Letterboxd 4v3r4n Will

Materialists 266411 2025 - ★★★★

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 16:39:20 +1200

6u532b

not as strong as Past Lives, but that's a seriously tough act to follow.

thankfully, Materialists is more than a typical romcom, despite the best efforts of the marketing department at A24 trying to convince audiences that it is.

it feels like one at times, though, and that's not a bad thing. you need to know the rules before you can break them, and there are enough satisfying subversions to keep it feeling unique and like a worthy successor to such a strong first effort from Celine Song.

i will say, it feels like it wants to end a few times before it does, which starts to feel a little like whiplash. it's fine to keep some standard romcom stuff in and do it well, it's great to subvert the formula and psych out the audience. but do it too much and it starts to lose impact and feel a little unsure. but hey, that's love, right?

there's a heavy examination of romantic expectations, which is obvious from the trailers, but there's also a meditation on self worth and how the qualities we look for (or demand) in others stem from, and influence, the qualities we see in ourselves.

i hope this strikes a chord with audiences that maybe thought Past Lives was too subversive or "disappointing" (which is crazy to think, imo) and get people thinking about how they look at love and what makes people compatible.

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Bronson 2u301h 2008 - ★★★★½

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 18:29:11 +1200

it's been over 10 years since the only other time i've seen this.

rewatching it is a solid reminder of just how committed and capable tom hardy is at dominating his role and sustaining pure electricity as basically a one man show throughout the entire runtime. his tonal shifts are broad and instantaneous. he's equally charming, terrifying, and pity inducing.

the movie feels like a blend of a clockwork orange, one flew over the cuckoos nest, and snatch. you can feel nicolas winding refn's influences shine through in this while still creating something bold and unique.

i burst out laughing when he discovers the comb in his list of belongings on the way out of prison; simply perfect mannerisms and line delivery. watching this just reminds me of how bad sony fucked up by not *really* giving tom hardy free reign to go completely nuts.

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10 Things I Hate About You 3er30 1999 - ★★★½

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 07:48:00 +1200

Watched on Tuesday June 10, 2025.

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Ballerina 1d3w6f 2025 - ★★½

Mon, 9 Jun 2025 16:45:52 +1200

the story is monkeybrains moron shit, but at least this has some quality action setpieces. it was between a 2.5 and 3, but the flamethrower battle kicked it up a notch. i'll never think about or watch this ever again, but i applaud the effort.

edit: nvm back down to 2.5 the plot is just too dumb to totally forgive

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John Wick 3j3s68 Chapter 3 – Parabellum, 2019 - ★★

Mon, 9 Jun 2025 13:11:58 +1200

cool action setpieces and stunts aside, the entire movie relies on the strength of its premise. which is weak.

in 2, you need to manufacture a reason to bring him back onto "the job" with the whole blood oath thing. a stretch, but fine.. it works. but in 3, you need to manufacture a way to navigate around JW breaking the number one most sacred rule of the assassin world, rendering him unprotected, AND having an impossibly high bounty on his head, AND some governing body representative going after everyone who helped him. it all results in the stakes being too high and the hoops to jump feeling like an incomprehensible tangled up slinky for me to be bought into any of it. not to mention that none of the antagonists have any personal attachment to JW like in the first two movies, further reducing the level of investment.

the movie completely lost momentum with the halle berry gunfight and trip to the desert. i just finished watching this and i need wikipedia and youtube to remind me who it was they went to go fight, why, and who the guy JW gave his finger to was, and why.

the shooting-heavy fight scenes still suck. there are so many moments where an enemy had a clear shot at JW or halle berry but didn't take it just because. it's so unconvincing and frustrating in a movie that's supposed to promote escapism and suspension of disbelief.

at one point halle berry runs out of bullets so she throws her gun at a dude running up on her and that knocks him out. mind you he's in full tactical gear and a helmet. during the shotgun battle at the end, JW shoves a guy into a wall, turns around to shoot someone else, then turns back around to the first guy who conveniently waited till he was back on screen to swing at JW.

