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keith carradine’s hair (and overall vibe) progressively spiralling out of control makes for a fun watch. didn’t expect this to go where it did.

had to do a quick search early on to confirm this wasn’t shot in vancouver, because honestly it could have been an easy sub-in for mid-80s “rain city” AKA seattle. must’ve been shortly after this that the cities vibes began to diverge.

funnier now and so goddamn quotable.

Watched on Monday June 9, 2025.

Watched on Sunday June 8, 2025.

birdshit crazy movie. poopoo-ing on all the old dumb ways of thinking.

wonderful use of colour, composition, and camera movement—which isn’t surprising for an altman flick. what is surprising is just how bonkers the plot is. slapstick at times even. i think it’s his most laugh-out-loud funny film, at least that i’ve seen. absurd and seemingly non-sensical at times, while very layered in others.

saw stacy keach’s name in the opening credits and was psyched about that, but then forgot and didn’t realize it was him as the crotchety old man. incredible.

a comedic heist movie starring peter falk? with gena rowlands playing his wife? AND it’s directed by friedkin? that’s already enough to make this one right up my alley.

unfortunately, i felt the edit and timing sucked the life out of it a bit. maybe it could have been more tightly edited for pacing and comedic effect? at least it still manages to be a good time. great ensemble cast, cool 40s/50s boston set design; great vibes. 

seeing falk act so smug makes me smile.

Watched on Wednesday June 4, 2025.

geraldine chaplin channels some real jodi arias energy. she’s always so enthralling, but here she’s also extremely unnerving—and it really works.

crazy tonal/plot shift about halfway through. not sure how i feel about the pacing overall, particularly with the end.

really incredible cinematography and camera-work though. i wanna make movies that look like this. it’s in serious need of a blu-ray release; it looks great on the criterion channel, and i know i’ll be coming back to it.

i need to watch more of alan rudolph’s films. it makes sense that this was produced by altman, there’s some thematic and tonal ties to films like that cold day in the park, and 3 women—which had only come out the year before. also reminded me of another great slept on anthony perkins performance from a decade earlier in pretty poison.

loved this as a preteen. hadn’t seen it since, but i still have a soft spot for it. some of it definitely aged poorly, yet i still think it might be the best late 90s sandler flick? at least a more underrated one.

is it weird that to me, in some way, jon stewart will always be the roommate/actual dad from big daddy?

the last line of dialogue is for real: “i don’t think you’re supposed to say balls. testicles, okay?”

Watched on Saturday May 31, 2025.

Watched on Saturday November 9, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday May 19, 2020.

Watched on Tuesday January 23, 2018.

kinda like if a young elliott gould was made to play a very chaotic neutral frasier. but instead it’s eric bogosian—AKA our boy arno from uncut gems + the bernie sanders-esque politician in succession—and he absolutely delivers. that voice!

i can forgive the annoying flashback filter sequence because that final act really pushed this up from good to great. clearly much can be extrapolated to the current state of popular podcasters.

Watched on Thursday May 29, 2025.

Watched on Monday May 26, 2025.

i still think this is cassavetes best. he obsesses and goes deeper into the many themes of his other works, and he pushes his craft even further as well. people need to stop putting him in the “vérité” box, because there’s definitely surrealism here. it’s even got an all that jazz-like moment.

i had a lot of thoughts about this after rewatching it at the VIFF centre a couple of nights ago. each watch brings something new, and for me this time it had a lot to do with the sibling dynamics. i wrote a lot of thoughts down and was gonna post them here but realized there were too many things to be said for this platform.

much has been said by others already, so maybe go read some of the reviews i liked instead.

will gladly talk with anyone at length about this masterpiece, though.

See ya in Pittsburgh.

Watched on Tuesday May 20, 2025.

Watched on Monday May 19, 2025.

there’s something about the way altman communicates his ideas through indirect dialogue and seemingly inconsequential circumstance, that really resonates with me. this one can feel both slice-of-life or dramatic in plot development depending on the lens you see it through. i felt so many different emotions that it became more thrilling than what the surface tension might suggest. i mean it obviously helps that it’s got such a stacked cast.

even though i was only the age of the toddlers in this when it came out, it’s brought back a nostalgia for the early 90s culture of my childhood. the way adults acted and interacted. the chaos that was urban day-to-day life disconnected from cellphones, but with cable TV perpetually running in the background.

yeah, PTA’s early work is heavily indebted to this—or even in honour of this—as well as altman’s overall output. but let’s not forget that PTA was chosen by altman to be his standby director on his last feature. it’s clear that he must have felt he was ing on a torch instead of having one stolen from him.

the world keeps on spinnin, occasionally it gets a good shaking too. some people feel it, some don’t.

perfect balance of dramatic tension and comedic relief.

a close up of walter matthau’s face is always the perfect shot.

Watched on Saturday May 17, 2025.

Watched on Thursday May 15, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday May 14, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday May 13, 2025.

a modern day comedy classic

i know it’s f*ed up that i decided to make this a weird mother’s day double feature watching this and gloria on the same day. it’s giving anti-maternal energy, but i love my mom(s), i swear!

barbara loden is an inspiration. with her progressive DIY approach; writing/directing/starring in her debut feature with a small budget, an even smaller crew (just a handful of people), plus making sure everyone is getting paid along the way, it’s incredible what she managed to accomplish here. especially in the early 70s. that it’s as good as it is, is a testament to her vision.

glad i got to visit my 3rd mother, gena, for this mother’s day screening—my 2nd being my abuelita, of course.

last time i watched this, i was compelled to start writing down a short film idea i’d had for a few years about my great grandma delia, who i like to imagine was very much like gloria (AKA a complete badass, though no known mob ties).

also having just been running around NYC a few weeks ago, it feels a bit like all the stars aligned just for me to see this on the big screen today.

always inspired by john and gena.
now to finish writing that screenplay.

oh to live just one night as a white boy cruisin in the central valley in ‘62.

