All of my movie reviews from Letterboxd

I guess it’s becoming a bit of a New Year’s mini-resolution for me to liberate myself from tech platforms (see Quoteshelf). Not that I have anything against the platforms in question, but it’s always been important to me to avoid getting locked into someone else’s website.

Since 2009, the first time I attended TIFF, I’ve been tracking every movie I watch. I think I used to do it on the venerable IMDB, but once Letterboxd came along, I migrated over and never looked back.

A social site like Letterboxd encourages a certain style of writing: pithy and snarky, i.e. like a tweet. I’ve written my fair share of those, with longer reviews residing on my blog. Having my content in two different places just sticks in my craw, so I’ve finally done the somewhat tedious work to export my posts, and have collected them all here in this post.

Upstream Color     2013-05-08

Parasitic worms. Psychic pigs. This movie has it all.

Room 237     2013-05-10

Fun way to geek out about The Shining. I wish the different theories were presented in a more organized way, though.

Barry Lyndon     2013-05-12

Must admit I have a hard time staying interested in the story, but cinematography is amazing.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey     2013-05-13

Loved the Gollum scenes, disappointed with most everything else.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan     2013-05-24

Hell of a thing, when Spock died…

12 Angry Men     2013-05-29

Makes me want to get picked for jury duty.

Summer Wars     2013-06-07

A great combination of techno-thriller and family drama. I enjoyed the characters so much that I didn’t care how convenient it was that everyone involved in the OZ crisis happens to be in the same family. Also enjoyed the climactic battle, which threw in (in a self-aware way, I believe) a lot of old anime tropes, e.g. power-up transformation (with wings!), final dramatic super-move (slamming down a playing card!)

Premium Rush     2013-06-11

So but why no brakes??

Star Trek: The Motion Picture     2013-06-21

Never watched this all the way through before, despite my general Trekkiness. I could tell that they were going for a 2001 vibe with the deliberate pacing, but the effect is that it feels like a one-hour episode of the show stretched into a two-hour movie. I was particularly bewildered at the Enterprise “intro scene” where Kirk and Scotty fly up to and dock with the ship in a shuttle… it seems to last 10 minutes, the theme song blaring in a loop the whole time.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier     2013-06-24

The resolution is unsatisfying, but I thought this had the best Kirk-Spock-Bones bantering of the series… especially the campfire scene.

Star Trek: Generations     2013-07-01

Data’s whole thing with the emotion chip was so out of place. Why would it even be okay for him to install it right in the middle of a critical mission? And then he just spends the rest of the movie being a total goof.

Star Trek: First Contact     2013-07-04

It’s the best one, plain and simple.

The Grandmaster     2013-09-01

Beautiful action scenes, but I had a lot of problems with the narrative: too much voiceover and text cards, and the sequencing seemed off. Apparently, these issues exist only in the US edit, so I’m very curious to see the original Chinese cut.

Godzilla     2014-06-30

Some great imagery. Wish they had spent more time on Godzilla; he seemed to be always in the background.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men     2014-08-15

It was nice at least to hear DFW’s writing spoken as dialogue by great actors (although Krasinski’s own scene was a bit lacking); but the film wasn’t quite cohesive as a whole. I felt the same way about the book.

Short Term 12     2014-08-16

The scene were Jayden tells the octopus story was quite powerful. Even though it wasn’t clear what the octopus and the shark in the story stood for as she was telling it, the performances were so good that all it mattered was what it meant to both the characters on screen.

Son of Saul     2015-09-10

The visual strategy of this film was clear from the opening scene: a long extended take, framed as a close-up of the main character, Saul, as he corrals a frightened group of concentration camp prisoners into a gas chamber. He has a stoney expression on his face, and the viewer sees the background only on the edges of the screen, out of focus. I would estimate that 80 - 90% of the film’s running time is shot this way, and it serves to put the viewer inside Saul’s head. Saul is forcing himself to ignore what he’s experiencing because that’s the only way he can stay sane, and he gives himself a single-minded goal, to bury the body of a boy, in order to block out the chaos going on around him. As a viewer, you catch glimpses of the horrifying acts of violence happening in the background, as if the film is making you ignore them just like Saul is trying to. But at the same time, the fact that the images are out of focus forces you to look closely, to try to resolve the image in your head, which, when combined with the sounds of the scene, makes it impossible to ignore the atrocity.

