Posts from the category "Reviews"

    Solaris (1972)

    Cover art for Solaris on Blu-ray, highlighting the film's iconic visuals and its profound narrative on existence and memory.
    Damn. This one came from Letterboxd Roulette, courtesy of @jaillud. It was a great suggestion, and they pointed out that I had both Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey in my top ten of all time, so this should complete the trifecta of science fiction greats. In short, it does.

    I have owned the Criterion Collection bluray of this movie for about six months. It has been staring at me from the shelf that whole time, daring me to take it on. See, I have this problem where I hear things about certain movies and those things paralyze me from watching. I am afraid I'll miss something, or I won't be emotionally able to handle it. This has scared me because it seems like a really important movie. I want to watch those, but I have to watch them right.

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    February 02, 2025
    Tags: Natalya Bondarchuk | all-time | science fiction | Donatas Banionis | Andrei Tarkovsky

    The Abyss (1989)

    A diver stands silhouetted against a glowing blue light underwater. The title "The Abyss" appears at the top in bold, blue letters.
    Another great recommendation from the Letterboxd Roulette, this time from @andywarmstrong. I had seen this a few years ago without giving it a bunch of thought. I was pretty excited to watch this with some intention, especially after liking it the first time.

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    January 25, 2025
    Tags: slap | drowning | Michael Biehn | James Cameron | Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio | Ed Harris

    La Haine (1995)

    Black and white cover of the film "La Haine" by Mathieu Kassovitz, showing three people sitting on stairs in front of graffiti.
    La Haine pointed out to me that this shit doesn’t seem to change. It’s been this way for generations. The cycle is repeating in American cities all over, in geopolitical conflict, and anywhere you can think. This particular injustice—the lack of accountability for people in power—is universal. All of us have felt it. Fortunately, we haven’t all had it end like Vinz.

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    January 12, 2025
    Tags: France | slap | Vincent Cassel | Hubert Koundé | Mathieu Kassovitz

    Breaker Morant (1980)

    A man in a white shirt with suspenders stands with hands behind his back, facing a line of soldiers under the large text "Breaker Morant.
    Another in my Criterion Challenge, this one covering the Australian movie category.

    This moved really slowly and brought out some old feelings about Edward Woodward, for some reason. The talks of movies the adults around me were having about when I was a kid are starting to come into focus. My dad thought Woodward was awesome and loved the television show The Equalizer that he starred in during the 1980s.



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    January 12, 2025
    Tags: John Waters | Criterion Challenge | Edward Woodward | Jack Thompson | slap | Bruce Beresford

    Major League (1989)

    A baseball with sunglasses and a mohawk on a blue sky background. Text below reads "Major League."
    Major League spent a lot of time being mentioned as my favorite baseball movie of all time. As I’ve changed over the years, I began to worry that this was a bad thing to say. This watch was an attempt to figure my future with the movie out. I went into this thinking it would be the end. I’d watch it, confirm that it doesn’t hold up, and I could be done with it forever. That’s not quite how it went. What I realized during this viewing is that, while it has some of the very same problems that riddle 1980s comedies, it makes baseball seem like a really fun time.

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    January 04, 2025
    Tags: Charlie Sheen | baseball | Tom Berenger | Wesley Snipes

    The Piano Teacher (2001)

    A man and woman embrace on a tiled floor. Text reads: "The Piano Teacher, a film by Michael Haneke, The Criterion Collection.
    My most reductive thought is this is Whiplash and Isabelle Huppert’s Erika is Miles Teller grown up. Her mother’s awfulness has turned her into someone who has no idea what counts as normal in society and she seems to feel a great deal of loneliness as a result. But there’s more.

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    December 27, 2024
    Tags: sex | Isabelle Huppert | Michael Haneke

    In the Mood for Love (2000)

    A couple is dressed elegantly on a red background, with the text "In the Mood for Love" and Chinese characters below.
    This was a beautiful movie. There is a lot of hype surrounding this and the director, Wong Kar-Wai. This was my first Wong Kar-Wai movie, and it was a tremendous start. The look is stunning; the lighting makes so much work; the 75% speed shots looked great, along with the strobed, or low frame rate shots; the way the editing was cut differently in different moods. All of it comes together to make what I think is a masterpiece.

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    December 07, 2024
    Tags: Wong Kar-Wai | Tony Leung | Maggie cheung

    Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

    A muscular man holding a gun stands confidently in an action-packed scene from "Big Trouble in Little China," with a cityscape and a concerned woman nearby.
    It seems like every friend of mine has told me this is a must-see over the years. I had never seen it, but I was on a collision course with this for a long time. I have been really coming to love John Carpenter movies and this one seems to be the most well-known, or at least at the top. So I was going to run into this no matter what. The Letterboxd Roulette suggestion from jcarp was perfect and forced my avoidance-plagued hand.

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    November 30, 2024
    Tags: supernatural | camp | dennis dun | john carpenter | kurt russell | kim cattrall

    The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

    Poster for "The Bridge on the River Kwai" featuring illustrated faces of characters and a depiction of a bridge with figures working below.
    This was great. It’s not fast, but that’s fine. It has a lot of moral speechifying, which is fine. It has some classic characters, led by Alec Guinness and William Holden. Both are magnificent—Guinness as the efficient, ethical, and hard working British Army Colonel whose unit is captured and used to build the bridge, and Holden as the American who escapes the work camp only to reluctantly return with a squad of British commandos to blow the bridge up.

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    November 13, 2024
    Tags: explosions | escape | war

    Bull Durham (1988)

    I saw this many years ago, when it was pretty new, and I didn’t pay much attention. It seemed boring and not about baseball in the way Major League was about baseball so I didn’t care. That meant I had some vague idea that the movie was about a groupie-type who slept with minor leaguers and also some career minor leaguer who set the home run record. Maybe something about a hot new pitcher.

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    November 08, 2024
    Tags: susan sarandon | baseball | tim robbins | kevin costner