torbern

Not one of my favorite Arnold movies overall, but it's got a lot of great individual scenes and moments. The ending showdown in particular has a kind of surreal zaniness to it that's hard not to love... and, the muscles. My god, the muscles.

90 _87%

A Fistful of Dollars (1964) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

Stylistically magnificent. Leone loves taciturn facesso much of the tension in this film is built with glances from one wild-eyed, grizzled visage to the nextand almost no one has a better face than Clint Eastwood. The performance he gives here is brilliant, oozing sardonic charm and determination with nothing but stares, and poncho flips, and cigar adjustments. The cinematography, the music, the setting... all unimpeachable. With some slightly-tighter editing, this would be a perfect movi

35 _3%

Alita: Battle Angel (2019) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

What a drag! I'm a huge fan of Rodriguez's early stuff, but it seems like he's gone full George Lucas here: comfortable in the sterile confines of a green-screen studio, and with flat, superficial performances from otherwise-talented actors. The source material doesn't seem all that great to begin with, but still...

95 _96%

Encounters at the End of the World (2008) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

Through Herzog's lens, the arctic appears foreboding, bleak, and unknowably vast (there's an underwater shot that I swear looks like the eye of Cthulhu); and so whenever he interviews a scientist talking about studying some single-cell organism, or geological specimen, or the milk of certain seal species, they seem absurd, almost petty. He's far more interested in the personal stories and idiosyncrasies hidden within Antarctica than in the scientific potential (which makes for a far better f

55 _16%

American Ultra (2015) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

Wouldn't be a bad little flick, excepting the TERRIBLE ending where the two heroes literally join the evil agency that hunted them like dogs the entire film. Is there some sort of political commentary there I'm not getting? Preceding that, Eisenberg and Stuart are pretty great together in their roles; wish there was more of them, and less dumb CIA in-fighting shit that I didn't care about. Also, how're you gonna have real squibs and then do CGI weed smoke???

95 _96%

A Serious Man (2009) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

I'm at a loss for words after this movie. It has that Coen-esque blend of humor and sadness and dread, and feels, somehow, both light as a feather and teeming with hidden meaning. Each character is its own little masterpiece; but none moreso than Larry Gopnik, a Jew searching for fulfillment amidst a tornado of a life and finding nothing but more agonizing questions. The whole thing is brilliant, but the story of the Goy's Teeth might be one of my favorite sequences in any film, of all time

50 _12%

The Jerk (1979) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

One of the better entries in the Uncle Comedy canon.

70 _36%

The Platform (2019) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

An adept, philosophically dense debut from Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. The plot can feel contrived, but Iván Massagués performance lightens and humanizes it beautifully. I wasn't 100% sold by the ending...

30 _1%

The Invention of Lying (2009) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

It's too caught up in pathos to have any real fun with its premisebut even more shameful is the sheer amount of talent it wastes. Gervais is cast as an unfunny, simpering sad sack. Phillip Seymour Hoffman floats by in an unremarkable bartender role; Jason Bateman plays a straight doctor for some reason; Tina Fey is relegated to using the F' word (not that one, the other one) repeatedly, in an utterly painful display. The list goes on. Just a weird total-misfire of a movie.

45 _9%

Black Is King (2020) - Rated 17 Sep 2020

The songs are, of course, goodBeyoncé pays impassioned tribute to African music, blending it seamlessly with her brand of empowered pop to create an album that, while not as deeply personal as Lemonade, or as anthemic as her S/T, is certainly enjoyable. As a film, however, it feels wayyy too Disneyfied. Dialogue from the Lion King randomly pollutes the spaces between songs; and there's just not any real bite to any of the imagery or message,