The Boy and the Beast     2015-09-13

I spent the first five minutes thinking that the movie would follow a somewhat conventional martial-arts master-apprentice story: master learns from apprentice much more than vice versa; apprentice is missing a father figure and finds father figure in the master; together, they make each other stronger, and only through their combined strength can they ultimately defeat their adversaries, etc. And for the most part, the movie is exactly that, and these were the parts I found most enjoyable. There was an unexpected mid-movie detour where the boy leaves the fantastical beast world which has adopted him and returns to the human world, and he makes a girlfriend and reunites with his missing birth father. I found this part overly sentimental and dripping with the teenage angst that is my least favourite aspect of much of the anime I see. Much more entertaining is the comedically dysfunctional relationship between the two title characters, and the visually spectacular fight scenes, i.e. the most predictable parts of this type of movie. Perhaps I am a sucker for formula.

Embrace of the Serpent     2015-09-14

“They are now the worst of both worlds.” That’s what Karamakate, an Amazonian man, says of a Catholic missionary, where a mad priest has come under the delusion that he is Christ, and has created a cult-like following of native converts. Karamakate visits the same site twice, once as a young man and again when he is older, and both times, violence arises because of the clash between cultures. This is a dense movie, and the themes are hard to unpack (and would probably require a second viewing to do so), but the feeling of uneasiness arising from the collision between two cultures is always there.

The black and white cinematography made for many memorable shots of the flowing river, where the undulating water is at times closer to black like molasses and at times closer to white like milk.

Cemetery of Splendor     2015-09-15

Sometimes a guy taking a shit is just a guy taking a shit.

Anomalisa     2015-09-16

Good customer service requires you to treat every customer as an individual. Not everybody can do this. It’s a talent. So what can a common, untalented customer service representative do but learn how to follow a program, a script, a procedure that when you follow it will make the customer feel as if they are being treated as a special, unique individual? The paradox is that our CSRs are all following the same script, the same way to every customer. So but what if you were so good at customer service that you became the expert in the field, and you were the one who creating this script, this procedure, and in the process of creating this thing you saw through the paradox, and knew that you were creating a world where everyone was the same?

Victoria     2015-09-16

It’s amazing, how they managed to pull off a long extended single take, and it’s an impressive technical achievement, and one wonders how they accomplished certain scenes, like a virtuosic piano performance by the main character Victoria, or a shootout where we see someone get shot and wounded (like, he must have been carrying some sort of vessel of fake blood since the beginning of the movie, or else someone handed it to him while he was off-camera), but then also at the same time, a growing feeling of annoyance and irritation crept in as the film went on, and even though on the surface one is impressed, one wonders why Victoria would hang out with this bunch of jerks, instead of going home already, because some guys are clearly up to no good, it doesn’t matter how charming his posturing and lies may be, just go home already, and then also, as if one’s dislike of the characters wasn’t enough, one also experiences motion sickness because of the constantly moving and shaking camera, so much so that one just wants them to get caught already and get punished for their crime, so that the movie can end, one has to close one’s eyes until it ends, because one just wants it to end.

The Whispering Star     2015-09-19

I was fascinated by this film mainly as a document of the Fukushima region of Japan. Areas that were affected by the tsunami and nuclear plan disaster are now abandoned and isolated, and the film uses these settings to create alien planets where only a few humans survive. Narratively, it’s quite episodic and doesn’t contain much conflict, but it contained so much beautiful imagery that I was captivated.

The Jungle Book     2016-04-25

Favourite lines:

• “That’s not a song, that’s propaganda!”
• “I nap… a lot.”

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail     2016-09-11

A family with so much personality and heart that you forget that they are one-percenters, and nothing bad will really happen to them no matter the outcome. But you root for them still. They’re not all bad, the rich.

The Red Turtle     2016-09-12

So pure and simple in its storytelling that it feels like a myth or a parable. Cute crabs.

Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey     2016-09-16

Baraka and Samsara have done this better, and without the airy narration and questionable CGI. And what’s with the muddy cellphone camera footage interspersed throughout? At its best when it sticks to spectacular nature footage a la Planet Earth, but then why not just watch that instead?

