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Rated Evil Under the Sun 10/10

Rated The Pelican Brief 7/10

Rated Murder on the Orient Express 6/10

Rated Sphere 3/10

Rated Sherlock Holmes Faces Death 9/10

Rated Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat 6/10

Rated Have a Nice Day 5/10

Rated On the Seventh Day 8/10

Deportations were happening before Trump and most Americans--most USians--were okay with them. Jennicet Gutierrez was hassled out of Barack Obama's White House bringing attention to this very issue and it didn't register a blip on the radar of most "progressives". Please don't situate this film in the context of Trump's escalation of tactics endorsed by previous administrations; don't perform outage for clicks or likes or validation for the fact that it helps you finally "see" the humanity of those regularly denied it.This film is great because it exists and because it shows the entirely untenable reality that many residents of this country are forced to make choices between financial stability and community uplift and empowerment. I applaud McKay for getting so much right without the film devolving into torture porn. We've had enough of that. It's time to recognize the magnitude and the history of the harms of yesterday and today--and act.

Added Dolly Dearest to Watched Movies

Added Pinocchio's Revenge to Watched Movies

Rated V for Vendetta 8/10

Added The Shawshank Redemption to Watched Movies

Rated The Invitation 6/10

What ever happened to Claire?

Rated It Follows 6/10

I think the most frightening (and effective) thing about this film is the fact that it doesn't have a well-explained mythology and so at its core can't be considered formulaic. I still don't quite understand some of the logics of what should probably be called Sexually Transmitted Terror, but I appreciated the nods to 80s genre films. While the first fifteen or so minutes were pretty uneven, the film is intriguing enough to merit a watch and justify some analysis. Given the relationship(s) most USians have to/with sex I'd be very interested to know how this film is received in other sociocultural contexts; so much of the fright may, in fact, be the result of our own conditioned attitudes about sex and bodily autonomy.On technical levels, the film stands up pretty well. The cinematography is sure, the pacing appropriate, the narrative's progression well-thought-out, and the score phenomenal. In fact, I don't think a horror movie has been made since the 80s where I genuinely felt that the musical accompaniment was as tone-sensitive to the direction of the film, so definite props to Disasterpeace for blipping onto my radar (and hopefully staying). IT FOLLOWS is a surprisingly enjoyable film that I anticipate seeing again given how much on offer seems well-placed to probe the mind.

Added Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing to Watched Movies

Rated To My Beloved 6/10

Rated Britain's Greatest Codebreaker 8/10

Rewatched this as a result of having recently seen THE IMITATION GAME and deeming it severely lacking in its approach--historical and thematic--to Alan Turing's work. On technical levels this film could use some improvement in its cinematography and editing, but given that it bills itself as a made-for-tv docudrama it comes across as both insightful and competent.What I appreciated most about the film was its construction and the way it dramatized the interactions between two people--Turing (Ed Stoppard) and his therapist, Franz Greenbaum (Henry Goodman). We get a bit of backstory of both, of course, but the interaction between the two allow us to get a better sense of the inner-workings of Turing's mind before, during, and after his service at Bletchley Park.This back-and-forth is complemented by the more traditional style of sit-down interviews, which include relatives and descendants of Turing and Greenbaum. More importantly to me, though, was the way in which the film perfectly contextualizes his general thinking about the computability of life with his discoveries of and contributions to computer science, artificial intelligence, and biological mathematics.What I appreciated most about this was the way in which it positions the sciences (and universities, really) as places of interdisciplinary study. Wozniak for the most part stresses the integral nature of his contributions to computer science and machine learning, but it is left to the professors to explicate how his genius would influence later thinkers and both postulate (and shape) the theories, philosophies, and extent(s) of artificial intelligence.The film isn't solely about his mind, however, it's also about his heart. And here the film also gets it right. We learn about the loss in his youth of his childhood friend Christopher and, perhaps masterfully, the philosophical question of immortality through AI is raised while at the same time Turing's conception of a means of discerning true intelligence--his eponymous test--comes into form.At nearly the same time his love for Queen and country is tested when, following a burglary at his residence, law enforcement are called, but are more interested in his sexual proclivities than in meting out justice to the thieves. What's interesting about the recollection of this event is how it's used to color Turing. We learn from various sources about how open he was about his sexuality, even with these officers, and also that he was aware that he bore some social privileges as an academician.Charged with gross indecency and offered the choice between jail and chemical castration, the film shows us how Turing's disillusionment and anger with the world and British society began. What he didn't count on was that his mind might become just as addled and confused as his heart. The idea that the country he helped save from Nazi Germany's atrocities could visit the same upon its own citizens would eventually drove him to his death. The film captures this reality with little to no effort and it doesn't shy away from it. It can't.CODEBREAKER is a film that is as much about genius as it is about the social contexts and relationships that inform and constrain it. What this film does right is depict a man wronged by society simply because he could be wronged. It is a tale about villainy and state violence, but it's also a story about a boy who wanted to give something back to the world and vindicate the worth of an adolescent friendship. It's a glimpse into a time characterized by secrets and surveillance. Deeply human despite its flaws, it passes the test.

