I write a review of every film I watch for the first time. No ratings, as I find them reductive.
The Bedroom Window (1987)
No good deed…
White Material (2009)
A colonial exorcism
The Last Seduction (1994)
A real maneater
Showing Up (2022)
The real art life
Amateur (1994)
Disarming simplicity
Beau Is Afraid (2023)
Cinematic intrusive thoughts
Purple Noon (1960)
La dolce vita
Insomnia (1997)
Daylit but pitch-black
Color of Night (1994)
Diagnosis: messy
The Tall Men (1955)
An impressive backdrop for misplaced romance
Crimes of Passion (1984)
A suburbanite in Sodom
Nope (2022)
Return of the strong, silent type
Enys Men (2022)
A little eerie, but far from scary
Body Double (1984)
When the male gaze gets you into trouble
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
Moviegoing as extreme sport
Magic Mike XXL (2015)
Channing Tatum’s backside to the front, please
Godland (2022)
Dormant until it erupts
Dream Lover (1993)
When dream logic substitutes for filmmaking
Criminal Passion (1994)
Erotic third-wave feminism
Close (2022)
Tender and heart-wrenching
Variety (1983)
XXX marks the spot
Made In Hong Kong (1997)
An evergreen tale of youth in revolt that came at exactly the right time
Man Hunt (1941)
Run, run away
Thunder On The Hill (1951)
High castle intrigue
Women Talking (2022)
As advertised.
Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976)
The all-American labor experience.
The Whale (2022)
By the grace of Brendan Fraser.
Shoot First, Die Later (1974)
Italian rapid-fire finger guns
Broker (2022)
The ties that bind
White Noise (2022)
Not a stellar signal to noise ratio
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
An empire of mediocrity
Inside Man (2006)
Men vs. The Man
Summertime (1955)
Romance, brought to you by the Venice Tourism Board
Sisters (1972)
A De Palma showcase
Losing Ground (1982)
Rocky marriage, film with jagged edges.
Forty Guns (1957)
Big on sensation, scant on story
This Gun For Hire (1942)
A noir not totally by the numbers
Aftersun (2022)
The sins of our fathers
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Funny, even if it does feature the worst fear of any man over 30
Tár (2022)
Well-orchestrated, even as the musicians go rogue.
Cop Land (1997)
They made a movie out of a Bruce Springsteen song
Blonde (2022)
Woe is Marilyn. Woe is us.
Decision To Leave (2022)
Uneasy precipice, devastating plummet
Halloween Ends (2022)
Trying to get the last word with a mute killer
Deep Cover (1992)
Justice reform, but make it extra
X (2022)
Homage for better and worse
Hellraiser (1987)
Sex for pleasure? Straight to hell.
Mississippi Burning (1988)
1964 is 1988 is 2022
Funny Pages (2022)
Crass and brash
Legally Blonde (2001)
The Barbie Manifesto
Fire of Love (2022)
Otherworldly and overwhelming
In The Line of Fire (1993)
Old man cinematic virtues
Cure (1997)
Kurosawa, master of the morass
Men (2022)
Misogyny has many faces
Desert Fury (1947)
Not quite furious, just a little curious
The Comfort of Strangers (1990)
A dark alley alive with a pretty song
Fat City (1972)
A boxer’s punch-drunk embrace
La Piscine (1969)
In the heat of the moment
The Longest Day (1962)
An epic in every sense of the word
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
What legends are made of
Body Heat (1981)
Like watching a now-extinct jaguar in its prime. A sexy, seductive jaguar.
Crimes of the Future (2022)
A Cronenberg deep cut
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Sins of the flesh are sown in the mind
Memoria (2021)
Weerasethakul: spiritual explorer, juvenile prankster
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
A little bit of everything if not everything for everyone
Last Night At The Alamo (1983)
Rootin’ Tootin’ Texas
Homicide (1991)
A murder story with a million victims.
Flee (2021)
Un-erasure
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Let dead men lie
The Worst Person In The World (2021)
I am/you/we are in this and I/you/we don’t like it
Coming To America (1988)
The first big screen adaptation of Black Panther.
Drive My Car (2021)
Life in second gear
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Run, don’t walk, to see Licorice Pizza
Belfast (2021)
You can take the boy of out Belfast…
Jackass Forever (2022)
What good comes from five gallons of pig cum?
Red Rocket (2021)
The unwitting confessions of a Pornhub Playboy
Benedetta (2021)
Salacious! Scandalous!
The Card Counter (2021)
Heart of an anvil, body of a breeze
Smooth Talk (1985)
Sticky fumblings in the back seat
The Hit (1984)
Teen spirit, old man spiritualism, and the hard life of crime
Father (1988)
The father as an familial fuckboy
Terror In A Texas Town (1958)
Sterling Hayden with a dubious Swedish accent, stolid Swedish values
Another Round (2020)
Don’t you wish you could put that in glass and drink it?
C’mon C’mon (2021)
About a boy
The Driller Killer (1979)
Drill, baby, drill
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Bedeviled are the meek
The Limey (1999)
What’s cockney slang for slick?
Not As A Stranger (1955)
A doctor with an unhealthy obsession
Spencer (2021)
Goodbye, England’s Rose
Minari (2020)
A family tree grows in Arkansas
Last Night In Soho (2021)
The cutthroat dreams of the big city
The French Dispatch (2021)
Print the legend
Dune (2021)
Welcome to a real cinematic universe
Change of Life (1966)
Hard times in the city, in a hard time by the sea
Klute (1971)
Beware the bourgeoisie
No Time To Die (2021)
Do you believe in life after love?
Titane (2021)
Cinematic wheels of steel
The Green Ray (1986)
Can travel plans and self-love be found during one sad summer?
It: Chapter Two (2019)
An after school special starring an old, underappreciated clown
Point Blank (1967)
Cold as a razor, hot like like a dream