Salt and Fire     2016-09-16

What Herzog should do is he should overdub this movie with his own voice. Only he can make this dialogue less awkward and unnatural. Least worst performance: GG Bernal in a tiny comic relief role.

Loving     2016-09-16

Was hoping for a climactic court room scene but I guess it’s not that kind of movie. Was hoping for more drama overall but mood was very subdued, as if trying not to overdramatize it too much in the typical biopic way. Overcompensated perhaps?

Burn Your Maps     2016-09-18

Cute. Nice.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind     2017-02-10

Hard to be objective about this one because of the childhood nostalgia. This time around, it felt a little too plot-heavy for me… you can tell how much was condensed from the graphic novel (which I would love to read now). Still visually amazing and thematically rich.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2     2017-05-12

As funny as expected, but plot is a bit weak. Basically, they meet Kurt Russell, he explains some stuff, and it’s nice for a while, until later, when Kurt Russell explains some more stuff, and it’s not so nice anymore, and they start fighting.

Phantom Thread     2018-09-01

Beautiful film about an ugly relationship.

Loving Vincent     2018-12-25

Of course, the animation is impressive, but I thought the choice to make the flashbacks in a black-and-white photorealistic style was backwards… shouldn’t remembrances of the past be impressionistic and colourful? The story itself bothered me. Teasing a murder mystery to explain away suicide feels distasteful. Armand interrogated the villagers in a way that could be described as insensitive at best and harassment at worst.

Cosmopolis     2018-12-29

I’ve never read DeLillo before, but now I want to. The style of dialogue is right up my alley. Maybe not the most cinematic, but Cronenberg did it a fine job with a seemingly limited budget.

Might be a case of style over substance, though… I didn’t think the main character was very compelling, because he just doesn’t care about anything. And the attitude of the film was a bit too male for my liking… kind of sex- and gun-happy. The fact that the protagonist’s ultimate lesson is symbolized by his prostate says it all.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch     2018-12-30

Lacks narrative cohesion, by definition. Too concerned with its own meta-ness…

First Reformed     2019-01-08

I would have liked it a lot more if not for the ending. I had been impressed with the film for not creating romance, especially during the “magical mystery tour” scene. It’s rare to see such an intimate moment, without it leading to something sexual. Not every movie must contain coupling. That’s why the ending disappointed me. I would have liked to see Toller deal with his problems in his own right, without falling back on the easy solution that all he needed was love.

I did enjoy the exploration of religion and environmentalism. What I thought would be a film about a man losing his faith, instead became an argument for faith being a tool to strengthen a worldly philosophy. It almost made me, a non-religious man, want to join a church. Almost.

Best scene came early: the first conversation between Toller and Michael. Intensely emotional performances.

Call Me by Your Name     2019-01-11

The reason I know this movie didn’t work for me is because I had almost no reaction to the final shot. I should have been bawling.

I think the movie waited too long (until maybe the last three scenes) to have its characters actually express what they feel. Before that, motivations seem vague, and a lot of the dialogue feels like variations of “why?” “just because”

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring     2019-01-13

I miss when movies looked like this. Film grain galore, not all shiny, CG effects that weren’t in your face. I think this trilogy was made at the perfect time in the history of film technology.

This one has always been my favourite. It’s got the most adventure, and it shows you so many new things. The extended battle scenes that define the other two were always a little boring to me. Gonna revisit the rest of the series in the next couple days. Can’t wait.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers     2019-01-14

What I think is my least favourite of the three, to be confirmed tomorrow.

Visually, much more drab and grey than the first. Thematically, more of a war movie than an adventure.

A messy climax, jumping between two or three battles at once.

The Gimli comedy feels one-note.

“Gollum’s Song” is my favourite piece of music to come from this trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King     2019-01-15

Balances the adventure of the first with the war movie elements of the second. The story is better integrated into the battle than in Two Towers.

Far from the Tree     2019-01-16

Positive message of love and acceptance. Just made me happy.

The Big Sick     2019-01-17

A timeless romance between a guy and a girl…‘s parents…

I do wish we’d seen Kumail and Emily’s relationship (re)develop after the titular Sick. Chemistry between characters was great all around.

Predestination     2019-01-18

Somebody please draw me a diagram

Bumblebee     2019-01-19

Almost tried a little too hard in its un-Baying.

