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All the seeds and DNA of something really grabbing, but it's evolution and shifts throughout never kept me reeled in like it should have.

The first act feels very vulnerable. A human dilemma is thrust upon our characters and it's up to them and ourselves to evaluate the ethics of the situation.

Once this portion of the film es, things begin to feel more sterile to me - excluding a final scene that is fantastic, but feels like it would have been as impactful in isolation, rather than as a climax to the film that played out.

Have yet to see Seven Samurai, but so far Kurosawa has seemed to not be for me sadly. Stylistically quite minimal I thought - and when he goes to the maximum, I don't feel the weight.

Poetry on screen.

Taking the Cronulla-rioters / Bra-Boys and translating this into a daytime horror 70s-inspired neonoire psycho-thriller is just about one of the most genius things I've ever heard of. Now just add Nic Cage to do his over-the-top schtick and you have a golden recipe.

The balance of making this a genre homage piece, as well as dissection of toxic masiculinty-fuelled Australian culture (and those around the world) is expert. Every new evolution in the story is a logical next step, but still feels weighty and earned - and the character alienation jumps into your skin immersively.

Made Australians truly feel like another breed of human - like an extension of the environment: beast. (Some accents difficult for me to discern)

Proud to see an Aussie film on the big screen on the other side of the world, that meets the technical and creative quality of other world markets. Oozed Australian culture, whilst still feeling professional. Never thought I'd be watching a Stan Original film in a cinema in The Netherlands.

A favourite of this year so far.

Nic Cage encounters an unfamiliar cult reflecting an extreme exaggeration of another caucasion culture sub-genre:

Far sures the quality of The Wickerman, with the same amount of crazy Cage.
Doesn't meet the unique creative expression of Mandy, but comes close in substance and style choice.

Watched at CineCentre Amsterdam

Watched on Tuesday June 3, 2025.

The Final Destination films are so much fun and so silly - even better enjoyed with people. But this one particularly is such a freaking 'movie'.

The over-drama of these characters, the over-production of all the visuals, turn this into something that resembles nothing of the real world. These are characters, not humans depicted in this: but maybe thats a good thing, to allow us to really absorb and enjoy these elaborate kills.

The script may be oozing of cheese, but the concept of this entry is pretty killer.

This made for TV film has such a homemade feel and hits all the most simple kids movie boxes.

The boy has lost his dog!

The boy has an annoying older sister!

The boy has a bully named bully!

The boy is the chosen one by a genie who has possessed a VCR!

And it's up to him to get his love interest's dad's war medals back, to clear him name from the town!

Real basic movie making - nothing artful about it. But some British kids in the 90s would've been so happy to watch this on repeat over and over again.

Reels you in with its elegant aesthetic and textured illustration of its setting, to then keep you invested with an pretty fun mystery plot.

The narrative doesn't completely inspired and moving, but serves as solid bones to immerse you in this world and make your own disappear.

Was pretty magical watching this on the same day as visiting many of its locations, only decades upon decades later. A special cinematic moment.

Watched at Burg Kino Vienna

Watched this sitting at a table alone, in an airport, nearing the beginning of my open-ended European trip: dwelling over so many questions about what the correct way to live my life is.

There is finding the right movie for the right mood, and finding the perfect film that gives you exactly what you need in that moment.

Consistently engaging, but certain moments have a possessive quality - where I found myself completely within the conversation, present at the dinner, ears open, just as Wally is.

I feel depending on what's going on in your life at the time of watching, different aspects of the conversation will stick out and resonate more or less than others.

But on this first watch: I could not have possibly related more to it's comments on the fear of confronting your own quiet, this perceived failure that comes from this, potentially falling into a facade as that is the expected way to live your life.

Andre's advocation for changing one's surrounding and the significance of living your life listening to your impulses felt like a wise friend vindicating that my voice to drop everything and figure some things out on the other side of the world was the right thing to do.

Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in MY definite Dylan.

What an interesting meditation and direction to take to explore the inconsistent identity of this folk icon.

Maybe too frantic for my own liking, and brought down by some takes on the character that are much less interesting to watch than others (never been less engaged by Richard Gere.)

But wow, so expressive.

An excellent concept, put together shabily in the execution to make an easy to palatte movie, filling in gaps with awkward cliche, luckily populated by a few short moments of brilliance.

What a wonderful and thought out idea that Sinners must have started with: telling a story of appropriation and forcibly defending one's earned culture, through the parable of vampires sucking the lifeblood from a suppressed people. What this stands for is something to praise and pay attention to.

But the stitches that make this into a feature film exist as nothing more than functional and unappealing to me: and sadly, most of the film is this. Visually it can wreak of over-produced (especially during the daytime sequences), keeping the entire environment from feeling tangible: too many visual garnishes (shadows, CGI birds, green-screened horizons) to immerse me in the world. Many of the moments of tying together the characters and their relationships feel written by a predictive-text; tropes and cliche dictating the words shared between them (the train station scene really highlighting this).