i KNOW a lot of this sounds like cinemasins critique, and it's not my intention to call the movie out for being unrealistic. but when there are genuine moments of convincing and cool-looking action/fight choreography, the impact is diluted by cramming additional, weaker ones in just for quantity instead of keeping the quality high overall.

on a positive note:
the knife fight scene in the beginning is cool and a very welcome change of pace from guns guns guns. also, the last fight scene with the two henchmen who are honored to be fighting JW is satisfying in an old school kung-fu fight scene kinda way.

also laurence fishburne is the best. so is lance reddick.

and one last thing:
STOP SLIDING UP YOUR CELL PHONE SCREENS TO READ A TEXT MESSAGE ON A DISPLAY THAT'S ALREADY VISIBLE WITH THE PHONE "CLOSED". WHY ARE YOU SHOWING YOUR NUMPAD/KEYBOARD JUST TO READ A TEXT AAAHHHH 😩🤬

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John Wick 3j3s68 Chapter 2, 2017 - ★★★

Sun, 8 Jun 2025 21:09:13 +1200

i can't believe i'm itting this, but i forced myself to rewatch this after only giving it a 2 last time i saw it years ago, and i actually found more to like than i ed.

there's a charm to the filmmakers using a bigger budget to flesh out the world and lore in creative ways. even if some of them are painfully impractical just to achieve a certain level of visual flourish (a phone call for someone to hand-type a letter to send thru a chute to someone else to enter the message into a computer? WHY?), it still takes itself completely seriously. in contrast to mcu slop that always needs to wink at itself, i really appreciate that this series wears its cheesiness on its sleeve.

i still think the overwhelming reliance on shooting is a huge drag, making me go cross eyed whenever that's the focus. there's just nothing tense or interesting about JW mowing enemies down like that. thankfully, this movie does go a little further to add more hand to hand combat and interesting setpieces even when it is just shooting. s/o to the mirror room nod to enter the dragon.

the story this time around is tighter with better and more convincing characters. it's less personal than JW1 but it benefits from not needing to tug on your heart strings like the first movie does.

i do gotta say, tho, that the scene with JW and Common trading silencer pistol shots is SO inexcusably cheesy. nobody notices? they only shoot when they obviously don't have a clear shot? it's a perfect example of where the filmmakers rely on gun combat too much.

while i'm at it, it's really stupid that JW can shoot dudes in the chest and head in the middle of a rave club with hundreds of bystanders all around that don't get so much as brushed by a single bullet. the gun stuff sucks in these movies pretty much 100% except how JW unloads an empty clip. that's actually kinda cool.

anyway, you still reading this? thanks! i didn't expect to find the world building and kitsch endearing, but here we are.

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Repo Man 4q366t 1984 - ★★★★

Sat, 7 Jun 2025 09:01:04 +1200

honestly struggling to describe my reaction.

i'd only known about this movies reputation for years and years, but never believed it would be worthwhile just based on its titular premise. for some reason, i always (inaccurately) associated "repo men" with "garbage men" and i figured this movie would be some schlocky comedy like Men at Work.

finally getting around to seeing it to try and understand what was so "punk" about it, idk that i think it's a staple of punk rock cinema like SLC Punk, Green Room, or even American History X, but it does somehow naturally blend punk fundamentals with sci-fi and an indescribable sort of middle-aged existential drama. i found myself unexpectedly drawn into the narrative of Otto getting into the repo business that every time the alien car subplot was reintroduced, i had totally forgotten about it, but it never felt tacked on.

i wish this was a little less cheesy in some places where it feels overdone and unnecessary, but the whole thing somehow just works anyway.

even tho punk music and slam dancing aren't featured as prominently as i was lead to believe or would've liked to see, my favorite thing about this is that it doesn't feel the need to explain its weirdness whatsoever, and i suppose there's really nothing more punk than that.

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Insomnia 4v1l22 2002 - ★★½

Fri, 6 Jun 2025 17:33:00 +1200

this and following are the Nolan movies i've seen but the least about.

brushing up on this one, the only scenes that really stuck with me all these years later was pacino taping up the blinds in his hotel room trying to block out the light. he plays such a convincing sleep deprived shell of a man in this, and the feeling of delirium is captured really well.

additionally, it's nice to see a rare on screen pairing of pacino and williams plotting with each other on an alaskan ferry. i really enjoy that williams played against type later in his career.

other than that, there's really not much to grab onto in this. there could've been an interesting "twist" leading up to pacino's confession and have his sleep deprivation make him confuse aspects of the investigation on which this story is focused with his previous transgressions, but it's all played a bit too straight to be really compelling.