Fyre     2019-01-20

Entertaining to watch in a trainwreck kind of way, but kind of disturbing by the end. I hope there is justice for everyone involved, especially the local workers who didn’t get paid.

Makes me wonder how a person like Billy comes to exist. Can they make a prequel about his childhood?

Shirkers     2019-01-20

Enjoyed the colourful footage from the past. Felt really bad for the filmmakers for having their hard work stolen from them.

One thing I had trouble with was how Shirkers (the documentary) seems to take for granted that Shirkers (the indie film) would have been in some way historically significant. How do we know that? I don’t think this documentary needed that stance, as a story about a personal loss (not necessarily a cultural one) would be compelling enough.

P.S. watching this on the same day as FYRE made for an inadvertent “Male Egotist Taking Advantage of His Position of Power” double feature.

Blade Runner 2049     2019-01-21

Some highlights for me:

• Sometimes, on the soundtrack, there’s an electronic buzz that sounds like motorcycles revving. Could be part of the score, could be part of background noise. Very cool.

• The scene where Luv interrogates the Lieutenant… Luv is the aggressor, and has the upper hand, but in the middle of yelling, sheds a couple of tears. I think it might have been accidental, the actress just getting overwhelmed by the scene, but it works to show how emotionally unstable that character is.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think the story was successful overall. I wanted to just enjoy the visuals, and I did, but often found myself being distracted by questions arising from the plot.

Eighth Grade     2019-01-23

There’s not much nuance here. When you see the boy you like, a loud electronic soundtrack will play. When you explore your sexuality, your dad will walk in. When you feel down, there will be a voiceover of yourself, giving a motivational speech.

Some of the sincere moments near the end redeemed it, but I spent the first half of the movie feeling weary about the sustained cringe.

Black Panther     2019-01-23

The rare MCU film which improves in second viewing. Noticed the depth of performances this time around.

Nothing Like a Dame     2019-01-26

I might not be British enough for this

Three Identical Strangers     2019-01-31

I was excited to watch this, but turned out a bit disappointing for me. I thought the movie tried too hard to create shock. Twin studies are common, and not that shocking in itself. The film could have done more to explore the ethical implications of non-consensual separation (this is the truly shocking part), but gets too caught up in editing tricks, trying to make the very existence of scientific experimentation into a plot twist.

I also had problems with the stuff near the end, when the movie tries to hurriedly weigh in on the nature-vs.-nurture debate. The film has sat on the nature side of the fence for most of its runtime, but decides to flip-flop at the end, towards the nurture side. The effect is that the dead triplet’s adoptive father, who has not had much screentime up to this point, suddenly gets turned into a scapegoat. It was not a fair treatment of the issue, in my opinion. I would have preferred a more balanced approach, instead of saving one side of the argument to the end as a kind of forced catharsis.

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word     2019-02-03

I enjoyed listening to him talk. He’s got a gentle, wise way of speaking. I’m not Catholic or religious, but I’m glad to see a religious leader embracing change, and spreading a message of equality and environmental stewardship.

The film does well to convey the Pope’s message, but left me a bit frustrated because I wanted to see how his message translates into action. What can the church do to address the issues that he talks about, beyond making speeches? How do members of the church act upon the Pope’s leadership?

Sorry to Bother You     2019-02-08

I found it a little messy, and the humour was hit or miss.

E.g., hits:

• the interminable security code in the elevator
• the Cash and Sal “you smell nice” staredown

E.g., misses:

• Squeeze and his bullhorn STD rant - kind of deflated the emotion of that scene
• forced rapping at the party - ended with a somewhat obvious joke

Then there’s the big twist. I grant that it worked viscerally, almost like a horror movie reveal. But in terms of character, having that be the catalyst for Cash’s redemption cheapens it. After being tempted into a morally bankrupt Power Caller position—by wealth, by glamour, by prestige—I wanted him to return to the “good side” via some kind of internal conflict. Instead, he’s confronted with a proposal that no one in their right mind would accept.

A Dog’s Purpose     2019-02-10

As an unabashed dog lover, I can’t not enjoy a movie like this, purely on a look-at-the-cute-puppies level.

