The Curse (2023) is Making Me Feel Very Uncomfortable! A+
Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s brilliant “The Curse” brings out the masochist in me. Thanks to the genius of Emma Stone, it’s essential viewing
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Category: Thriller
Last Call (2023): A Serial Killer Preys on Gay Men in New York A+
Caronna gives these five men back their dignity, something they were stripped of when they became victims of a horrific crime.
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The Dropout (2022) Limited Series Review A+
Amanda Seyfried is simply amazing. She gets Holmes’s uncomfortable stare and that otherworldly voice. But we also get Holmes as a real person.
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The Staircase (2022) Limited Series Review A+
The result: compulsive viewing for seven out of the eight episodes. Colin Firth is spellbinding. Toni Collette is equally superb.
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The White Lotus (2021) – Limited Series Review A+
The action then unfolds in flashback…. Olivia and Paula instantly become the series’ Greek Chorus; the best-friend-duo from hell.
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Love and Death (2023) Elizabeth Olsen Asks “Is That All There Is?” A-
This is the superior version thanks to a spectacularly good Elizabeth Olsen as Montgomery, a housewife who has everything on the Baby Boom checklist.
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All of Us Strangers: The Best Movie Of 2023 A+
The direction of Haigh in this film is exceptional, creating an enthralling atmosphere that visually amazes the audience.
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Leonie Benesch is Sensational in The Teacher’s Lounge (2023) A
Thrilling edge-of-your-seat entertainment, all the while touching on such themes as racism, immigration, and freedom of speech.
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How to Have Sex (2023) Mia McKenna-Bruce shines in Manning Walker’s debut A-
Walker’s film follows three teenage girls on vacation in Greece. Mia McKenna-Bruce delivers a heartbreaking performance as Tara. One of the year’s best.
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Godland (2023) Hlynur Pálmason’s Masterpiece A+
Pálmason, his cinematographer (Maria von Hausswolff), and his composer (Alex Zhang Hungtai), bring back colonial memories of such movies as “Black Robe”.
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Mia Goth Astonishes in X (2022) and Pearl (2022) A+
“X/Pearl,” parts 1 and 2 of writer/director Ti West’s horror trilogy, are anointed by Mia Goth’s performance. Part 3, “Maxxxine”, arrives in 2024.
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Flee (2021) Film Review A+
I left “Flee” with that “floating-on-air feeling” that you get after seeing something special. After seeing a masterpiece.
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Quo Vadis Aida (2020) Film Review A+
Aida knows the horrific fate that awaits her husband and two sons if they are found and, for two hours, you watch as she frantically tries to get them out.
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Under The Skin (2014) Film Review A+
Guys with erect penises walking downward into a transparent ooze, confused, as Scarlett walks on another level above them.
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Take Shelter (2011) Film Review A+
It boasts a tremendous performance by Michael Shannon as a quiet man, raising a family, who has horrific nightmares and daytime visions of a meteorological disturbance followed by a feeling that we (the Earth) are being visited by something alien.
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The Delinquents (2023) Borges Anyone? A
With its labyrinthine structure, discursive storyline, and exploration of themes such as duality, reality, identity, and the nature of time, the movie is reminiscent of the great Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges
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Eileen (2023) Hits All the Right Buttons A
Oldroyd pulls out all the stops and the three actresses complement one another so perfectly that we end up savoring 2023’s best scene.
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Saltburn (2023) Emerald Fennell’s Sophomore Triumph A
Fennell’s writing and directing are brilliantly inventive, with humor, tragedy, and horror mixing perfectly. She gets immense support from her cinematographer, Linus Sandgren, whose work here is truly breathtaking.
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Emily The Criminal (2022) Film Review A
Plaza’s performance is something to behold. All of that nervous energy is now bursting out in a performance that is always true and believable.
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The Worst Person in the World (2021) Film Review A
Time stands still as Julie leaves Aksel, frozen in the kitchen as he pours her a cup of coffee, and runs through the streets of daytime Oslo.
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Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022) Film Review A-
Beautifully Queer friendly, the relationship between Bee (Maria Bakalova) and Sophiie (Amanda Stenberg) is the emotional center of the movie.
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The Menu (2022) Film Review A-
There is a fantastic faceoff between Fiennes and a mysterious guest who was not invited. She is played by the extraordinary Anna Taylor-Joy
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The Tale of King Crab (2022) Film Review A-
The directors are extremely cine-literate. However, their references never seemed forced and I basked in their cinematic vision.
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Ferrari (2023) A Triumphant Return for Michael Mann B+
Mann shoots the racing sequences with breathtaking panache and urgency aided at every turn by his master cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt and the editing genius of Pietro Scalia.
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God’s Country (2022) Film Review B+
But the movie belongs to Newton who gives the best performance of her career here. We are completely in her spell.
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Rotting in The Sun (2023) Self-Referential with Penises Galore. B
Now, after ten years in the (relative) wilderness, Saavedra and Silva (and Silva’s co-screenwriter Peirano) have returned with a delicious slice of meta.
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Sick of Myself (2023) Film Review B
If you can take moments of extreme gore and disfigurement – it succeeds more as a horror movie than as a piece of social satire – you could do worse.
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Dream Scenario (2023) Runs Out of Ideas….Fast B-
There are too many scenes straight out of Bunuel’s famously scathing “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie”. Gradually, you feel this movie has been stolen.
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Origin (2023) (B-) vs 13th (2016) (A-) Narrative vs Documentary
I felt that the constraints of the narrative feature may not have fully captured the depth and complexity of Wilkerson’s analysis of caste and its impact on society.
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Tár (2022) Film Review B-
However, no one seems to have stopped and thought about the age difference between these two maestros. By my calculations, Lenny would have been teaching Lydia when she was five years old!
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