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John Wick 3j3s68 2014 - ★★½

Thu, 5 Jun 2025 19:12:03 +1200

probably my third time seeing this, and it's still so conflicting.

on one hand, it's the kind of movie you want to be made: an original story stripped of excess fluff delivering a throwback homage to 80s and 90s straightforward action movies with interesting world building made by industry professionals.

on the other hand, there's so little substance here (by design, i know) that you need to specifically want a movie that is intentionally brainless and also need to somehow be very entertained by repetitive, point-blank gunshots to the foreheads of endless fodder henchman coupled with corny dialogue and contrived scenarios.

some of the cast are really refreshing to see show up to make an appearance: john nash aka diesel, the low level "fire it up!" leader of the bad guys in the crow, leguizamo, dafoe, and the main villain is appropriately hammy. the dude from the car insurance commercials is pretty awful though.

ultimately tho, it's a movie i appreciate more than i enjoy. every time i've started it, i feel like it's something i can bring myself to "let go" and enjoy the ride. but every time i've finished it, unlike a good theme park ride that should whet your appetite for more, it just feels like i've been stuck on a merry go round for way too long and i'm ready to leave the park altogether.

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Bring Her Back 4ai2z 2025 - ½

Mon, 2 Jun 2025 13:34:57 +1200

i gotta stop scratching my itches to see if generic horror slop will work for me. i honestly don't know how anyone can find anything worthwhile in this.

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The Life of Chuck 4d5z66 2024 - ★½

Sun, 1 Jun 2025 17:51:22 +1200

Flanagan, in deciding to adapt this short story into a movie, forgot to take out the parts that make it something you read and actually ADAPT it into something you watch.

the heavy narration and endless dialogue obliterate any chances this had to be as touching or mysterious as it should have been. this has a nice, touching, well intended message but fails to deliver any emotional impact whatsoever.

i wasn't even gonna bother seeing this, but there happened to be a q&a with Flanagan, Hiddleston, Ejiofor, and Hamill, so i thought that would be a novel experience. it was, but idk if it was worth sitting through this movie.

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The Phoenician Scheme 1r2y3h 2025 - ★★

Fri, 30 May 2025 17:40:11 +1200

wes, baby, what are we even DOING anymore? 😩

someone take away this man's vintage encyclopedia and force him to take public transit for 3 months everywhere he needs to go. he has completely lost touch with any shred of the humanity that once made his quirky movies substantive in addition to being stylish.

a screenplay is supposed to be one page per minute, but i'd be willing to bet the screenplay for phoenician scheme is 1.5x the length of the runtime with all the mumbo jumbo dialogue crammed in and spoken like everyone is on coke.

i wanted to like this, and there were some parts that worked, but they were extremely few and far between all the meaningless cameos and characters that lend so little to the narrative i argue they actively distract instead of adding anything at all.

by the end, i literally could not give a shit about the titular scheme or anybody we just spent ~2h with. what a shame.

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Mission 71384a Impossible – Fallout, 2018 - ★★★½

Thu, 29 May 2025 19:51:36 +1200

a great entry, but this is not the best one like most people think.

the action set pieces are solid, but i get the sense they borrowed heavily from the dark knight with the scene where they break lane out of the truck, making it less original. Henry Cavill is a nice addition opposite Tom Cruise, but we never really get a sense of understanding his motivation, reducing him to little more than a physical presence to be dealt with. these movies are at their best when Ethan Hunt is not just punching his way through obstacles but when he's ideologically and emotionally challenged. when he's forced to outsmart his enemies in addition to jumping off buildings and hanging from helicopters. we know he can do that stuff, but how he outplays situations where that doesn't work is the good stuff.

