Kern

Kern Patron

5,228Films

10This year

36Lists

96Following

2,233Followers

★★★+ : Like
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Favorites: Recent first-watches.

Los Angeles, CA

Favorite films

  • La Belle Noiseuse
  • The Conformist
  • Andrei Rublev
  • The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

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  • Flow

    ★★★

  • Das Boot

    ★★★½

  • Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

    ★★★

  • Se7en

    ★★★★½

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  • A Real Pain

    A Real Pain 2024

    ★★★★ Watched 31 Dec 2024

    I skipped this in theaters, assuming it would be mildly enjoyable, an offbeat comedy with some deeper thematic material thrown in to give it some dramatic weight, but I now regret having written it off, because this turned out to be the biggest surprise of the year for me. The writing, direction, and performances are perfectly calibrated. Understated yet emotional, funny without being too cute or quirky, serious but not somber, and most importantly, it all feels totally grounded. These…

  • The Brutalist

    The Brutalist 2024

    ★★★½ Watched 28 Dec 2024

    Corbet's follow up to Vox Lux, one of the most polarizing (and best, imo) films of the past decade, is a rebuke of the American Dream (as one can immediately gather from the poster image), an epic which spans decades in its 3+ hour runtime. It's perfectly paced—to my mind, at least; I overheard a few people describe it as "tedious" during the intermission, but I was shocked when both halves ended far sooner than I expected—features some of the…

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  • Flow

    Flow 2024

    ★★★ Watched 08 Jan 2025

    Adopt a cat, folks. I'm in the process of acclimating a newly adopted kitten with my adult cat, amidst raging wildfires all around L.A.—I'm all good!—so basically my apartment is the boat in this movie.

    Pithy review aside, this was a bit of a disappointment considering the adulation it's received. Really made me want to rewatch Up and/or play Okami. Interesting little movie, but my attention waned around the halfway point.

  • Das Boot

    Das Boot 1981

    ★★★½ Watched 05 Jan 2025

    [Director's Cut]

    Honestly found the first half pretty dull, but it gets more thrilling as it goes, and the last 60-90 minutes are incredibly tense. Absolutely incredible filmmaking.

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  • Us

    Us 2019

    ★★½ Watched 21 Mar 2019 9

    Starts off strong, effectively building tension through striking cinematography and sharp editing/pacing, but once the table has been properly set, it's a gradual nosedive to the perplexing finale. The acting is undeniably committed and the child actors are pitch-perfect, but the exaggerated, go-for-broke lead performances teeter into overkill and would have been more effective if reined in a bit. Also, the frequent attempts at humor, though sometimes successful, completely undercut the unnerving tone. It felt like Peele wasn't confident in…

  • FX's A Christmas Carol

    FX's A Christmas Carol 2019

    Watched 23 Dec 2019 10

    Zack Snyder's A Christmas Carol.

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  • Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
  • Anora
  • The Beast
  • Nickel Boys
  • The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More

Top 10 of 2024 10 films

  • His Girl Friday
  • Mulholland Drive
  • Persona
  • Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
  • Woman in the Dunes

Top 25 of All Time 25 films

Recent lists

36
  • The House Is Black
  • The Mother and the Whore
  • To Be or Not to Be
  • The Color of Pomegranates
  • The Ascent

Completionist List 58 films

  • April
  • Presence
  • The Shrouds
  • Misericordia

2025 4 films

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