So glad that there are some moments that shine through with gorgeous and original expression - namely a transcendent music number that outshines everything else around it.

A stable foundation of ideas earn the film all of its praise, but it is then heavily let down by an execution that prioritises giving the audience what they think they want rather than what the narrative needs.

A magic trick of a film. Every last moment is incredible as it balances being an intricate portrait of a complex and intricate system, a dissection of relationships as a gamble with trust, and simply one of the coolest movies you'll ever see.

Definitely is Scorsese making a Scorsese movie almost following a textbook - but translating his form to the world of Las Vegas makes so much sense and is a recipe for wonder.

De Niro's costumes alone act as a character in this film, and Pesci otherworldly punchable face and character carries so much weight. Thematically, this is almost the exact same concept as Mean Streets, but now on an extreme scale: following the perspective of a man looking to grow up and 'reign it in' alongside his oldest friend who refuses to grow up and straighten out - a story that you don't need to be an ex-gangster to understand.

James Woods steals every moment he is ever on-screen as his hatability excels here, and Sharon Stone's shrieks hurt your soul as she just deconstructs infront of you.

From the opening title sequence, you just know something special is about to play out.

Watched at The Prince Charles Theatre on 35mm

Didn't resonate with it even though I could see some bits and pieces that some could love. If only I was more familiar with the game.

This is how else the review could have gone:

What a waste of time. Nothing to hold onto or attract to. Sort of pointless from beginning to end. One star.

This is how it really went:

This practice of adaptation from boardgame to film is GENIUS. Clever, funny, charming, original. It knows HARDCORE what it is and how to work with its strange source material, even if it does get a bit exhausting at times amidst the repitition of people yelling and accusing.

Love when a film can take such a gritty and unappealing main character and still keep you invested and rooting for them.

MUST be the voice that could grate cheese yet blissfully yell at you.

Strange decision from me to start my massive Europe journey with an Australian film, made by a quite big Australian filmmaker, about one of Australian history's favourite icons.

Justin does his familiar shadowy, monotone, raw, gritty heightened realism.

It works as an interesting stylistic take on the making of this man, excelling in moments that take it's time and focuses on nuanced power-dictated relationships, but definitely falls flat overall narratively by trying to fit too much of such a complicated figure's life into this single picture.

Such a massive coincidence watching this after Juror #2, a film that's message on justice and wrong accusation gets muddled and preachy without bite to its conclusion. The Fugitive manages to balance a far more tense and potent fight between right and wrong (or moreso the perceptions of these two sides) in the shape of a wild action cat-and-mouse chase between Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.

Extremely entertaining and weighty, without forgetting to stand for something. This is no small feat and has aged only like a fine wine over 30+ years.

If only it wasn't another film about justice where a woman is murdered and the film only has the capacity to explore the humanity and how this affects the men left in this world.

Gives The Lego Movie style on a severed budget, but damn is it impressive at moments, especially translating synesthesia to Lego.

The overall concept really is an inspired choice here and the decision works 75% of the time - excluding some awkward and inexpressive talking heads populated by Minifigures.

I may not be that invested in the lore of Pharrell, but not shying away from his arguable downfall lends a lot of integrity to the story being told.

Always a bit funny when a documentary focuses on one person, it does need to pretend that they are the most trend-setting, significant and canon player in their game, maybe even if it isn't that accurate.

A servicable, if half-baked, courtroom drama that surprised me at first to get no theatrical release in Australia until well... seeing it.

None of the elements are poor: in isolation the performances are convincing, the pacing fairly fluid and being shot sufficiently. It's just that the overall narrative direction and story beats really make this feel like the impact is numbed and coincidence keeps the story together rather than fate.

Clint Eastwood was really looking to make his 12 Angry Men, and what keeps it from being this significant is it's focus on surface level reasoning for predujice instead of a deeply engrained foundation.

Instead of painfully revealing, it comes across as coldy observational.

You get exactly what you expect in the realm of moving sentimental performances of what Neil Young wants to play for you, instead of just his greatest hits. Stunning and authentic moments shared on screen.

But it's the quiet moments where you just get to spend time hanging out with Neil on the road that thrusts the humanity into this.

Gorgeous on the Astor screen and with its insane sound setup. Immerse yourself for this one.

Watched on Friday April 18, 2025.

Watched on Friday April 18, 2025.

Weighty genuine stuff.

Captivates all attention.

Who knew all the charm and complexity gets stripped from RoboCop when you take it this seriously, decide to have absolutely zero fun, and make nothing practical.

I wonder why no one talks about this?

