. Also, I need his Kool Aid Jonestown movie immediately (those who know).

When this man said he doesn’t like smoothies because of the “aesthetic” and "wellness cult" around them but then he came around to liking them...that's right bitch.

Kinda cool that the (supposedly) last entry in this god-forsaken franchise chose to focus on Hardin: the narcissistic, manipulative, lying asshole, as he tries to make amends with someone (not Tessa!) whose life he quite literally ruined.

The After franchise began as a female fantasy for somewhat shitty women, but in the end, it became a male fantasy for really awful men: the kind where a shitty guy can get away with, and essentially just has to say "sorry" for, all of the harm he has caused. He gets to echo his thoughts on his relationship and his interpretation of his lover out into the world (despite her grievances with it) and the world rewards him for it. I can appreciate how this entry attempted to showcase some kind of growth coming from him, but the way in which Hardin is rewarded for his "redemption" is...well, these movies are fantasies at the end of the day. But I really do not think the fantasy is for a female audience anymore.

The movie ends about how you'd suppose it, and this entire franchise of films, would end (although I won't spoil it here). It's just really funny to me how fast the ending is delivered to the audience. It's like the film took a scoop of ice cream and threw it into the audience's mouth. Here you go, here's the fairytale you asked for. And there's nothing inherently wrong with a sexual or romantic fantasy like this, but by this point I would hope any sane viewer would be looking for some dosage of reality in here. Or some actually nice filmmaking techniques....or something?

Current ranking: We Collided > We Fell > Everything >= After > Ever Happy

This review may contain spoilers.

Wasn't totally into this thing but that final shot rocks in that it is really fucking depressing and is just a total indictment of the male sex. The woman's life increasingly revealed to a voyeuristic audience. Physical, life-threatening stunts so bad her doctor had to intervene. So naturally, the show ends and she becomes "the real thing" the men can touch and feel: all you want for a buck.

The range of ratings on this is crazy. One of the funniest animated movies I can think of. Like the pure frequency of funny shit is crazy! Also TIM I LOVE YOU. When my girlfriend told me that’s Paul Giamatti I screamed!!!

Can’t believe I’m saying this rn but this website was not harsh enough on this film. Offensively unfunny bullshit. Those “90 minute SNL sketch” comments are so right.

I say this as someone who was quite looking forward to this last year but never really got around to it. Would’ve been down for all the stoner/90s nostalgia/get the girl vibes if any of it were actually funny. I honestly think the two characters that were the funniest got killed off before the movie really began. The result is an unfunny cast of surviving characters that take on such a ludicrously unfunny threat. They’re all very blank, archetypical types as well. The tomboy who doesn’t know it but is obviously gay, the #womaninSTEM girlie, THE stoner, the asshole boyfriend of the protagonist’s love interest…like fuck man if this actually were like a 5 minute skit that would’ve been fine enough but ffs.

Rachel Zegler, as is the case with everything I’ve seen her in, is completely innocent. Not her fault she got cast as the romantic interest of…Jaeden Martell? It just didn’t work for me at all.

Also, for me this is a contender for one of the worst looking films of the past decade. Every frame is so unbelievably ugly. Replicating 90’s CGI is fine and of course that’s going to look bad, but the shot design and editing is nauseating.

Idk why I’m torturing myself with these bc this was probably the worst one. It’s like banging your head against a wall over and over again but expecting it to stop hurting. I will never be able to get the time I have spent watching this series back. This one doesn’t even have an ending. And it’s just all the same shit. Idk why but 2 and 3 were kind of bangers but the first one and this are just like agonizing to me!

I don’t believe the 1.5 star rating on here. If you’re three movies deep into this franchise you know you enjoy this shit. Enough to at LEAST give it two stars.

