Bryan Loomis

Bryan Loomis Pro

3,117Films

35This year

36Lists

515Following

441Followers

Knoxville, TN

Favorite films

  • Evil Does Not Exist
  • Rashomon
  • After Life
  • Demons

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  • Himiko

    ★★★★

  • The Witch

    ★★★

  • Woman in Chains

    ★★★

  • Paddington

    ★★

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  • The Brutalist

    The Brutalist 2024

    ★★★★½ Watched 18 Jan 2025 1

    The Brutalist is over three and a half hours long, with an intermission. It’s shot on VistaVision, a film format primarily used in the 50s. Brady Corbet negotiated for final cut of the movie. But technical specifications and facts do not a good movie make. Such a movie comes pre-built with its own narratives around auteurism and the fight for the creative soul of moviemaking, that could crush it under the weight of its own mythology before it arrives. Megalopolis…

  • Au Hasard Balthazar

    Au Hasard Balthazar 1966

    ★★★★★ Rewatched 01 Jan 2025

    Listen to our podcast episode on Au Hasard Balthazar here!

    Au Hasard Balthazar is a masterpiece from Robert Bresson, the best to ever do it. It is a bleak movie that is very honest about life, but also a beautiful movie that seeks to generate empathy, understanding, and deepen our humanity.

    The minimalism and simplicity makes it universally accessible, but it also contains untold depths. Bresson said of the movie, "we must let the mystery remain. Life is mysterious, and…

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  • Himiko

    Himiko 1974

    ★★★★ Watched 21 Jan 2025

    This is a film that has clear vision, particularly in its use of color and the designs of the three different tribes. All three groups of sun people, mountain people, and forest people have striking costumes, makeup, performances, and dialogue that reflects a distinct way of life. The mountain people, in particular, are so grimy and gross - delightfully so.

    But there's still a humanity to them and to the forest people. And that's where the tension at the heart…

  • Woman in Chains

    Woman in Chains 1968

    ★★★ Watched 19 Jan 2025

    This has a great setup and a pretty poor payoff. There are just inconsistencies in Stan's behavior at a couple points, and it also shifts into a different, more typical romance mode that is tonally inconsistent and doesn't suit the premise. The third act gets things back on track with a really stellar dream/avant garde sequence that mixes in the art shown in the gallery early in the film.

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  • Nosferatu

    Nosferatu 2024

    ★½ Watched 03 Jan 2025 3

    This movie treats the Nosferatu story as IP with no desire to adapt or understand what makes the source work. It's just using the source story as a means to administer endorphin rushes when you hear someone's name or finally get to See That Face. When Herr Knock said "His name is Count... Orlok..." to end a scene I knew we were in trouble. When Orlok's face was out of focus for no real reason other than to preserve a…

  • Ran

    Ran 1985

    ★★★★★ Rewatched 07 Jan 2025

    “I'm lost.”

    "Such is the human condition."

    I love a late career masterpiece, and Ran is one of the very best. Kurosawa is freely borrowing elements from Japanese history and Shakespeare here, but he's not beholden to them - he's only beholden to making a great film. The elements he pulls from those sources is plenty of palace intrigue and backstabbing, along with strong thematic material on pride, ambition, and honor. Those serve as a springboard, with Kurosawa creating something…

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  • Anora
  • The Brutalist
  • Drive-Away Dolls
  • Hit Man
  • Hundreds of Beavers

What a Picture's Top 15 Films of 2024 15 films

  • Tokyo Sonata
  • Chizuko's Younger Sister
  • The Happiness of the Katakuris
  • Double Suicide
  • Akira

Japanuary 2025 21 films

Recent lists

36
  • Taxi Driver
  • Man with a Movie Camera
  • Journey to Italy
  • Shoah
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey

Upcoming on What a Picture 5 films

  • Dream of Light
  • Bad Lieutenant
  • There Will Be Blood
  • Lawrence of Arabia
  • TÁR

Descent Into Madness 31 films

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