The first two entries, despite oozing with camp, did an incredible job of hiding the seams of their knotted creations, whilst RoboCop 3 is covered in loose threads.

Even in the realm of bombastic crazy bullshit, this will deliver only half-heartedly - and yet again be tied together by a narrative that sets up narrative impact only to completely loose trajectory and result in merely being functional for some set-pieces.

It's at least a fun game to pick all the character actors that appear all over the place, many of which are working quite a bit even today.

Didn't expect a hell of a lot from the close to this trilogy, but yet felt like it could've tried much harder to give a whole lot more.

Watched on Monday April 14, 2025.

Worst Black Mirror episode (very sorry)

One of the best uses of a sequel title in the actual dialogue that I've ever seen.

And that opening crime montage on the streets of New Detroit is worth all the time required in viewing ALONE.

A bit more campy bombastic action, explosions and an extra level silliness on top of the previous RoboCop film. Still such a worthy film in its own right. Satisfies hard, even though it seems to forget about Murphy's family arc in the service of more crazy bullshit.

But the crazy bullshit works here.

Our main character is so inconsistent between extremes of intense insecurity and irrational strength that you get a Todd Phillips flavoured whiplash.

The excitement of my friend wanting to show this movie to me so badly is infinitly worth more than the film itself.

Very pure, shallow and innocent entertainment to give the brain cells a rest when watching.

Pat could take me on a ride through any agenda and I would listen, follow and worship the man.

This war film finds itself in this peculiar little pocket where the tone is 70% light-hearted fun, and the remaining portion is reflective on 'war is bad'.

Makes for a far more entertaining and light watch when we're treated to soldier tomfoolery and creative ways to infiltrate and murder Nazis.

The lineup of killer main cast in the dozen makes it that there's no turning back from the engagement of these fellows and their bro-hood.

First time watching, and oh my God is this brutal, campy, terrifyingly sharp retro-futuristic 80s gold.

Cops vs. crime vs. commercialism.

The irony of this R-rated hyper-violent action movie then spawning into children's toys and a cartoon series makes the satire even the more sweet.

Feels dumb enough to easily enjoy and smart enough to love.

Gokogu Shrine has this affect on you where you have a big mindless smile on from beginning to end. Or at least it did with me.

Definitely exited with some notes, mostly to do with editing (desperately requires some killing of your darlings); including parts with the filmmaker self-inserting themselves, and repetitive scenes that probably should have just been cut in service of a lesser runtime.

My favourite moment comes from a conversation with a tourist, that after making you want to go to the island to pat and feed some cats for the entire runtime, tells you not to come here.

Beauty can exist from a far and without us putting our grubby fingers over it: that is sometimes what makes it so alluring.

Love hurts so so much during every moment of this. So succinct and measured in its storytelling.

So much to appreciate.

Zelda Williams brings us a Disney Original movie with Cole Sprouse, a bit of edge and castration that Disney does not . (Not actually a Disney Original, but wow does it feel like it.)

A pretty enjoyable entry into modern "I'm just a girl" cinema, but really doesn't feel transcendent or unique enough to write home about; but in saying this, it truly is not a film made for me.

Definitely puts me in the headspace to intellectualise girlhood, but not emotionally visceral enough to make me feel girlhood.

Closure can be everything sometimes.

Brilliant on just about every front.

One of those filmic experiences that truly makes you find and feel a whole new perspective to a historical event.

Skilled incredibly, awesomely paced and endlessly valuable.

Looks and sounds incredible for a 60-year-old movie. When the time can be made for this, it is so insanely worth it.

When your mum says we have Ozark at home.

Appeals to this Everglades aesthetic, with a mystery thriller going on that never quite hits for me.

Romanticism of the weird is a train that I will always board. Every moment is filled with so much expression and celebration of style and charm.

So easy to get behind this and want to it.

Refreshing to watch an Oscar-winning Australian short. It's not every day that you get the privilege of that.

Tragic. One of those 2000s based-on-a-true-story movies that they don't make exactly like this anymore.

Formulaic, but reliably heart wrenching. Set apart from standard fare by how brilliant Don Cheadle is (also the confronting reality of how recent this all is).

The emotion of all the performances is what transports you into a another time.

Feels almost like a parody of itself, existing as the ultimate B-grade 50s alien picture.

Every layer, aspect, moment you've seen in this, has been parodied and imitated to death throughout your entire life.

Difficult to watch this in any way other than as a foundational standard for this filmic aesthetic and nothing else.

Engagingly pointless, with an intriguing voyeuristic edge.

Feels like a good Safdie brothers DNA film - necessary in understanding where they're coming from, but not essential in grasping to enjoy the direction they head in.

Bonus points for legitimately making me feel that I was hallucinating and thinking the lead actress was Charlotte Gainsbourg, even when this wasn't the case.