Rogue Nation worked so well bc every character had clear motivations and the stakes were focused on an objective that didn't rely on a cheap countdown gimmick. Fallout is still great but ultimately weaker bc of this ticking time bomb inclusion that we know will be handled the same way they all are: getting cut/diffused at the last minute. big deal.

this is also approaching being too long for its own good. lemme list off some things that piss me off about this one:

· why do they do that "walls falling down" thing when they reveal to the bomb maker guy that they tricked him? ugh
· white widow is in the beginning but vanishes halfway through.
· i don't like how Baldwin's director is taken out so unceremoniously by getting shiv'd with a swiss army knife.
· dear GOD Benji holding the ipad upside down directing Ethan to go right instead of left in a stupid "oopsie" moment followed by another "oopsie" of him having his map in 2D almost set off a plutonium bomb in my brain. i really dislike the goofiness his character adds in these movies even tho i know some audience need their extra sprinkles on top so Cruise and Quarry are giving them what they crave.

solid entry, better than a lot of the other ones, but i don't really understand how anyone can justify this being better than 3 or 5.

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Mission 71384a Impossible – Rogue Nation, 2015 - ★★★★

Wed, 28 May 2025 14:29:50 +1200

crazy that i only gave this a 2.5 originally, which was a retroactive rating based on what i feeling about it having seen it well before making a letterboxd .

watching this again in my binge of all the movies in the franchise after seeing Final Reckoning, Rogue Nation was very surprisingly delightful.

the introduction of multiple, successful, separate-but-interconnecting threads add the right amount of very necessary dynamics to the formula for Tom Cruise to play off of and make this movie really stand out:

· Alec Baldwin's CIA manhunt as an organizational calamity keeping the side cast of characters busy

· Rebecca Ferguson's is-she-is-she-not an ally with similar/equal superpowers as Ethan to play off both him as the protagonist who can do anything but also the CIA/IMF thing to call into question who he can really trust or believe outside of the core crew

· Lane as the new, much improved antagonist who's a capable and believable counter in a way that balances Ferguson's physicality with plotting and positioning

it all strikes a really effective balance. after Ghost Protocol was kind of a let down for me, i really forgot that the series had more to offer.

i still think they overuse Simon Pegg, tho, and his sarcasm wears me down almost all the time, unfortunately. luckily for me, he's balanced by being held captive or sidelined a fair amount of the time.

some nitpicks that i wanted to ding this half a star for but ultimately there's enough to like for me to overlook them, but i'm gonna list them anyway:

· the tech Benji uses to find Lane at the opera is some Kindle Paperwhite bullshit where he's manually swiping through everyone's face in the crowd. this is a team with facial recognition software in a world where Facebook can recognize your pet when you a picture of it, this is laughably stupid to include and i was offended it was allowed into the story

· Hunt flies off a motorcycle going what is supposed to be very fast (over 50mph if not, like, 80+?) in a high speed chase to catch Ilsa. he's wearing zero protective gear and all his skin would've been vaporized. they should have come up with anything else to end that chase.

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Mission 71384a Impossible – Ghost Protocol, 2011 - ★★½

Mon, 26 May 2025 20:19:08 +1200

after part 3 has a much more personal, grounded conflict and one of the greatest actors ever as the main antagonist, part 4 feels like a bunch of nothing. the first 1/3rd is fun and intriguing, but as soon as hunt and brandt enter the train, it's kinda all downhill.

the burj khalifa setpiece is kinda cool but also kinda lame. how the tech just spontaneously doesn't work sometimes to build tension doesn't work for me at all.

the mask reveal at the end of that scene was a big who cares moment, and basically everything that follows was fighting a losing battle with my phone for my attention.

hot take: simon pegg's jokey schtick brings these movies down. the absence of ving rhames is really felt throughout. brandt is a whatever character. this is all fine but nothing special, and sadly i think the window climbing is what most people and care about from this and what solidified this series as "tom cruise does a noteworthy stunt" which let them off the hook for creating a compelling storyline.

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Mission 71384a Impossible III, 2006 - ★★★½

Sat, 24 May 2025 19:41:31 +1200

the series finally finds its footing here. thrilling, silly but not stupid, and a blank slate macguffin that takes a rightful backseat to the personal drama.