Of course, I know full well the narrative failures of this story. Its use of reincarnation as a premise doesn’t mesh with my philosophy; to me, each reincarnated life should be an equal part of the whole, a segment of an infinite cycle. In this movie, the life with Ethan has the most significance. It makes it feel like the lives in the middle (as police dog Ellie, and family dog Tino) were just shoved in there to get Ethan to the appropriate age for Dennis Quaid. They don’t add anything to the story, and the death scenes, which can’t not be sad, don’t feel earned because we haven’t spent enough time with those characters.

Bad Times at the El Royale     2019-02-17

Enjoyable performances all around, especially Lewis Pullman and Cynthia Erivo.

A couple of characters could have used more development. Cult leaders and members are not necessarily murderous psychopaths. Why were Rose and Billy the way they were?

Venom     2019-03-09

I can’t sleep on planes, so I took a sleeping pill before my flight. They say sleeping pills don’t work by putting you to sleep, but by keeping you asleep. You still have to fall asleep. Good thing I was watching Venom.

The Predator     2019-03-09

Messy as hell. Couldn’t even tell how characters get from one shot to the next. And why did they waste the opportunity to show the suit in action?

Captain Marvel     2019-03-10

Avoided the problem of boring origin stories. Carol discovering the origin of her powers is the story.

Thoroughbreds     2019-03-14

Stylistically, it was cool (even though there were a few too many lingering filler shots). I dug the droning horror movie soundtrack.

Ultimately, I couldn’t buy that Lily would actually go through with her plan. She hasn’t shown that she’s the type of person who would do that. I know that’s supposed to be the point, that she’s the truly psychopathic one, and not Amanda; but I just didn’t believe it.

The Meg     2019-03-18

Oh Pippin 😍

Enemy     2019-05-26

Initially, I had problems with the character motivations in the final act. Had to watch a couple of YouTube video essays to fully understand it, but I buy it now.

You Were Never Really Here     2019-05-31

Effectively unsettling and disturbing. Loved the unusual scene where Joe and a henchman sing a song while henchman dies. Elements of Taxi Driver and Top of the Lake, the latter in particular because of the “Powerful Men are Behind the Pedophilia Ring” trope. In both cases, the twist is just given without further explanation. It troubles me a little that writers expect audiences to accept this kind of twist so easily.

Upgrade     2019-06-02

Once you get past the fridging setup, there’s fun to be had with the action.

Alpha     2019-06-06

Questionable CG and kind of emotionally flat. Still enjoyed the wolf though, when it was real.

Coco     2019-06-20

Visuals are amazing. The first half felt procedual to me, just connecting the dots between plot points. But still made me cry by the end.

Searching     2019-06-22

Enjoyed the technique and performance by John Cho. Not such a big fan of the final solution of the mystery.

The Incredible Hulk     2019-07-01

He’s too scary in this. Definitely appreciate Ruffalo’s more friendly Hulk.

Suspiria     2019-07-20

Ooh, colourful

Suspiria     2019-07-20

I wish they’d have had more confidence to make the cinematography look good in the climax, instead of the frame-reduced red-saturated thing that we get. Other than that, loved the mood and performances.

The Rider     2019-07-31

I thought the amateur performances would work against the film, but instead, it highlights the real risks that Brady faces, even when training horses. Making the film itself would have been a risk, but he chose to do it because it’s another way to express what he loves.

Mountains May Depart     2019-08-31

Impressive scope which reflects real life: people who are “supposed” to be connected don’t always stay that way.

Maria’s Paradise     2019-09-06

There’s a couple of scenes where Maria seems to display superhuman strength. (Jumps off a moving train… runs off unharmed. Jumps out a second storey window… runs off unharmed.) Is this supposed to show that she’s under divine protection?

Other than this one oddity, I didn’t find much depth to the story. I wanted to see more of what Maria actually believed. We seem to take for granted that cult leaders are evil… what makes them do what they do?

Bombay Rose     2019-09-08

Lovely animation, which allows characters to shift between (day)dreams and reality. The best visual touch was when the teacher walks through the streets, and the busy buildings transform into smaller structures from the past, while the whole image fades into black and white.

I was expecting a romance, but actually, the two leads don’t even talk to each other until near the end. Their romance is built entirely on glances and gestures. That’s okay, though, because there are plenty of side characters (the teacher, the grandfather, the street kid), and the interconnected stories pay off well.

Wet Season     2019-09-08

Could have ended one scene earlier, on the toilet. The sound of her laughing and crying at the same time would have been a powerful and emotionally ambiguous cut to black.

