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BALLERINA: This was a blast. I didn’t expect to have as much fun with this as I did, especially since the first 40 felt like a repeat of the other WICK movies. Then one scene suddenly turns awesome; after that it’s a great ride. Ana De Armas holds her own, and it fits perfectly in the Wickverse.

Also, I was going to go three and a half stars, then one duel in the last thirty pushed it over to four. You’ll know it when you see it. (Not the duel you think.)

Watched on Sunday June 1, 2025.

THE LIFE OF CHUCK: Mike Flanagan’s IKIRU. The world falls apart. The center cannot hold. And our life is a universe. We must hold our universes close, because our story is part of The Story. This is a masterpiece. 

What Mike Flanagan and only a few others get about King, is that the story is only part of why we love his writing. King’s prose is succinct but beautiful. His prose is all over THE LIFE OF CHUCK. It’s a warm bath of his words. King fans will soak in it.

The anxiety of the first act (well, Act 3, it’s told like the story is) feels very timely and relevant right now. It really does feel like The End of Things right now. But THE LIFE OF CHUCK reminds us of what is good in this world, and to hold it tight. This is a great movie.

Miss you, Pop Pop.

FINAL RECKONING, second time: Enjoyed it a lot more. You have to give it up for the sheer filmcraft on display. There are silly moments but I appreciate that they embrace that, and that the movie is sincere about what it’s doing. Really want to see how they filmed the sub sequence. 

Also, fuck AI.

So dumb.

But sometimes dumb is just what you want.

A very impressive disc for a stupid movie that I love.

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME: Absolutely loved it. It feels like a play Margot Tenenbaum wrote. Benicio Del Toro is incredible- funny, moving, my favorite performance of his so far. If you don’t synch with its vibe right away, you never will. But for Wes Anderson fans this is a feast.

There’s a context to THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME that I adored, and plays timely - no amount of money can buy a true family. I think of El0n, and how he lives in a loveless world, and how Del Toro’s Korda uses his money to have an adventure with his daughter and figures that out.

ASTEROID CITY was fine, but left me cold. Wes had something important he wanted to say, but that movie isn’t as playful as other films he’s done. THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME is incredibly playful, and just as poignant. Fantastic movie, fuck the Cannes booers.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-THE FINAL RECKONING: Undeniably entertaining. I’m not the biggest fan of the plot of these last two, but I can’t deny they get the job done. Great stunts, humor, some fun callbacks to earlier films.

Here’s the thing: I think Tom Cruise is a seriously weird and strange guy.

I can’t get into it without spoiling, but the movie has a bizarre way of turning Ethan Hunt into this holy being, and every interaction with him is guided by fate and destiny. And it’s just WEIRD. Cruise’s Ethan is without flaw, and the way he moves in the world is practically messianic.

There are some fantastic set pieces, no doubt. But for a movie about Hunt trying to stop an evil AI from destroying the world, he seems less than human himself, and not in an interesting plot contextual way.

I can probably articulate it better in a longer review. To sum up - it’s a fun movie, but whatever Tom Cruise is doing here… he may be the most narcissistic person who ever lived. It’s at a level that may have never been reached before except by religious figures. And it all feels odd.

Series peaked with FALLOUT, in my opinion. The RECKONING films cross over into science fiction in a way that doesn’t feel genuine or of a piece with the rest of the series. I had a good time. But it never gets to GHOST PROTOCOL/ROGUE NATION/ FALLOUT levels of greatness.

THUNDERBOLTS*: There’s a 30 minute amazing sequence, something I’ve never seen in a superhero movie, that tackles depression, suicidal ideation, and existential darkness in an emotional way that I loved. 

Unfortunately it’s surrounded by 90 minutes of routine standard Marvel bullshit. Too bad.

CAPTAIN AMERICA - BRAVE NEW WORLD: Whew, this was not great. Anthony Mackie deserved a better movie, because he gives it his best. And Harrison Ford is really good… in SHRINKING.

Rewrote, reshot, stitched together in inelegant ways. Seeing THUNDERBOLTS* tomorrow, hopefully it’s better than this.