Watched on Thursday May 8, 2025.

have we all had that downstairs neighbour couple that yells at each other in the middle of the night like these two?

*cue the song rosanna by toto*

Watched on Sunday May 4, 2025.

Watched on Sunday May 4, 2025.

Watched on Friday May 2, 2025.

“a candy-coloured clown they call the sandman…”

god do i wish roy lived long enough for me to have been able to see him perform.

watched on VHS as i was winding down for bed.

obsessed with the way the film looks.

the roches doing the soundtrack, plus suzzy roche’s appearance—absolutely stealing the show in her scenes—were very welcome surprises.

silly and funny!

weirdly paced/written, but that seems to be a bit of the norm with ol’ cronie these days.

you’d think i’d be smarter than to rewatch this next to some strangers on a flight home from new york (knowing full well what i was in for), but i guess i just wanted to feel something? and maybe to bookend the trip since the film was on my mind a lot as i’d gone through some of the same spots that nora and hae sung had in NY.

i’ve honestly lived a life pretty devoid of romanticism—and that’s generally something i’m fine with—but damn the way this makes me feel a weird mix of dread and jealousy of what i’ve missed out on; the good and the bad. i being a teenager who deep down knew i was a bit of a hopeless romantic, but time and experience changed that. i’m in my mid-30s and have accepted that storybook romances are just not the reality for many.

i recognized that feeling i know too well in hae sung as he assesses his life in contrast to nora’s. sometimes your in-yun feels out of sync with those around you. you learn to live with it, and move on.

just guys (with bikes) being dudes.

enjoyable enough. worthy of an airplane watch.

watched with a longtime bud/fellow mid-30s millennial dude while visiting him in NYC.

i actually wanna see michael cera in more lead roles again.

millennialcore.

visual and tonal masterpiece.

it’s just got the perfect viiibe. doesn’t need character development really.

who needs thief, when the driver does it better? i mean thief is good, but this eats it up. definite mannspiration, and of course we wouldn’t have drive either.

more old vancouver content!

super interesting to see the earlier days of altman, and especially to see how he featured the city at a time so few international films had.

clearly persona-inspired, and deals with interesting themes and plot devices. weeeird and uncomfortable sexual tension, which i guess makes sense for the early new hollywood era. like really what the hell was up with nina and the boy??

ultimately feels a bit unrefined compared to altman’s output even a few short years later. largely carried by sandy dennis’s performance and the bleak rainy vancouver tone.

Beautiful and moving.

Watched on Wednesday April 9, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 8, 2025.

Watched on Monday April 7, 2025.

Watched on Monday April 7, 2025.

“Nicky, it's me, Mikey, from the corner.
I came as soon as I got your towel!”

brought my abuela’s old tube TV+VCR combo to my place, so which VHS do i pop in to test it out? i ended up watching the whole thing, because of course i did.

more cozy VHS watches to come!

70s NYPD really just let the guns and cars do the talking, hey? was worried this was gonna steer pro-cop, but it really doesn’t. glad to hear how much hackman struggled in playing ‘popeye’ doyle.

they really call the main bad frenchman ‘frog one’, and then cast a famous spaniard, fernando rey, to play him. but that’s the least of the racial issues this movie touches on.

another friedkin movie with impressively unhinged chase sequences. still, it’s definitely more restrained than he ends up going years later with to live and die in LA.

best first time watches not released in 2024.

• Cure
• Exotica
• Sorcerer
• The Green Ray
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• The Killing
• Eyes Without a Face
• Pretty Poison
• The Adjuster
• The Silent Partner

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

movies that have been rotated into my top 4 at some point.

• After Hours
• Blue Velvet
• Love Streams
• Good Time
• Paris, Texas
• The King of Comedy
• Mikey and Nicky
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire
• Gloria
• Moonlight

...plus 11 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

movies made in latin america or made by latin americans.

• Tótem
• La Llorona
• Canoa: A Shameful Memory
• El Norte
• Panamerican Machinery
• Roma
• Y Tu Mamá También
• I'm No Longer Here
• Cronos
• Monos

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

including “2023” films that didn’t have a limited or wider release in canada until 2024.

1. Perfect Days
2. Anora
3. Nosferatu
4. The Substance
5. Tótem
6. Challengers
7. The First Omen
8. Problemista
9. Dune: Part Two
10. Dìdi (弟弟)

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

• Gloria
• Hardcore
• Sisters
• Mikey and Nicky
• After Hours
• Love Streams
• Until the End of the World
• Minnie and Moskowitz
• The King of Comedy
• Bowfinger

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

top pre-2023 movies i watched for the first time in 2023

1. Come and See
2. Before Sunset
3. The Worst Person in the World
4. 3 Women
5. Dog Day Afternoon
6. Deep Red
7. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
8. Possession
9. The Maiden
10. Sick of Myself

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

1. Dream Scenario
2. Poor Things
3. Past Lives
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. Anatomy of a Fall
6. The Boy and the Heron
7. Bottoms
8. May December

• Good Time
• Mikey and Nicky
• After Hours
• Blue Velvet
• Mandy
• Nightcrawler
• Suspiria
• Taxi Driver
• Midnight Cowboy
• Fallen Angels

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