The second film I’ve watched recently (after Mountains May Depart) featuring the young-student-sleeps-with-older-chinese-teacher-and-later-someone-mistakes-him-for-her-son trope.

A Hidden Life     2019-09-09

It took me some time to get into the rhythm, but I think I got there in the end. I wish the main character had spoken more… it felt like many scenes consisted of his peers angrily yelling rhetorical questions at him (“What of your family? Do you think your actions will change anything? What is this for?”), and he just paces and stares back. He has the answers but doesn’t speak them. August Diehl did a Q&A after the screening and he said that he was going for a silent resistance. I get the sentiment, but it frustrated me a bit.

Henry Glassie: Field Work     2019-09-09

For the first half hour, the film is simply watching Brazilian artists make stuff. I was thinking, this is cool, but you gotta give me some information and some context. Thankfully, the film does, and when Glassie speaks, he’s full of wisdom about art and humanity. (To paraphrase, “art is the reconciliation between being both alone and a part of society.”) For the final third, the film reverts again to just watching pottery makers work. By that time, all of my impatience was gone… I understood that what Henry Glassie does is all about observation, and I wanted to be a part of it.

The Perfect Candidate     2019-09-10

I liked the positive attitude of the film; most of the characters around Maryam are supportive. On the other hand, it didn’t feel like there was much conflict beyond the obvious gender segregation and discrimination. In particular, the subplot with the father’s touring band didn’t do much more than providing some nice musical interludes. The director said that she added music for her ailing mother, so I’ll let it slide.

No. 7 Cherry Lane     2019-09-10

First, the visuals. There is beauty in the still frames, but as soon as the characters start moving, it feels unnatural. They move too slowly and stiffly.

The story was a mess. First half was okay, and I could buy into the relationship between Fan and Mrs. Yu. But then it makes a sharp turn, and he’s suddenly going out with the daughter instead. I couldn’t understand what each character wanted after that.

The two dream sequences are troubling, too… the first makes rape erotic, and the second makes queerness creepy.

Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator     2019-09-12

Standard Netflix-y schadenfreude doc, like Fyre.

My Zoe     2019-09-14

Two movies rolled into one, separated by the most shocking crumpling iPad reveal of all time.

Weathering with You     2019-09-14

Visually amazing, but too much teenage angst for me.

About Endlessness     2019-09-14

My first experience with Andersson, so I didn’t know what to expect. I couldn’t look away from every image. Was waiting for it all to add up, and maybe it does. Maybe it’s adding up slowly in the back of my head. Need to see more of his work.

The Lost City of Z     2019-09-22

Really could have used a more charismatic lead than Hunnam.

Happy Death Day 2U     2019-10-10

Tries to go the Gremlins 2 route, of amping up the silly comedy, but not as successfully.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters     2019-10-11

Everything either happens in the dark or on maps that people are looking at on screens.

Mirai     2019-10-18

Gorgeous and imaginative, but too episodic for my liking.

Alita: Battle Angel     2019-10-26

Eyes: check. Skin: check. Hair: check. Mouth: mehh… Story: no.

Wuthering Heights     2019-11-03

My viewing benefited from my having read the book recently. I don’t think the film conveys the strength of emotion needed to justify Heathcliff’s actions, but I could fill that in from my knowledge of the book.

Prospect     2019-11-07

More Pedro please. I didn’t realize that amputation could be so entertaining.

Shazam!     2019-11-18

Spends too much time with him acting like a reckless and obnoxious teenager, which makes him hard to sympathize with. And why were they so mean about Santa?

Solo: A Star Wars Story     2019-11-22

The first time I watched this was at the end of a day in which I woke up at 5 am, rode a train for 5 hours, then drove for 7. I thought I was falling asleep due to exhaustion. But this time around, I realize that it’s because the movie is boring.

Only Yesterday     2019-11-23

Main takeaway for me: when going through life changes, think about what you would have done as a child.

The ending credits scene was beautiful.

I like the “back to nature” traditionalist view, but it also comes with a “settle down and get married” message that I don’t quite agree with.

Million Dollar Arm     2019-12-02

Celebrates what was essentially an exploitative endeavour…

Marriage Story     2019-12-07

The only thing I wish was different is the fact that they’re showbiz people… that makes it hard for me to personally relate to.

