La Haine

1995

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

So, last night I got to see La Haine on 35mm for its thirtieth anniversary and I was thinking the whole time that it might just be my favourite movie. I got to see a D at Vidiots two years ago, but it never felt more like a classic movie to me than seeing its stark grit on nitrate. It had rocketed to my number one spot when I first saw it at 14 and it stayed as my #1…

Happiness

1998

★★★★½ Liked 3

I haven’t seen this since I was 15. Wild to come back to it as an adult now. You could probably make conservative’s heads explode from the Dylan Baker storyline.

The Squid and the Whale

2005

★★★★½ Liked Rewatched

Shit. The cat.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

2014

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

Wes Anderson is my desert island filmmaker. I’d make him draw stories in the sand for me. Wear coconuts and so on.

Uncut Gems

2019

★★★★½ Liked Rewatched

Time + Pressure = Magic

Fantastic Mr. Fox

2009

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

I am aware that these are woodland critters living in burrows beneath the English countryside but this is also Thanksgiving

Before Midnight

2013

★★★★½ Liked 1

We better be getting three more of these...

Topsy-Turvy

1999

★★★ Rewatched

Even more stuffy and tedious than I ed. Well-produced sure, but Mike Leigh's Oscar bait moment just isn't for me. I liked the bits from the Cape Feare episode of The Simpsons which is of course my main reference point for Gilbert & Sullivan. That may explain my reaction.

Secrets & Lies

1996

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

Happy birthday Hortense! (they say it's July 23rd in the movie, I love it when that happens by accident)

Naked

1993

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

I maintain my assertion that Johnny from Naked is the exact opposite of Paddington the bear.

The Elephant Man

1980

★★★★½ Liked Rewatched

I used to quote this movie to my friends in high school in a kind of jokey way ("I am not an animal! I am a human being!") but actually I sorta meant it. They loved it and thought it was hilarious. 🥲

Hiroshima Mon Amour

1959

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

This is one of the few purely perfect films in existence. In fact, it's why we invented the super secret staff-only sixth star. I assure you, it's there.