Hardin is quite fully on his alpha male shit in this one. The way he bumped into that waiter and said his name like that. The jealous shit he has goin on when he sees Tessa talking with Landon. The way he punched the perv at the bar. Rejecting an amazing job offer because it’s not the alpha male way. So much brooding too…

It totally feels like they couldn’t get Dylan Sprouse back to play the finance bro coworker from the last one so they replaced him with the stupid waiter dude. Nahhhhh. Trash. I loved the quiet, quirky, thoughtful finance bro. After We Collided is still the best one.

Final few minutes are a rollercoaster made up of truly awful, ludicrous plot decisions and twists and a lovely moment in a London street. Wow, I love cinema.

Also all of these movies are made by people who can’t have sex without music on in the background and I think that’s really funny.

The first After is not good but this one manages to be one of the best worst movies I've ever seen because it turns the crazy-bullshit meter up to a thousand. It's honestly far more entertaining than the first one. Getting drunk on a work trip (and morally questionable actions that follow it), women on women violence, car crashes...Dylan Sprouse plays a fucking finance bro. Honestly so entertaining and I love how ridiculously bad this was. They get into fights for no fucking reason. My favorite toxic couple!

Also her ex is so fucking weird I'm sorry like why are you still texting her mom on the daily???? I felt bad for him in the first film for obvious reasons but atp give it up bro.

Marvel-esque cliffhanger at the end, like that shit felt like a post credits scene. That's how you know this shit is quality entertainment.

Also it would seem that Roger Kumble is the king of bad movies that I really love. Hats off to him.

Overprotective and overinvolved mom cinema!!

Was convinced to watch this because we spent the last minutes of film theory class talking about this as part of a conversation about how movies nowadays are constantly in conversation with each other and other mediums. And this shit is based off of a ONE DIRECTION fan fiction.

Wallpaper music, boring characters, a wealth of stereotypes. They got the sensuality of the morally bankrupt romance right, though. I get why this kind of thing sells. I find it hilarious how excusable the film believes Tessa and Hardin’s actions are. I also find it hilarious that Hardin claims to have read hundreds of novels and yet this entire film is in conversation with a top 25 English list. There’s just a wealth of bad decisions and awkwardness in this thing that made it just enjoyable enough to get through. Incredibly boring though, and I wasn’t prepared for how sleepy it made me. 🤷‍♂️

Dawg haha FUCK Twitter and all the cornballs on there making Studio Ghibli AI bullshit of everything. And especially fuck the White House for that one they posted with the deportation. Extra levels of hell. I went to the theater tonight and watched this beautiful, human-produced movie in IMAX and as usual Miyazaki’s imagination combined with Hisaishi’s score just made me so emotional. Idk what I was smoking four years ago…the second half hits so hard and this movie’s climax is so utterly devastating and beautiful and surreal.

Also, I love how Miyazaki has just expertly handled making movies for different stages of youth throughout his career. You can go from something as innocent and lovely as Totoro/Kiki’s to THIS and it just feels like such a humane and artistic portrayal of violence. Like it’s so well-handled. This is the kind of movie I feel like you get to watch when you turn 13 and it would be such a great introduction to more mature themes and imagery.

And it’s not exactly perfect in its (very interesting) gender politics LOL so maybe that would make people think. Damsel in distress tropes but the role of the woman in Irontown and their liberation from a life of working brothels…very interesting.

A good limited series that tries to tackle one or the most important topics of our day: the incel-ification of an increasingly large population of young men. The “male loneliness epidemic” is what some would call it, although I’d argue that people overall are just feeling more lonely and disconnected from one another. 

This is a very impressive series. The supposed single take episodes add an interesting level of immersion, and it’s especially great whenever the camera switches whoever’s perspective we are aligned with. I will say though, I feel like episode 1 and 3 are clear standouts to me. Episode 1 has this great effect on you where your emotions and sympathies change over the course of the episode. Episode 3…well, that episode went viral for a good reason! I also just think this could’ve done more to showcase all the problems with the manosphere. There’s so much about the *image* of men that it presents that isn’t just about their treatment of women but their treatment of themselves and other men that I think was only loosely touched upon in the series. And just so much more dude. I just think the topic needs to be covered more overall in media.