You put Trainspotting, Clerks, Can't Hardly Wait, and a few episodes of Peep Show in a blender, and you get an absolute killer of a time.

My young adulthood and expectations of this era really suffered from not seeing this as a teenager. The DVD menu is a freaking character in this.

The schizophrenic tone and momentum is potent and oh so relatable in this one.

Hidden gem cinema.

The Milky Bars are on me.

Really needs to be seen. A grounded asylum seeker story oozing with empathy. Uncut Gems but for a much more widespread issue.

Painful in all the right ways.

Sometimes a film about such a serious topic can be daunting and they lose attention because it feels like you have to emotionally and intellectually dedicate a whole day to it; you have to have this exact cocktail of feelings to pick up what's being put down.

The masterful pacing of this and succinct storytelling doesn't require a doctorate on human rights or layered thesis for it to pierce you.

Demands your attention.

"There's so much division in the world right now with the election. The world needs this movie. When it's red vs. blue, why not go purple."

- Literally Zachary Levi in press interviews about this dumb movie about a magical fucking crayon

This is not a family film.
This is a kids film.
In no way could the rest of the family enjoy this unappealing mess.

Harold finds himself in the real world to try and find God. Only for him to discover that He Himself is God.

A truly relatable story.

Here for the old Hollywood aesthetic and grand scale production design - but the actual direction of the film itself left me a bit in search of something greater to hold onto I'm the Emerald City.

The expression of the film is liberating, as a theatrical toy box of a film for the actors to play in.

But even when tripping on mushrooms, much less impactful than I was anticipating.

Opens to make you think you're about to watch the tropiest rom-com to hit your face since Netflix's newest original film, to then provide a punishingly emotional and authentic story.

Nothing crazily new, but the pacing and performances reel you in and have you hanging on each next scene.

Tears making me BLIND.

May not be extremely clean, with some inconsistent character behaviours and melodramatic cliches - but so worth the payoff.

Even without an illness looming, we're always running out of time.

One of those films that about a fifth to a quarter of the runtime is full of absolutely wonderful, impressive, holy-God-I-can't-believe-my-eyes cinematography, action and moments of real vulnerability.

But then the remainder is real send-you-to-sleep character interactions of men with big mustaches and many war medals on their chest, talking about what a significant moment in history this is, in a dull monotone pitch.

Would love for someone to re-edit this, and happily cut out an hour of runtime - still leaving in all of the humanity and gut-punch impact, without any of the filler.

If you take a bong hit for every time Kevin Smith tears up in this documentary, you will be almost as high as he was when writing the script to Jay and Silent Bob Reboot!

Very earnest and sweet, but does very little else than just supply more self-loving Kevin content for his fans to devour.

It's all for the train scene... You've never waited for a train so hard in your life.

In all seriousness, The French Connection really didn't prove to be an overall sensation for me. It proved to me to be a crime noir with two unlikable anti-hero detective partners, that don't seem especially good at their jobs or their lives. And the first two acts have this same singular beat that doesn't break and start to get interesting until right at the end of the second act.

From here, we really start cooking: the stakes feel like they're at a new potent height, our protagonist's paranoia reaches a level of intrigue, and we get THE TRAIN SCENE (easily the best scene, and one of my favourite 10 minutes in a cinema in recent memory).

The relevancy of this film truly I believe comes from the inspiration it would of had on Hollywood and the rest of the dark 70s crime cinema wave - that arguably does a lot of the same but much much better.

Takes a good while to build momentum, but when it has you, it has you.

Really dark and dire scenarios populate this picture, becoming hard to watch at times but oh so worth the confrontation.

I did feel it went a bit too heightened as the film goes along and should've stayed with its feet on the ground a bit more - and boxes of narrative potential are opened multiple times without anything being done with the contents that fall out: this was quite disappointing.

Didn't reach the level of transcendence that I was hoping for with this, yet if did leave it's impact.

Deeply invested in this one. So expressive. So organic. This praise, rightfully deserved.

There are a few moments in this that are just bliss; when we've flooded to the top of the cat statue, the synthy score kicks in, and we see the whale for the first time. Real cinematic magic.

Movies that were either shot in a single take, or pretend that they were using LIES and MAGIC.
Any others out there?
Honorable Mention to One Cut of the Dead, which has a 40-minute single take movie-within-a-movie, but goes off on a tangent after that...

• Rope

  MAGIC

• Running Time

  FAKE

• Timecode

  REAL (x 4!)

• Russian Ark

  REAL

• Infection

  FAKE

• PVC-1

  REAL

• The Silent House

  Claimed to be REAL but probably MAGIC

• Silent House

  MAGIC

• Ana Arabia

  REAL

• Fish & Cat

  REAL

...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.