I had forgotten how episodic La Dolce Vita is, maybe because Fellini effortlessly shimmies the story from one episode to another. Some are exuberant, while others are deeply melancholic, but the scenes with Marcelo's father remain my favorite. The father is both a mirror and a time machine and it brings to the fore the underlying sense of despair and hollowness.
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Conclave 2024
Ralph Fiennes has sort of quickly become one of my favorite actors working today and Conclave is yet more evidence of his range and effortless charisma. It’s kind of incredible that this is the same actor who’s played Francis Dollarhyde, M. Gustave, Amon Goeth, Harry Hawkes, and Lenny Nero.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001
I watched the theatrical cut this time, because last time (years ago) I watched the extended editions they felt too sluggish. Just about every part of this movie still impresses me, but this time I was struck by how fast it moves. Besides the opening sequence in the Shire, the first half is so well paced, it feels like an extended chase scene.
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Gladiator II 2024
The best thing about Gladiator II is when they play the music from the original at the end.
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Smile 2 2024
I don't usually like the whole "person losing their mind" trope, and I found the first hour of this to be too repetitive (minus the killer prologue). But then the movie got down to business and director Parker Finn delivered some truly exceptional horror sequences (dance!) and a bold ending. The hype about Naomi Scott was also warranted; she delivered a phenomenal performance that felt very real yet never grating.
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A Real Pain 2024
A Real Pain is a perfectly tuned road trip movie about being an immigrant, being depressed, and what happens when you've grown apart from someone you used to be very close with (but not necessarily in that order). There's nothing particularly new here in form or content, but Jesse Eisenberg does a good job focusing on the characters as the director and with his acting and writing is able to bring out an absolutely gigantic performance from Kieran Culkin. Culkin…
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Hundreds of Beavers 2022
A fully realized work of unbridled imagination made on a shoestring budget. I didn’t think I’d go for this, having bailed on Lake Michigan Monster, but it was hard to resist the chaotic energy and precise craft of this Looney Tunes homage. My only issue with it was the length. It gets quite repetitive in the middle, with variations of the same gag playing out a bit too often.
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Queer 2024
A sumptuous piece of cinema, achingly tender and beautifully realized. From the use of minatures and sets to the propulsive score and soundtrack, everything about Queer is just stunning. Of course the real star is Daniel Craig, who gives a career-best performance in the lead. Craig adds a physicality to the role so every shrug and pause layers the character with grief, hope, and longing. Queer is one of Guadagnino's more challenging movies; the use of dreams and hallucinations contrasts with the more straight-forward Call Me By Your Name, but it's never alienating. It enrichens the experience, and the ending is both awesome and heartbreaking.
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Someone's Watching Me! 1978
A surprisingly empathetic and suspenseful TV movie from the master of horror. I've never thought of John Carpenter as a conservative filmmaker, but I was surprised at how unabashedly feminist this movie about a TV news director that's being stalked by a psychopath but no one believes is. Lauren Hutton is also completely disarming in the lead, effortlessly veering from charming to scared and back.
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Evil Does Not Exist 2023
I didn’t think Hamaguchi was a funny director, but there’s a 20 minute community meeting scene midway through Evil Does Not Exist that’s legit one of the funniest scenes of the year. The rest is subtle, very subtle storytelling that could easily be mistaken for slight. It’s not, but when the movie moves away from main character Takumi it loses some focus that I think lessens the impact of the ending.