Are we supposed to see this as an even relationship? (I’m thinking A Separation, a film where I truly felt like I could see both sides.) In this case, I felt like one side was clearly more wrong than the other. I won’t say which.

Songs from the Second Floor     2019-12-15

The most amazing image was the “infinite” airport, with crowds of people dragging luggage carts towards the desks. The privileged, trying to escape with their wealth, after literally destroying a young person’s future.

An unexpected double feature with Ilo Ilo, both films about struggling with economic downturn. That one was more intimate, this one more abstract.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker     2019-12-20

The weakest of the trilogy, but works for me.

Shadow     2019-12-22

Who brings an umbrella to a knife fi—Ohhh, okay. The best weapon reveal since Darth Maul’s dual lightsaber.

Dark Phoenix     2020-01-05

It’s not as bad as they say, is it? Or does watching it on a plane dampen the crappiness?

Burning     2020-01-06

Longer than it needed to be. Didn’t know if there’s a deeper significance that I didn’t catch.

Flight of the Navigator     2020-01-11

I distinctly remember seeing the special effects scenes as a kid, and thought it was amazing. I had daydreams of piloting a spaceship to the tune of “I Get Around”. Turns out the movie is actually terrible.

While We’re Young     2020-01-12

Definitely funny, but I didn’t find Josh’s character arc satisfying. His wife tells him that the world isn’t a conspiracy against him, and I thought that was a lesson he needed to learn, but he turns out to be right, and doesn’t learn anything.

Parasite     2020-01-20

Hilarious until it isn’t. Gripping all the way through.

My only reservation is that I don’t think it treats the Park family fairly. By the end, two families have been traumatized, but the movie only cares about one of them.

Little Women     2020-01-20

Because of the flashback structure, there are scenes where things happen that you knew were going to happen, but they were effective anyway because of the performances.

WHAT DID JACK DO?     2020-01-24

?

I Lost My Body     2020-01-24

Backstory (car accident, romantic stalking) is a bit clichéd. Hand action scenes were great.

The Savages     2020-02-13

I miss PSH…

You, the Living     2020-02-16

Didn’t have the same thematic clarity and cohesiveness of Songs from the Second Floor.

Highlight: the disastrous tablecloth dream sequence.

Free Solo     2020-02-21

He says “scary” a lot but doesn’t really mean it.

GANTZ:O     2020-03-13

Mostly a delivery device for awesome weapon and (especially) monster designs.

AlphaGo     2020-04-26

You root for and against both sides at different points in the story, and for different reasons.

The Farewell     2020-05-01

Felt very true, like I was watching my own family, but also somewhat thin… Billie keeps asking the same question—“Should we tell her?”—and the same conversation plays out with a few different characters.

Hustlers     2020-05-03

It lacks detail about how exactly the money was pilfered, I wanted to geek out about the procedural aspects of the hustle.

A Simple Favor     2020-06-07

Mixing comedy and thriller tones felt awkward here…

Crawl     2020-12-10

climate change smh

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square     2020-12-25

Me: “Did the angel just make her pregnant?”

Wife: “Or maybe just an ovary boost?”

The Last Forest     2021-05-01

Fascinating to see their way of life. My first reaction was that the film isn’t really about anything, but after listening to the Q&A and learning that the shaman in the film co-wrote it, I realized that his intention was to simply show the world their lives.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century     2021-08-21

To the library, and step on it

Godzilla vs. Kong     2021-09-04

Next time you forget your password, try spilling your drink on the keyboard.

I Am Greta     2021-09-26

Reminded me of Meeting People is Easy

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible     2022-02-26

Would have wanted to see more of the technical challenges of climbing. The film simply states that “if you believe in yourself, you can do it” without giving any insight into the act of climbing.

We Don’t Deserve Dogs     2022-09-18

Doggies and chill

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent     2022-10-01

The single funniest moment is when they’re tripping on LSD, and Pedro Pascal freaks out, thinking that they’re being followed, and he shouts “Let’s go!” while beckoning with his hands, then looks down at his hands and pauses, as if it’s the first time he’s ever seen his hands. The shot holds for a split-second before cutting away.

Bullet Train     2023-03-21

The kind of movie I would have loved 10-15 years ago.