Lol dude. This was such an uninspired musical. During most of the numbers we’re hardly looking at anything. And of course the songs were written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. I didn’t know that until the credits rolled but from the first song it was obvious. And the next song. And the next one. I like my Dear Evan Hansen, but can they really only do songs in that style? I really like “Princess Problems” at least!

Gal Gadot isn’t like, the worst actress to ever live in this. She’s not GOOD, and it’s fun to laugh at her performance, but this isn’t the performance people online are losing their minds over. Rachel Zegler is pretty great, of course!

My childhood Disney experience was a 2008 trip to Disney World and Pixar movies, not a lot of classics unfortunately. So: not a lot of original animated movies in my wheelhouse, including the original Snow White. So I will be watching the animated film next; doing this in reverse order lol.

This is a movie about two people willing to commit to a LOT after just one date, kinda rocks! Jack Quaid is a top 10 nepo baby and I’m only saying that because I enjoy his character in “The Boys” and he plays a very similar type of character here. Would hate to see him getting typecast as that honestly, but the king of typecasting is actually in this movie right next to him. The CEO of sex himself, Jacob Batalon. Kind of wish he had more to do in this movie than to just be voiceovers for most of it.

The action is fun; Quaid beats up a nazi which is a highlight for me. Leans enough into the painless premise of it all but I left the theater wishing there was more of the good stuff. Maybe I’ve just been so spoiled by The Raid. Has a lot of humor to its action though, which made those moments even better. I just wish I was having as much fun as the guy in front of me was. He laughed hysterically at just about every bit!

Also: good for Quaid having the year he’s had with this and Companion.

Damien Chazelle was REALLY inspired by that one scene with the shitty microphone for Babylon, huh?

Watching this high just made the highs (haha) and lows of this thing more pronounced. I kind of like it and strongly dislike it, -more strongly- now. I don’t know if it’s controversial to call this movie campy but it totally is. So funny and often terrible. This thing’s politics are still so poorly thought out and ludicrous. El Mal is still a banger, sorry to tell you.

Perfectly serviceable little spy thriller but also kinda unremarkable. Seems to perfectly capture that “married for 35 years” type of relationship though. Cate Blanchett serves. Fassbender…I feel like this is his character in The Killer if he was just like freaky in a different, more intellectual way. I prefer The Killer. Wish this had some element for me to really grab onto, but for the most part this is so plain stylistically that the few story beats that hit don’t end up leaving much of an impression. Love that WEIRD score though!

Weirdly conflicted about the newest movie about my favorite bear. It’s clearly the weakest of the trilogy but I found its ending and musings on found family to be some of the most emotionally compelling stuff in the series. It’s just that the overall hijinks aren’t as funny and this one’s villains aren’t Hugh Grant. But Paddington continues to be absolutely adorable and too kind to everyone and also very clumsy. Also there’s a GREAT Buster Keaton reference in this thing. Had me screaming in the theater. I think I might’ve scared some of the parents (it was literally just me, my girlfriend, and a couple of strangers in the room; a family was actually there but they walked out like 40 minutes in?)

Also, idk if Olivia Colman has been more perfectly cast in a movie than here. She does great stuff.

Six years after Parasite, Bong Joon Ho makes an extremely quirky, funny, and somewhat outdated political satire. Pattinson in freak mode, aka, one of his best performances yet. Ruffalo plays freako-Trump. Colette is the perfect counterpart to it. Really I just think it’s too short (I wanted more of an ending) and while it’s a wonderful ball of energy it doesn’t hit with the same kind of powerful political commentary that Parasite was able to muster up and it’s also not as entertaining as something like Snowpiercer to me. But who am I to compare this latest effort to those two masterpieces? When I call this outdated, I mean that this feels too much like something from Trump’s first term and not his second. Movie got kinda fucked over by Trump winning again, lol.