Watched on Sunday April 20, 2025.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY: Still a lot of fun, better than I , but it still looks like garbage smoke. Worst shit STAR WARS movie by a lot. This should have been bright and vibrant; instead it looks gray and dull.

Alden Ehrenreich’s good though. He made the best of a situation that was always going to be a tough sell.

SINNERS, 2nd time: Let us celebrate the movies that take big swings, that have ambitions and heart and fill themselves so much that it runs over and spills glorious art all over us. Give me movies like that, and I’ll die a happy man.

SINNERS is one of the best horror films I’ve seen in a long, long time. Music, thrills, kills, emotion, and ambitious storytelling and it’s filled to the brim with ideas and soul. Ryan Coogler has made a full movie that is epic and grand and kinda goddamn beautiful. Michael B. Jordan is tremendous.

See it in IMAX if you can, and stay until the very, very end.

There are two musical sequences in SINNERS that had me on the edge of my seat, and Ryan Coogler delivers in a way that recalls Spielberg and Scorsese at their best. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but I’m trying to describe what I saw. It was spiritual and cinematic and full of grace and confidence.

WARFARE: Shifting perspectives, moments of real-time tension and sudden bursts of violence, and the movie never attempts to take us outside the moment, which is a good thing; it doesn’t need any context. War is hell, and every minute an eternity. Experiential and well made.

TRUE STORIES: People sometimes ask why I still live in Texas, even though politically it’s a garbage fire. But there’s beauty in the people here, if you know how to look. We have art inside us, and we yearn like everyone yearns. David Byrne sees it too. Few movies get Texas right, but this one does.

Plus, David Byrne wears the shit out of that cowboy hat.

PRINCESS MONONOKE: Greatest animated film ever made? Has to be in the conversation. And in 4K IMAX, it’s jawdropping. It’s never looked this amazing, never. Some movies you must see in the theater, and this is one of them. Miyazaki’s best film, to me. Joe Hisaishi’s score. Stunning. God-tier.

There is no generative AI that can touch PRINCESS MONONOKE, or Studio Ghibli, ever. It can only mimic and steal. The true art will always be human. These are holy experiences that cannot be duplicated. Movies like this confirm to me that I must make art or die. It’s comforting, knowing that.

EEPHUS: There are no big moments, but this elegiac film about baseball and the age of time is cumulative, meditative, and moving. Like the titular pitch, it hangs in the air, and before you know it, the time has ed you by. Beautiful, funny, honest, and Altmanesque. I really, really loved it.

There’s a sadness to EEPHUS (which is very much a comedy, but you feel the outside world closing in, as the players valiantly try to fight it off), a sense of loneliness and a time that doesn’t exist anymore. It doesn’t exist because we let the assholes of the world dictate how we spend our time.

Spending time with friends, enjoying quiet moments, shared laughter - you can’t commodify these things in the marketplace. There’s no price tag. But they’re more valuable than gold. In the third act of EEPHUS, as the sun sets, the players desperately try to hold on. It’s the last noble war to fight.

Here’s the thing about “noble wars” - the good guys always lose. Winning was never the option - it is the struggle, and the idea that perhaps later others will . But you can’t defeat time. EEPHUS is about many things. It’s a great movie.

DEATH OF A UNICORN: CGI is wonky, but that’s alright. Will Poulter steals the movie, and some good jump scares and fun bits. Not sure if it all comes together as well as the filmmakers would like, but I had a good time.

DEATH OF A UNICORN is the kind of movie when someone holds up a little vial of powdered unicorn horn, you think, “I know where that’s going,” and you’re proven right. It’s predictable but in a way that doesn’t annoy. They do a lot with a little. Cast is having fun too, and that’s enough for us.

NO OTHER LAND: This film, this holy document, must be seen by everyone, to understand how the destruction of Masafer Yatta could be your homes tomorrow. This is one of the most important films ever made.

See it, because they don’t want you to. The Academy did a great thing, giving this the Oscar.