PSH is so menacing. wish there was more of him in this but his presence is so large already i fear they might have overdone it otherwise.

even tho the rabbit's foot is obviously intentionally never explained, i'd probably give it half a star more if the stakes were a little bit more fleshed out other than "bad guy wants thing and you're a good guy so you can't let him have thing and oops your partner said your real name so now your wife might die."

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Mission 71384a Impossible – The Final Reckoning, 2025 - ★★★

Sat, 24 May 2025 06:26:26 +1200

the best thing this does is build incredible tension. unfortunately, it feels like every intense action scene ends in an underwhelming way almost every single time.

it's a nice sendoff to an iconic franchise (if they really are hanging it up), but this is definitely a movie theater movie that i can't imagine holds water when watched at home. it's too long, and there are too many recurring flashback images showing the same split second reminders from previous movies and even earlier in the movie you're actually watching.

could've been half a star higher if they landed the tension in more satisfying ways.

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Mission 71384a Impossible II, 2000 - ★

Fri, 23 May 2025 15:24:30 +1200

Watched on Thursday May 22, 2025.

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Mission 71384a Impossible, 1996 - ★★½

Thu, 22 May 2025 21:12:01 +1200

Watched on Thursday May 22, 2025.

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Punch 375j1l Drunk Love, 2002 - ★★★★

Wed, 21 May 2025 18:40:04 +1200

Watched on Tuesday May 20, 2025.

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Final Destination Bloodlines 503o73 2025 - ★★

Sat, 17 May 2025 19:11:22 +1200

Watched on Saturday May 17, 2025.

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Napoleon Dynamite 49315w 2004 - ★★★★

Mon, 12 May 2025 14:30:42 +1200

seeing this over 20 years after its original release, it's way easier to appreciate its simple, absurd humor. it all lands much more when you're not over inundated by endless quotes everywhere you look.

this has such a refreshingly simple premise, setup, and execution. it doesn't overextend itself or shoe-horn in any standard coming-of-age or romance tropes.

the scene where napoleon gets shoved into a locker, waits a beat, and then kicks the air in the direction of the long gone bully is kind of a perfect representation of what it's like to feel like a loser in high school. i may or may not know from direct experience 😬

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Hell or High Water 6e1m1b 2016 - ★★★★★

Sat, 10 May 2025 23:26:48 +1200

Watched on Saturday May 10, 2025.

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Friendship 6xc3c 2024 - ★★★★

Sat, 10 May 2025 17:00:43 +1200

Watched on Friday May 9, 2025.

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Friendship 6xc3c 2024 - ★★★★

Fri, 9 May 2025 16:24:04 +1200

-- watch my video reaction and analysis on youtube --

hardest a movie's made me laugh in a long time. i'm excited for all the quotes to circulate the internet, and people walking out were already repeating their favorite lines.

i was hopeful that the ITYSL style of comedy would translate well to feature length, and while not every comedic swing results in a homerun, even the bunts contribute to an overall extremely solid batting average. i don't even fucking like baseball idk why i'm making this analogy!

the soundtrack, btw, is refreshingly out of place for the kind of movie this is marketed as. it does an immense amount of vibe setting and contrast building versus a more straight up comedy. to that end, friendship thankfully and smartly has more up its sleeve than just absurd one liners. there's almost an element of psychological horror and fever dream permeating throughout that helps supplement the barrage of jokes and over the top cringe situations to provide a layered examination of desire and fulfillment.

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The Naked Gun 2½ 6h5ik The Smell of Fear, 1991 - ★★½

Wed, 7 May 2025 12:30:09 +1200

essentially the same exact movie as the first. i enjoyed this one slightly more because it didn't have the excruciating baseball third act.

just like the first one, i caught myself laughing at some of the extremely silly jokes. but in a movie with a joke every ~8 seconds, some might land but most don't. when they do, it's surprisingly endearing. when they don't, and your just sitting their like 😐, it's excruciatingly cringe.

