Favorite films

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2016

★★★★½ Watched 03 Oct 2024

I started watching BEEF recently and -- although this stand-up special could hardly be more different or unrelated -- it made me think back to how powerful these bits & their delivery are in Baby Cobra.
The energy & joy of this performance is memorable. She was always a great stand-up but she went to new places with this one. Her set ups sometimes seem banal but it's always a trick to throw us off balance & get us laughing.
Seems to me an exemplary hour of this art form.

2009

★★★½ Watched 01 Oct 2024

Saw this years ago & couldn’t decide how I felt about it. Now I’m writing a review based on hazy memory. An impossible movie that wants to have its cake & eat it, too — but, like its lead character, succeeds in this paradoxical effort more often than not. A mixed bag of more good than bad. I can note a number of flaws, but I also gotta marvel at how many audacious feats this movie pulls off.
Unless I’m blanking on…

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2023

★★★★★ Liked Watched 19 Dec 2023

I needed this. A multipronged satire is not only rare these days but rarely done this well. Numerous moments caught me off guard & tore big laughs right out of me. Many laughs are enduring cause they're rooted in characters/relationships. Some sweetness & heart packed in here, too.
A formidable array of artists applying their craft so deftly & assuredly that the storytelling absolutely sings.
Since we arbitrarily classify by year, I’ll call this a standout & quite possibly my favorite of 2023. But I don’t wanna superhype it. This movie isn’t grandiose. It’s often the best kind of silly.

2022

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched 30 Mar 2023

As Phil Bogdan recently wrote in a review:
"I WORKED ON THIS!!!!! SO PROUD!!! Fourth row. Chef’s kiss."

I didn't think I would make the Chicago screening with J Smith Cameron tonight. But I did indeed sit in the fourth row center.

A tighter cut than I saw last year & what a difference seeing it with a big audience makes. Laughter, tears, the whole thing. My heart is soaring.

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