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Asteroid City (2023)
I just saw Asteroid City by Wes Anderson and it was great. It took a little while to win me over and it’s possibly too mannered and esoteric to be widely beloved, but it tells a very simple story with a simple message at its core and is one of the sweetest, sunniest comedies to…
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Sisu (2022)
I just saw Sisu and it was ehhhhhhhh… alright. A war film with an exploitation edge, it struggles to escape feeling Tarantino-lite, with its chapter headings and gore and pulpy characterisation. With Tarantino that works because he’s a genius at what he does, managing to stuff every frame with detail and create a whole film…
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Tenebrae (1982)
One of director Dario Argento’s most renowned giallo films, 1982’s Tenebrae (Italian for “darkness”) is a murder mystery set in Rome and following an American suspense novelist called Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) as he’s stalked by a serial killer whose crimes appear to be inspired by Neal’s latest book, titled Tenebrae. Argento’s frequent collaborator Daria…
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Terrifier 2 (2022)
I just saw FX maestro Damian Leone’s Terrifier 2 finally, and it was pretty okay if you like this sort of thing, and probably the worst film ever made if you don’t. I dithered about watching this one for a while because of its reputation for sadistic violence but pushed ahead because the material I’d…
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The Sorcerers (1967)
The second of three films directed by Michael Reeves, a talented British filmmaker whose career was sadly cut short by an overdose when he was just 25, The Sorcerers stars the legendary Boris Karloff (who in 1969 would die the same year as Reeves) as “medical hypnotist” Dr Marcus Monserrat. Assisted by his wife Estelle…
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The Wicker Man (1973)
I just saw a restored edition of 1973’s The Wicker Man in the cinema for its 50th anniversary and it was a heartwarming tale of faith against adversity. Well, maybe not. But it was a good detective story that develops into a tale of horror and madness as old superstitions come up against modernity. The…
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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)
Full disclosure time. These are the reasons why I went to see this film: Also, I have an affection for schlock, and Transformers as a concept is the schlockiest of that ignoble genre. (By this point in cinema, “schlock” is definitely a genre with its own context and history.) To explain my other reasons, although…
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Beau is Afraid (2023)
I just saw Beau is Afraid and it was overlong, intriguing, infuriating, and kind of unique. It’s possible to see it as a gigantic self-indulgence with little respect for the audience’s time and the same contempt for them that you see in a lot of contemporary art. And it is that. (There were walkouts in…
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The Boogeyman (2023)
I just saw The Boogeyman and surprise surprise, it was crap. I kind of knew that it’d be mediocre going in just based on its trailers, and certain details as to its inspiration, but went anyway because it’s “from the mind of Stephen King”. I didn’t expect it, however, to be as godawful as it…
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
I just saw Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and it was really good. The art style and soundtrack are the best things about it, feeling integrated into the story at a level that’s rare for superhero films. For once one of these projects feels like an actual comic book film, which apart from Doctor Strange in…
I Just Saw
Telling you about movies I just saw
I Just Saw 