Also, it’s a crime that this took six years to come out. I need more Bong Joon Ho movies all the time, please (don’t crucify me for not seeing some of his filmography yet).

Disregard some of my critiques in my first review of this, where I said that the ending of this film isn’t quite justified even if this is a feminist text. I think I was pretty wrong. There’s a pretty clear progression of the role of the woman throughout this film, and just because their roles could be rather subtle, doesn’t make them any less relevant. Phenomenal movie.

Watched on Tuesday March 4, 2025.

Rewatched the best picture winner! Best score! Best cinematography! Best editing! So deserved and congrats to Challengers for its sweep at the Oscars! TOTALLY wasn’t snubbed at all!

(I desperately wish I could see this in an IMAX theater again, but a TV was what I watched this masterpiece on tonight. The slow mo, the tension, the tennis…)

A world devastated by climate change and the full spectrum of kindness and cruelty on display through some beautifully animated animals. Not a word is said. Just a gorgeous, deeply emotional movie.

Wide US releases usually. AVATAR 3 THIS YEAR BITCHHHHHH. AND MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. AND MICKEY 17. AND JEHEHDKSJDHDHDJSJ

1. Sinners
2. Better Man
3. Presence
4. Warfare
5. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
6. Mickey 17
7. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
8. Adolescence
9. Dog Man
10. Heart Eyes

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

12/23/24: Next year will certainly be a year (I will graduate and Mission Impossible will- will- NO PLEASE ETHAN DONT GO

Most of these I’m not even hyped for I’m just intrigued 💔

• Avatar: Fire and Ash
• Mickey 17
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
• Captain America: Brave New World
• Superman
• Thunderbolts*
• The Monkey
• Wicked: For Good
• A Minecraft Movie

...plus 43 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

World’s #1 MI 2 defender
Also Ghost Protocol may actually be my favorite?

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

turns out people really like theme parks (maybe they’ll like video game adaptations next)

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home
2. Avengers: Endgame
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
4. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
5. Spider-Man: Far From Home
6. Black Panther
7. WandaVision
8. Avengers: Infinity War
9. Guardians of the Galaxy
10. Captain America: Civil War

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A24 films and shows

1. Aftersun
2. Lady Bird
3. Everything Everywhere All at Once
4. The Lighthouse
5. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
6. Midsommar
7. The Witch
8. Civil War
9. I Saw the TV Glow
10. C'mon C'mon

...plus 46 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Wide US releases. Wes Anderson shorts and some mini-series’ included.

1. Anatomy of a Fall
2. The Holdovers
3. Oppenheimer
4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
5. May December
6. Killers of the Flower Moon
7. The Killer
8. Suzume
9. Rye Lane
10. Priscilla

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

Dune part two and Mickey 17 please save me
Update: no more Mickey 17 this year please I can’t do this

1. Challengers
2. Anora
3. Dune: Part Two
4. The Substance
5. Civil War
6. The Wild Robot
7. Conclave
8. Hit Man
9. I Saw the TV Glow
10. Look Back

...plus 77 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Aftersun
2. Avatar: The Way of Water
3. Everything Everywhere All at Once
4. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
5. The Fabelmans
6. The Batman
7. Skinamarink
8. RRR
9. Babylon
10. The Northman

...plus 86 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

With Marvel miniseries’

1. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
2. Drive My Car
3. Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train
4. C'mon C'mon
5. The French Dispatch
6. Licorice Pizza
7. The Mitchells vs. the Machines
8. The Father
9. Titane
10. The Worst Person in the World

...plus 69 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Every 2020 film I’ve seen, RANKED! Decided not to count Hamilton.

1. Another Round
2. Soul
3. Promising Young Woman
4. The Trial of the Chicago 7
5. Sound of Metal
6. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
7. Palm Springs
8. Little Fish
9. Dick Johnson Is Dead
10. Words on Bathroom Walls

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

2019 movies I saw, ranked!