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The Naked Gun 2zs8 From the Files of Police Squad!, 1988 - ★★

Tue, 6 May 2025 22:44:53 +1200

hard to criticize a movie for being stupid when that's exactly what it's setting out to accomplish.

on one hand, it's nice to revisit this era of comedy that wasn't afraid of being sincere in its unabashed use of full blown satire. i was surprised by how many cheap laughs it got out of me, and i can't be mad at that. it's like thinking about getting KFC even tho you know you shouldn't, but it actually tastes as good as you imagined it would.

on the other hand, even at just ~90 minutes, it still managers to overstay its welcome, and the gags stopped being as effective. also, i really hated the baseball-focused third act.

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The Shrouds 152712 2024 - ½

Mon, 5 May 2025 12:30:48 +1200

felt like watching a film student's first movie ever but they just so happened to have a big budget.

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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 4w2lu 2007 - ★★★★½

Sun, 4 May 2025 18:22:40 +1200

Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

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Thunderbolts* 584g4j 2025 - ★½

Fri, 2 May 2025 12:16:38 +1200

some interesting themes in this, but they're never taken far enough to feel compelling. it always feels like just lightly brushing past them almost by accident while walking the same well-worn path to undercutting serious moments with zinger one liners or diluting any real consequences with surprise bail out saves.

def more of an audience pleaser than most of what marvel has been putting out recently, and it's finally starting to feel a little like we're actually building up to something worthwhile, so this + the fantastic four might just be the start to an mcu turning point. but it's still not enough to make me anything more than just morbidly curious instead of actually invested.

walker got the best lines/delivery in this. red guardian is mostly cringe. pugh is the "star" but her story is half baked. were there other characters? shrug...

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Her 6e1m2l 2013 - ★½

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 20:18:10 +1200

spike jonze is a really effective filmmaker... when he's directing movies written by charlie kaufman.

unfortunately, his own writing is extremely lackluster and completely unimaginative. in a movie with as strong of a concept as this to be taken in interesting directions, jonze goes basically nowhere with it at all and it results in a movie that is really well shot but feels like it has absolutely nothing unique to say about love or relationships or self-discovery.

joaquin does a good job staring into the distance doing scenes by himself paired with a disembodied, off-screen voice. amy adams brings a strong performance in what little screen time she has, too.

i being really disappointed with this the first time i saw it when it premiered over 10 years ago, but it's been buzzing in my mind a lot recently especially with chatgpt and AI at the forefront of a lot of recent conversations. i was hoping there was something i missed or that it would reveal itself to be more prescient than i gave it credit for. but nah... it's just pretty boring with low stakes, run-of-the-mill relationship drama.

pretty baffling to me that this seems to resonate with so many people and has such a high overall score.

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The Legend of Ochi 1yj6p 2025 - ★★½

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 21:05:31 +1200

there were some aspects of this i really enjoyed: the soundtrack is great (listened to some tracks on the way home), the landscape cinematography is sometimes really picturesque, and the overall art direction is solid. i think the puppet work is better here than whatever they're doing with baby yoda in the mandelorian (i only ever saw the first season) and that helped keep me engaged with it as a central part of the story. also Willem Dafoe is fantastic, as expected, with the little he's given to work with, which is part of the problem..

the overall plot and writing is pretty weak. sometimes i was enjoying the music and scenery and some of the funnier lines were hitting, but too often i felt bored and disconnected from what was going on. the story beats make sense, but there's not enough meat on the bone to make it feel earned or satisfying.

i think it's a well put together movie that suffers from a half baked script.

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Beau Is Afraid 6q4w4r 2023 - ★★★½

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 21:07:57 +1200

it started out really strong in a way i was totally not expecting. there's a certain point where it lost me, though, and it never quite won me back, but it kept me paying attention just to finish it out. could've been really great, but idk. i ire it for being unique and a clear expression of ari aster's guilt and trauma. it deserves a ton of credit for that.

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The ant² 3a646f 2025 - ★★

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 17:39:54 +1200

Watched on Thursday April 24, 2025.

