My Opinion: 8.8 || A moving meditation on aging, loss, and family ties. The story can feel languid, but this is slowness with a purpose: producing steady imersion and leading to a resonant end. A triumph of quietly precise characterization and delicate storytelling.
My Opinion: 8.7 || A great story beautifully filmed — dark, profound, and surprisingly funny. The play-like staging is occasionally stiff, but the movie has superb intellectual depth and emotional strength.
My Opinion: 8.8 || A simple premise explored brilliantly. Inventive story structure, absorbing camera work, and profound feeling. Excellent film.
My Opinion: 7.2 || Intellectually absorbing prison film that ignores the usual genre elements to focus on the mechanics of escape. The minimalist approach means that although we spend every minute with the protagonist… Continue reading
My Opinion: 6.1 || A crime drama on the outside, but really a drama about friendships. It’s nothing special as a thriller, but once you stop looking for genre satisfaction and accept the film… Continue reading
My Opinion: 4.2 || And I chose this because? I can’t remember. It kicks off well, but the story becomes increasingly hokey and reliant on cantilevered coincidences. By the last third, it’s very difficult… Continue reading
My Opinion: 6.3 || A nifty, efficient thriller with above-average directing touches. The premise is one that’s been repeated many times since, and it’s a good one. One of the protagonists undergoes a transformation… Continue reading
My Opinion: 6.4 || There’s much to admire, but I don’t think it holds the same fascinating power as Persona (my one other Bergman). As a frequently dreamy meditation on memory and age, it… Continue reading
My Opinion: 5.3 || I’m a sucker for heist movies. One of the few (maybe only) genres where I can be satisfied with mediocre. And Rififi is not mediocre. In fact, the heist… Continue reading
I'm an author and consultant in Portland, Oregon. My novel 'Beheld' will be published this June.
