Upgrades

January 30, 2003

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Nomadland, 2020 - ★★★
December 1, 2024
From a cinematic perspective, I found mixing professionals and amateurs awkward; even though Zhao minimizes the distance between McDormand and the actual van lifers with her achingly lovely realist style, it’s still visible. McDormand can’t be as raw as they are. Eventually she gets to leave the van. That dissonance kept resonating throughout the film. […]
The Ghoul, 1975 - ★½
December 1, 2024
The racism rather overshadows everything else, which is an accomplishment given how erratic the plot was. John Hurt’s malevolent gardener has zero backstory and with the exception of Hurt and Cushing, there’s very little acting in this. Alexandra Bastedo has a few moments as a brash bright young thing.The first fifteen minutes or so, with […]
Japan Organized Crime Boss, 1969 - ★★★½
November 30, 2024
Blood, honor, revenge, blood, betrayal, blood — it’s a late period Fukasaku yakuza movie! He’s not quite at the heights he reached with Battles Without Honor and Humanity; it’s less impressionistic and more bought in on yakuza myths — at least when it comes to the protagonist, Tsukamoto, who lives by a code.The political angle […]
Anora, 2024 - ★★★★
November 30, 2024
Midway through it became clear that Sean Baker was making a yuppie-in-hell movie in the grand tradition of Desperately Seeking Susan and After Hours. Mikey Madison’s Anora is no yuppie, but she does take that big leap into a different life with dangerous results. What makes this special isn’t that; it’s the human realism Sean Baker […]
A Real Pain, 2024 - ★★★½
November 30, 2024
Culkin’s performance is fine. However, it’s Eisenberg who hauls the movie out of the land of stereotypes with his passionate monologue towards the mid-point of the movie. The texture he adds there brings Culkin’s performance into relief, making it more than just a Roman Roy riff.There’s also hidden weight in the script. The cousins visit […]