BLACK BAG: Fucking fantastic. Soderbergh’s Bond film except he decides to make a THIN MAN movie halfway through. This is top-tier Soderbergh, right next to OUT OF SIGHT and KING OF THE HILL. Fassbender and Blanchett fucking KILL it. Everyone is phenomenal. Best time at the movies this year.

Also - BLACK BAG is so sexy. Old school sexy, just smoldering at any given moment. I miss movies like this.

Soderbergh keeps it tight as a drum, not a single wasted moment, and BLACK BAG is still playful and engaging. I’m not the biggest David Koepp fan but this script is an absolute firecracker. Respect when it’s due, and this one gets my respect.

Wow.

I loved MICKEY 17. Loved it.

It’s weird, challenging, goofy, silly, and visionary. Ambitious and overstuffed with ideas, but for every one that didn’t work, there’s one that floored me. Gimme a hundred MICKEY 17s. It has more originality and spirit than most movies churned out from studios today.

Robert Pattinson is amazing in this. He leaves nothing on the floor. What a performance(s).

It’s probably been trashed by critics who aren’t attuned to its wavelength. But MICKEY 17 had me from the beginning. Loved it.

Miyazaki, Gilliam, Spielberg, Ridley Scott, all put in a blender but the connecting tissue (or "sauce" if you prefer) is Bong Joon Ho's unwavering humanity. His is a voice that must be protected. That MICKEY 17 came from a studio feels like a miracle.

HIGH FIDELITY: At least 10 years since I’ve seen this, maybe more. So great, one of the all-time best Cusack performances - Rob’s self-absorbed, full of shit, sometimes cruel, and then he changes. He grows. Not many actors can pull that off. Funny, sad, adult in the best ways, and loves music.

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS isn’t my favorite Anderson but it’s definitely in the top three. It’s such an emotional movie, and the humor is absurd but rooted in deep longing and love.

Plus it’s got one of my favorite character beats - we know Royal is good because dogs love him.

Plus - the game room was something my grandma had. When I saw the movie the first time, I burst into tears, suddenly missing her something fierce. I feel like Wes Anderson and I knew each other somehow - we did grow up in the same town, after all. We could have been friends, had we known each other.

Funny story - I met Wes Anderson’s dad at the Houston ROYAL TENENBAUMS screening. He always screens his films in Houston because much of his family is there. His dad looks like, no kidding, Seymour Cassel and Gene Hackman had a baby. It made perfect sense why Wes would want to cast him.

We’ve all had a rough year, Dad. Godspeed, Gene Hackman.

THE MONKEY, 2nd time: This time, I thought about Osgood Perkins and how I imagine how he used THE MONKEY to work out some familial issues, and I found it very moving, even more than the first time. “Everyone dies. Let’s go dancing.” It really is one of my favorites so far this year.

Probably not something he’d talk about in interviews, but Perkins has had real tragedy in his life. To see him channel it into his art is inspiring, and for those who think it’s just a simple horror-comedy, well… Perkins puts a lot of personal context into THE MONKEY.

Some of the mixed to negative reviews of THE MONKEY, calling it empty calories - they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. While it plays broad, it’s a movie about grief (not like you think) and it does it in a fun and entertaining way. People will pick up on it, especially these days.

CONSTANTINE: I know it’s not the comic, but I still dig it a lot. I also think that a second movie could be even better, even though it’s been 20 years. Keanu Reeves is clearly engaged and having fun. Wouldn’t mind seeing that world explored more.

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE: Sumptuous, heartbreaking. It’s not an easy movie to fall into, but once you do you can’t escape, like a black hole of longing. Wong Kar-Wai knows that we fall in love when no one’s looking, and context matters, more than anything.

This wasn’t my first time seeing this, but this is the first time it really clicked for me. It plays differently now - we live in a world where everyone knows everyone else’s business, and finding grace between two people feels like landing in a defiant, rebellious harbor.

Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung make longing so sexy, but the distance they have to travel to find solace seems insurmountable in a world where others get to break the rules while they are required to nobly suffer in it. Feels very timely now. Masterpiece.

Watched on Saturday February 15, 2025.