1. Chernobyl
2. Parasite
3. The Lighthouse
4. Marriage Story
5. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
6. Little Women
7. Toy Story 4
8. Jojo Rabbit
9. Booksmart
10. Midsommar

...plus 55 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

YET TO SEE: I’m Still Here, A Complete Unknown

• Anora
• Dune: Part Two
• The Substance
• Conclave
• The Brutalist
• Nickel Boys
• Wicked
• Emilia Pérez
• A Complete Unknown
• I'm Still Here

11 films | 12/31/23: So far, it seems they choose pretty well over there. The Tree of Life especially deserving, but it’s also my favorite film, so…

1. The Tree of Life
2. Parasite
3. All That Jazz
4. Anatomy of a Fall
5. Pulp Fiction
6. The Cranes Are Flying
7. Paris, Texas
8. Anora
9. Titane
10. Wild at Heart

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

In progress. One of my favorite directors. Rest in peace.

1. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
2. Twin Peaks
3. Mulholland Drive
4. Blue Velvet
5. Twin Peaks: The Return
6. Eraserhead
7. Wild at Heart
8. Inland Empire
9. Lost Highway
10. Dune

Won’t you look at that, I have three nickels.

• Better Man
• Wolf Man
• Dog Man

My favorite films of all time. Will be constantly updated, maxed out at 50 entries. I don’t know how to combat recency bias yet, please tell me how.

Update 3/3/24: Made this a top 100 instead of top 50. Felt right <3

1. The Tree of Life
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Synecdoche, New York
4. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
5. Eyes Wide Shut
6. The Social Network
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Parasite
9. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
10. Before Sunrise

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

Missed so many movies this year :( gonna try and fix that!

• Here
• A Different Man
• The Apprentice
• Saturday Night
• Joker: Folie à Deux
• We Live in Time
• Heretic
• Conclave
• Juror #2
• Emilia Pérez

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

1. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2. Schindler's List
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
5. The Fabelmans
6. Jurassic Park
7. Catch Me If You Can
8. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
9. West Side Story
10. War of the Worlds

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

Avatar is good, actually ❤️
His opinions on AI are awful

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

Every movie in 2018 I saw, ranked!

1. I, Tonya
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
3. A Star Is Born
4. Black Panther
5. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
6. Maze Runner: The Death Cure
7. Searching
8. Eighth Grade
9. Crazy Rich Asians
10. Avengers: Infinity War

...plus 36 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Inspired by the IndieWire lists

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Avatar
• A.I. Artificial Intelligence
• Spirited Away
• Synecdoche, New York
• Inglourious Basterds
• Mulholland Drive
• Oldboy
• Speed Racer
• Before Sunset

• The Sixth Sense
• Signs
• Knock at the Cabin
• Trap
• Old

1. Toy Story 2
2. Toy Story
3. Toy Story 3
4. The Incredibles
5. Monsters, Inc.
6. Turning Red
7. Soul
8. Finding Nemo
9. Coco
10. Toy Story 4

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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

• Marriage Story
• Mistress America
• s Ha
• The Squid and the Whale
• The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
• White Noise

1. The Tree of Life
2. To the Wonder
3. The Thin Red Line
4. Days of Heaven
5. Badlands

• Days of Heaven
• The Thin Red Line
• Your Son
• Love Lies Bleeding
• Argylle
• Damsel
• Imaginary
• Sicario
• Madame Web
• Road House

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

1. Dune: Part Two
2. Prisoners
3. Arrival
4. Dune
5. Sicario
6. Blade Runner 2049

Not a bad film here.

1. Anatomy of a Fall
2. The Holdovers
3. Oppenheimer
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. The Zone of Interest
6. Poor Things
7. Barbie
8. Past Lives
9. Maestro
10. American Fiction

In progress.