Rated Two Cars, One Night 6/10

Rated Latter Days 6/10

Rated The Reluctant Fundamentalist 6/10

A moving film about allegiances at the social, national, and personal levels, The Reluctant Fundamentalist has high aims but fails to fully render its many messages. Because of this, a beautiful film about the origins of culture clash and the role patriotism and fear play in producing these inevitabilities, comes across heavy-handed. This is a bit of a disappointment as the casting is spot-on--Riz Ahmed, Kiefer Sutherland, and Om Puri give some incredibly magnetic performances--and there is no dearth of technical skill.Typically I'm a fan of overambitious films, but this manages to somehow telegraph a variety of positions while never quite putting its foot down. It is perhaps too comfortable with ambiguity, certainly more comfortable than its audience is. At the film's opening this makes for compelling and interesting material, but the fact that few concrete answers or explanations are offered on the ontologies of its characters' motivations ensures that the congealed product is unrewarding. It comes as no surprise, then, that many of the supporting cast exist solely to add context and are themselves underdeveloped.All said, the film IS vibrant. When not dominated by the rich sounds and visuals of Pakistan, ethereal vocalizations and sheer and embroidered textiles, the film is arguably at its most uninteresting. One of the things I loved, in particular, was how the soundtrack was used to inspire feeling or to accompany the feelings being created and shown on screen. The sound profile of the film is itself incredibly diverse and enjoyable; the soundtrack contains oral chants, hip hop beats, and melodious instrumentations, all of which are creatively and effectively woven into the narrative.Through this film we come to realize that militancy is rarely a mask of our making or choosing, that sometimes it is chosen for us. This is the kind of film that brings cerebrality and moral philosophy to characters we often hear about but never see. While a smaller scale might have provided for more powerful meditations on the social constraints of identity, this remains a film to be seen because it manages to be both race and class-conscious, all while subverting the popular characterizations of peoples and groups in the middle east. It doesn't do it well, but it does it. And that is saying something.

Rated The Place Beyond the Pines 7/10

This is a slow, well-directed movie that aims to bring to life meditations on fatherhood and the cyclical nature of violence, but never quite does so because its narrative and thematic focus is frequently interrupted. The idea of tackling the the material through a time-spanning saga was an interesting take, but in focusing so much on the masculinities of fathers and sons this film leaves its female characters thinly drawn and wanting. Offering some of her most engaged acting, the treatment of Eva Mendes was, for me, a decisive misstep.

Rated The Mandalorian and Grogu 4/10

Rated I Don't Want to Go Back Alone 7/10

Rated I Am Not Your Negro 6/10

Rated The Odyssey 10/10