THE MONKEY: For the first half-hour, a straight telling of the Stephen King story. Then it goes spectacularly, delightfully, malevolently off the goddamn rails. No kidding, this is a horror all-timer. It even gets poignant and moving at the end. One of the best horror films this year. Perfect.

THE MONKEY isn't empty gore, either. It's a story of fathers, brothers, and sons, and the family dynamic in this surprisingly affected me. There is probably a better critic than I who could dive into the familial themes and break it down better than I could. It's as meaningful as it is funny.

I adore when Stephen King adaptations stray off the word and go into their own wild tangents. It's how you get THE SHINING, the absolutely devastating end of THE MIST, and the bulk of THE MONKEY. King wants people who adapt his work to play in the worlds he created. The books will always be there.

THE MONKEY strongly reminded me of THE BABADOOK, although it’s a lot more playful than that movie. This idea of a physical manifestation of grief, that it’s a weight we carry with us, is all over THE MONKEY.

As THE BABADOOK is about a mother and son, THE MONKEY is about brothers. So well done.

SPEED RACER, now more than ever.

A film by trans women.

A corporate villain who manipulates the markets, who cheats, lies, and intimidates, and who uses the system to stay ahead.

A family who s and loves each other, and who learns from their mistakes.

The hero wins because of that love.

A father who rejects his child’s change, but learns from his mistake and s his children from then on. 

Kickass races, fights, and a chimpanzee.

One of the greatest cinematic metaphors for people who seek meaning, love, and .

SPEED RACER is one of the best films of the 21st Century.

HEART EYES: Or, BLOOD, ACTUALLY. Outstanding. Best slasher in years. Best rom-com in years. Seems made for Cargill in a lab. Josh Ruben and Michael Kennedy knock it out the park. And WAMPLER TRIBUTE, first of a few this year.

Don’t miss this. #HeartEyes

Well, SING SING is pretty freaking great.

Today ORCA comes out on 4K from Kino Lorber. I have a friend who swears it’s better than JAWS. I can’t go with that crazypants theory, but I do like it a lot. On my 8th birthday I had to choose between ORCA and THE RESCUERS to see for my birthday movie. I went with ORCA. No regrets.

ORCA is… a lot. The sequence where the mother whale is killed is pretty horrifying and from that moment you want to see Orca kill everyone in this movie. That tragic Ennio Morricone score doesn’t help. It ain’t JAWS, but it’s different and sad and tragic. I give it credit for that.

There's some silly stuff, to be sure, and it's dated, but ORCA does have Richard Harris, and he's not phoning it in, either. He's playing a not-very-intelligent man who has tragedy in his life, and while there are moments of hamminess, he's also giving real pathos. And the whale stuff is cool.

COMPANION: I can’t compare this to any movies, because that would be spoiling, and marketing gives it away anyway, but it’s best to go in as blind as possible. Tons of fun. Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, and Harvey Guillen are terrific. Funny, twisty, well-made. Avoid trailers if you haven’t seen any.

Watching THE BEASTMASTER, and let me tell you something, Don Coscarelli is a hell of a visual storyteller. He didn’t have much money, but with ingenuity, imagination, cinematic editing, and an art department that goes for it, he creates a real, lived-in world. I love this movie, and I’ll defend it.

Watched on Sunday January 26, 2025.

Watched on Sunday January 26, 2025.

FLOW: Wish I’d seen this earlier, because it would have made the top 10. Maybe the best Disney movie Disney never made. Beautiful, dialogue free, and empathetic and emotionally powerful. Doesn’t explain itself. I get the feeling David Lynch would have loved it, and I hope he saw it before he ed.

DEN OF THIEVES: PANTERA - Someone on BlueSky called it warmed-over FAST FIVE and this is exactly right. Junkfood all the way. Had a lot of fun with it.

Watched on Friday January 17, 2025.

PRESENCE: Fantastic ghost story that could only be made by Steven Soderbergh. I love it when he plays in genre. A final scene that I’ll be thinking about for some time. Well acted, shot (by Peter Andrews, of course), and a haunting (pun intended) score. Couple of Koepp missteps, but that’s alright.