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The ant k2416 2016 - ★★

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 20:00:31 +1200

it's a serviceable brain-off action movie that.. maybe..(??) tries to not just use autism as a gimmick and actually be respectful with its portrayal. i don't know that it succeeds in that, but it feels like it tries at least a little bit, which is more than what can be said for a lot of movies of this kind.

the detective work is so comically simplistic i wish it weren't part of the story at all, or that they bothered to make it feel at least a little more earned.

anna kendrick is given basically nothing to do here, unfortunately, and it's way too standard for movies in this genre to include a damsel in distress type character just for the sake of it. only slightly to this movie's credit, the "romance" is unconventional and avoids typical tropes.

overall this is just fine. it does what it's supposed and ever-so-slightly more palatable than other dumb action movies. i'm sad to report that i'm actually slightly curious to see if they update their portrayal of the autism spectrum in the sequel with how much the disorder has been circulating in common usage and pop culture lately.

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Sun, 20 Apr 2025 16:58:53 +1200

saw this for the first time ever in a theater filled with 90% millenial women wooping and cheering at various points throughout.

some of it was decent fun, especially with the audience reactions. it was also refreshing to see the kind of movie i don't usually watch with so many recognizable actresses who are typically side characters in most everything else i've seen. the wardrobe and set design is pretty immaculate, too.

but... man oh man if i watched this at home, i would've been asleep well before the halfway point. this unfortunately feels exactly like the kind of movie one thinks of when they hear "chick flick." the characters are all extremely one note with completely unbelievable motivations except what's convenient for the plot.

you couldn't convince me no matter how hard you tried that this does a good job of portraying why either of the leads actually give half a shit about one another. for a love story, especially one that's supposed to be among the very best, that's a huge problem in of how much it works for me.

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Sinners 585y6o 2025 - ★★★★½

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 13:43:46 +1200

this works on so many levels way beyond the elements that land it in the horror genre. it uses its rich setting and the somewhat straightforward and typical vampire movie tropes to catapult a narrative that both wrestles with and celebrates black culture and legacy across generations.

as a black person in the jim crow south, where your surroundings stand in opposition of your freedom and very existence, how do you cultivate unity and kinship? what if you could become a vampire and outlive and overpower your opressors all while existing in a coven that understands and accepts you? is that worth losing your humanity? is it worth never feeling the warmth of the sun ever again?

➡️ i talk a little more about my impressions in my VERY FIRST youtube review ☺️

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The Maxx 707143 1995 - ★★★★½

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 01:43:07 +1200

Watched on Tuesday April 15, 2025.

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Scooby 1s33j Doo, 2002 - ½

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 13:55:22 +1200

😬

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Warfare 5v5q26 2025 - ★★★★

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 20:13:49 +1200

this movie might be the single exception to my rule that movies shouldn't be judged solely for how they're experienced in the theater on first viewing.

like, i really don't think anyone should bother watching this at home. even if you have a big tv and good sound setup. and once you see it the first time in a theater, i feel like it probably has very little rewatch value.

but i'd be lying if i said this wasn't one of the most satisfyingly intense experiences i've had in a theater in as long as i can .

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My Cousin Vinny 615o2t 1992 - ★★★

Fri, 4 Apr 2025 18:02:20 +1300

Watched on Wednesday April 2, 2025.

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Bob Trevino Likes It jr33 2024 - ★★½

Fri, 4 Apr 2025 13:29:43 +1300

Watched on Thursday April 3, 2025.

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The Lord of the Rings 522xm The Return of the King, 2003 - ★★★★

Tue, 1 Apr 2025 23:52:11 +1300

Watched on Monday March 31, 2025.

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The Ballad of Wallis Island 2d4n1z 2025 - ★★★★

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:54:54 +1300

man. this did NOT have me in the first few minutes. i thought it was going to play out the entire way like some odd couple cringe comedy, but it thankfully managed to turn itself around and was much more delightful than i expected.

----------- slightly spoilery thoughts below -----------

in a way, watching this felt very much like it mirrored herb's character arc. i wrote that previous sentence at first describing him as the main character but went back and edited it out bc... is he actually? i think it might have been charles all along.

there were moments where i felt myself wishing the story would commit the sin of being more explicit about the characters internalizations. i wanted to see more of charles's late wife. i wanted to see a flashback to when herb and nell were recording their songs together, but then i came to my senses and realized that everything i wanted to see was already very expertly implied and suggested by what was in the scenes and that meant it was in fact doing its job to tell the story "right."

i started this groaning at the awkward humor and ended it holding back a few tears. that alone doesn't make a movie exceptional, but it gets a lot right and i bet it holds up or improves on repeat viewings, and it's certainly nice to be surprised at the movies. great stuff.