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

Might be a bit of a snoozer year? Not ranked but films I'm actually excited for are the first four rows.

• Mickey 17
• Dune: Part Two
• Nosferatu
• Untitled Jordan Peele Film
• I Saw the TV Glow
• Drive-Away Dolls
• Joker: Folie à Deux
• Civil War
• Paddington in Peru
• Inside Out 2

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

the king of animation.

1. Spirited Away
2. Howl's Moving Castle
3. The Wind Rises
4. Kiki's Delivery Service
5. Princess Mononoke
6. The Boy and the Heron
7. My Neighbor Totoro
8. Ponyo

Since ‘02 ❤️

• City of God
• Oldboy
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
• Inland Empire
• Superbad
• Synecdoche, New York
• Inglourious Basterds
• The Social Network
• The Tree of Life

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

A collection of films that, somehow, by the grace of some higher power, exist. Typically wonderful films.

• House
• Romeo + Juliet
• Freddy Got Fingered
• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
• Greener Grass
• Swiped
• The Wolf House
• Boyhood
• Speed Racer
• Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life

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

1. Silence
2. Mean Streets
3. Killers of the Flower Moon
4. The King of Comedy
5. After Hours
6. Taxi Driver
7. Shutter Island
8. GoodFellas
9. The Irishman
10. Raging Bull

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

Updated 9/2/23 for the rest of the year.

• The Boy and the Heron
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Shin Kamen Rider
• The Killer
• Scream VI
• Wonka
• Infinity Pool
• Napoleon
• Next Goal Wins
• Ferrari

...plus 32 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Wes Anderson films ranked! Will be continuously updated as I rewatch!

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. The French Dispatch
3. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. The Royal Tenenbaums
6. Rushmore
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox
8. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
9. Isle of Dogs
10. The Rat Catcher

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

1. Zack Snyder's Justice League
2. The Suicide Squad
3. Man of Steel
4. Blue Beetle
5. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
6. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
7. Shazam!
8. Justice League
9. The Flash
10. Shazam! Fury of the Gods

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

• Pan's Labyrinth
• Roma
• The Platform
• The Skin I Live In
• [REC]
• Pain and Glory
• Parallel Mothers
• All About My Mother
• Amores Perros
• BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

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

Every movie in 2017 I saw, ranked!

1. Lady Bird
2. Baby Driver
3. Get Out
4. The Big Sick
5. Coco
6. It Comes at Night
7. It
8. A Ghost Story
9. The Disaster Artist
10. Good Time

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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

• The Others
• Serial Experiments Lain
• Antichrist
• La Haine
• The Evil Dead
• Evil Dead II
• Another Round
• You Were Never Really Here
• The Elephant Man
• The Parent Trap

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

• Licorice Pizza
• Punch-Drunk Love
• There Will Be Blood
• The Master
• Phantom Thread
• Hard Eight

• Ponyo
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Mary and Max
• Angel's Egg
• Koyaanisqatsi
• The Long Day Closes
• Where Is the Friend's House?
• Wild Strawberries
• Winter Light
• Bicycle Thieves

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

• Titane
• Carrie
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
• Get Out
• The Shining
• The Lighthouse
• The Witch
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
• A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Spree

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

going to try and watch all of these very soon and gather my thoughts. some rewatches are in order as well.

1. Parasite
2. Spirited Away
3. Mulholland Drive
4. Get Out
5. Blue Velvet
6. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
7. The Shining
8. La Jetée
9. My Neighbor Totoro
10. Persona

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

For Script Analysis (FILM 2310)

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

   There’s something so wonderfully nostalgic about this film, even though I’ve never been to Montauk…and have no memory of 2004. It’s this early 2000s haziness combined with the light surrealist elements that make it so dreamy, and the surprising chemistry Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet have on screen. An almost post-apocalyptic nightmare born out of the ultimate “what-if?” question.