Watched on Monday January 6, 2025.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (2024): This is the goods. An epic adaptation of the classic novel, and very well could be the best of them. If I had seen this last year, it would have certainly been in my top 10. Fantastic performances all around, great cinematography, direction and score. A must-see.

SEVEN in IMAX: It was obvious quickly that half of the audience hadn’t seen the film before, so I buckled in. When John Doe says, “Oh. He didn’t know,” the audience drew in its breath. SEVEN still packs a wallop. Freeman and Pitt still stun. Fincher’s masterpiece? Maybe. You can make the argument.

SEVEN’s 4K is impressive. Fincher’s changed as a filmmaker since then - his films are glossier, more elegant, and SEVEN feels more raw by comparison. Darius Khondji paints with shadows well. And that blazing sunlight at the climax is discomforting as it’s intended to be. Can’t wait to own the disc.

THE SEARCHERS: First film of 2025. Flat out, this is one of the best 4K physical releases yet, right up there with LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Monument Valley in VistaVision is gorgeous. John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards is one of cinema’s great human monsters, and John Ford’s greatest cinematic achievement.

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN: I won’t lie, I was against the idea of this movie. And while it doesn’t reach I’M NOT THERE’s highs it’s great for what it does do. Timothée Chalamet and Edward Norton are outstanding. This is a movie about throwing off the shackles of your own life, and becoming your best self.

Also I appreciate A COMPLETE UNKNOWN’s focus. It sticks to 4 years of Dylan’s life and doesn’t try to bite off more than it can chew.

NOSFERATU X RADIOHEAD: This indie theater owner in Austin decided to synch up Murnau’s NOSFERATU with AMNESIAC and KID A (in that order) and the results are spectacular. I had one of the best cinematic experiences of my life tonight. When “I Might Be Wrong” hits and the carriage arrives… holy crap.

It synchs up so crazy well. I had no idea that it would. “Motion Picture Soundtrack” is PERFECT. Made me cry.

There are American epics, films that feel very much a story of us, in our splendor, our brokenness, our beauty, and our sins, all together in a tapestry of light. Movies like THE GODFATHER, or CITIZEN KANE, or THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

I believe THE BRUTALIST is one of those films.

BETTER MAN: Fucking phenomenal. Who knew that all it took to make one of the very best musical biopics ever made was to turn the lead into a CGI chimpanzee? The songs are incredible, Robbie Williams’ work here is wonderful, the musical numbers rock. One of the best of the year, no monkeying around.

NOSFERATU, second time: Eggers does dread and mood in horror better than practically everybody. It’s delicate to sustain, and at times NOSFERATU feels long. But Orlok’s a great monster, and I love the Rasputin/Vlad Tepes meets the Xenomorph look of Skarsgård. Probably my favorite horror of the year.

We rarely get epic, mythic horror movies. NOSFERATU feels like Eggers painting on a huge canvas, and I love that stuff. It’s a bold swing for the fences, and I also love that Eggers uses previous versions as an inspiration but isn’t beholden to them.

Also, and it can’t be helped - comparisons to Coppola’s DRACULA are a certainty, but that’s not a bad thing. Both films aren’t afraid to play to the back of the theater. Coppola’s DRACULA has aged very well (I critics being dismissive at the time) and this will almost certainly do the same.

Films of 2022 that I saw and loved, not in order.

• Bones and All
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• George Carlin's American Dream
• Moonage Daydream
• RRR
• Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
• The Fabelmans
• Aftersun
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• The Batman

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

#topten

• Seven Samurai
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Do the Right Thing
• Ikiru
• Rio Bravo
• Casablanca
• Double Indemnity
• The Godfather
• There Will Be Blood

2020 was not a good year. But I found 10 films that, in the space of two hours each, made the year better.

• Nomadland
• Possessor
• Soul
• Promising Young Woman
• Sound of Metal
• Da 5 Bloods
• Beastie Boys Story
• The Invisible Man
• One Night in Miami...
• Spontaneous

• John Wick: Chapter 2
• Phantom Thread
• The Big Sick
• Blade Runner 2049
• The Florida Project
• Get Out
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi
• A Ghost Story
• Dunkirk
• Lady Bird

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