2025 ranked

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Princess Mononoke 2o6er 1997 - ★★★★★

Sun, 30 Mar 2025 06:22:22 +1300

rewatched in imax for the 4k rerelease.

the animation is fluid and masterfully executed; the landscapes and settings are all so vibrant and lush with color and detail; the characters are allegorical archetypes that nearly perfectly serve the fantasy theme by being representations of ideas that possesses just enough nuance to be interesting without serving purely as stand ins.

the story feels alive with how often events are happening concurrently and as a result of each other. this whole thing takes place over the course of just, like, three days(?) and it's SO dense. ashitaka bounces from event to event in natural ways and because he's literally trying to keep everything from totally falling apart while multiple factions are at each other's throats.

for all that's amazing about this movie, i did kinda feel a little bit hollow while rewatching it. although the pacing is good, it's not perfect. i think the third act is a beautiful culmination but it's slightly too long overall. and some of the character interactions lean slightly too melodramatic for my taste. maybe that's the point, idk. as for me feeling hollow, i think it's probably because the movie relies so heavily on it all being an allegory that no characters have a relatable motivation for me to feel particularly drawn to.

edit: fuck it, even with some flaws, this is closer to a 5 than a 4.5 so i upgraded my score. on a more granular scale it's like a 4.8, and looking back at some other 4.5 and 4 rated movies, this is a clear step up.

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Problemista 183h2i 2023 - ★★★★

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 16:25:49 +1300

Watched on Tuesday March 25, 2025.

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The Assessment j3870 2024 - ★★★½

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 12:14:41 +1300

Watched on Monday March 24, 2025.

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Magazine Dreams 322i1p 2023 - ★★★★

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 23:09:20 +1300

torn between 3.5 (very solid but flawed) and a 4 (great but not quite incredible)

up top, i'll complain that the movie feels like it "ends" at least three different times before it does, leaving the third act to feel less cohesive than it should, and like we're watching a series of disconnected events unfolding the same way that might flow out of a writers room of people spitting out ideas.

this unfortunately detracts from what, to me, is an otherwise very compelling character observation. i almost called it a character"study", but one of the strengths here is that it doesn't focus on any concrete answers or explanations for its characters behavior. it just observes and brings us along for the very uncomfortable ride.

despite the lack of evident motivation or circumstance, there are clear enough through lines to follow killian's "logic" in acts 1 and 2. it gets a bit more muddled in act 3 where it should be bringing things even more tightly together. this problem that i have with it is somehow also an aspect that i can't tell is either the movie's secret weapon or tragic flaw. is it supposed to feel impossible up follow because that's what's going on in killian's head (or the circumstance of sloppy writing)? and shit, part of me wonders if there's enough evidence that some of this stuff is actually even happening or not, and whether i like that about it or just frustrated that it isn't handled with more finesse.

ultimately, this is bold and unsettling in a way that speaks to me. having dabbled in amateur bodybuilding, there's a lot that hits close to home just in of setting. as for the bigger themes it tackles like mental health, acceptance, loneliness, isolation, violence, etc. i respect that it feels like it's trying a new and novel approach, even if it's not as completely successful as it could have been with some adjustments to the script and overall pacing.

gonna be thinking about this one for a while.

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Sideways 2p2h51 2004 - ★★★★★

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 23:36:35 +1300

Watched on Thursday March 20, 2025.

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The Day the Earth Blew Up 335w3i A Looney Tunes Movie, 2024 - ★★½

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 15:28:02 +1300

i'm happy these characters get a shot at being on the big screen after all these years, but even at 90 minutes this feels stretched too thin and poorly focused. some decent and endearing laughs but not enough to sustain the runtime and then weirdly just keeps repeating the same sappy message and race against the clock type tropes over and over for the last twenty minutes.

should've been two 45-minute back-to-back shorts instead of a single feature.

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