2. Synecdoche, New York

   The very concept of people acting as other people, as everyone else in the world inside a replica of New York City, is fascinating. This is existentialist cinema that seeks to examine the purpose and intricacies of a life through a wonderful Phillip Seymour Hoffman performance, and it just screams "poetry!" to me.

3. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

   Here it is, the controversial Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. I absolutely adore David Lynch, and this is him at his most horrifying and deeply human. Laura Palmer’s story, when the killer is revealed and her last seven days shown, is absolutely heartbreaking. There are few filmmakers who can take trauma and convey it with authenticity while breaking stylistic ground in the American mainstream.

4. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

   Entering the top four, this is Hiddeaki Anno’s Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon A Time. This film is a part of a quadrilogy of anime franchise reboots, whose previous films were considered good, but perhaps not up to par with the 90s television show and movie that preceded it. This fourth film changed everything for me, though. It is essentially the creator of a massive franchise saying goodbye and good riddance to his life’s work, while telling his audience that there is a better life than the nihilism and freakish apocalyptic scenarios he presented to them beforehand. It is a bold piece of optimistic mech-fighting action, wonderful music, and thoughtful character writing, especially in regards to the series' most silent character, Rei.

5. The Social Network

   David Fincher is a fine filmmaker with so many masterpieces under his belt, but it is The Social Network that stands out to me the most. Biopics tend to be a mixed bag for me even if I love them, but when they're done right, they're extremely interesting and make you reflect on the world around you. Through the powerful performances of Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield, we get just that. I also prefer to think of Mark Zuckerberg as this guy and not the rather odd person he is in real life.

6. Eyes Wide Shut

   There are many pieces of film and television that seek to explore the underworld of the rich and powerful. Squid Game portrays them as viewers of a sadistic life-or-death game show, Fresh (2022) portrays them as cannibals, and Eyes Wide Shut portrays them as delinquent of a lewd cult. Through the eyes of a romantically disturbed Tom Cruise, the world of New York City has never looked so grossly mesmerizing as it does in Eyes Wide Shut. Fantastic performances and interesting themes make this a winner for me.

7. Inglourious Basterds

   For many, Pulp Fiction is Tarantino's masterwork, but for me, nothing beats killing Nazis in such a dramatic fashion. I am, of course, mostly referring to a spoiler moment that I won't delve into here. But suffice to say, Inglorious Basterds is THE Tarantino film for me. Long and intense sequences of dialogue, lived in historical settings, and a stellar cast that drives it all home.

8. Parasite

   The acclaimed Parasite from the wonderful South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho stands here at number eight. There may not be one particular element that stands out here, but what’s so impressive is just how well-rounded and textbook of a film it is. This is probably the film that developed my deeper interest and appreciation for filmmaking, as it is the one film I show every new friend I make who isn’t a film buff, and there it is…the “textbook” element. Parasite, in my eyes, is the new textbook definition for phenomenal filmmaking. If the textbooks are talking about Citizen Kane, they should be talking about Parasite instead.

9. Before Sunrise

   There's no other film I've seen with dialogue as organic as in Before Sunrise. The first in Richard Linklater's trilogy on spontaneous love, there aren't many moments in cinema that sur the first encounter on the train or the shy glances in the record store. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have a rare chemistry, and it shines at full brightness here for an hour and a half. Simply the best romantic film ever made.

10. Spirited Away

    Spirited Away is one of those films I can't help but gawk at. The animation is so absurdly ahead of its time. I could go back through so many anime from the early 2000s, and none of them would come close to the visuals that this film achieves. A stellar example of how animation isn't just for kids, even if the content is aimed at them.

• (500) Days of Summer
• Juno
• The Last Summer
• About Time
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower
• Five Feet Apart
• Always Be My Maybe
• Then Came You
• To All the Boys I've Loved Before

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

favorite japanese director so far

1. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
2. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
3. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
4. Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
5. Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

Still being updated as I watch his films.

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