February 2, 2024

Dune: Part Two (2024) **

Slightly better than the first part.
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Alien: Romulus (2024) **

This is the ninth film in the franchise, following "Alien" (1979), "Aliens" (1986), "Alien 3" (1992), "Alien Resurrection" (1997), "Alien Vs Predator" (2004), "Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem" (2007), "Prometheus" (2012) and "Alien: Covenant" (2017).
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The Wild Robot (2024) **

Sentimental animated film about a robot raising an orphaned gosling.
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Twisters (2024) **

Daisy Edgar-Jones gives a terrific performance is this otherwise routine disaster film set in Oklahoma.
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Inside Out 2 (2024) **

An underwhelming sequel to the superb Pixar animated feature from 2015. There are many more emotions this time around, but the story is far less clever.
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Sing Sing (2024) **

A prison drama starring Colman Domingo.
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Else (2024) **

A Belgian horror movie. Visually interesting, but hardly memorable.
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Queer (2024) ***

Excellent adaptation of William S. Burroughs' autobiographical novel about a gay American writer living in Mexico City in the early 1950's.
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A Real Pain (2024) **

Ambitious, but flawed film about two American cousins visiting Poland.
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January 1, 2024

Moana 2 (2024) *

A very dull sequel to the 2016 Disney hit. 
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Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (2024) *

A few exciting action sequences lost among hours of tedious monotony.
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The Six Triple Eight (2024) *

Historical drama about a real-life US Army battalion during WWII, composed entirely of African-American women. Tyler Perry directs this film with a grace of an elephant in a china shop; his failed attempts to approximate prestige-picture gravitas are quite uncomfortable to watch, even though he’s dealing with genuinely inspiring and potentially fascinating material.
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Argylle (2024) *

Except for a terrific dance sequence with Dua Lipa and Henry Cavill at the very beginning of the film, this is a truly awful spy comedy starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell.
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Maria (2024) *

A boring Maria Callas biopic, directed by Pablo Larrain. Curiously, this otherwise talented filmmaker fails rather miserably every time he tries to make a realistic movie about famous people ("Neruda", "Jackie", "Spencer"), while succeeding splendidly with more surrealistic and fanciful subjects (like "Ema" and "El Conde").
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Gladiator II (2024) *

A weak sequel to the Oscar-winning "sword-and-sandal" epic from 2000, directed again by Ridley Scott. Predictable and dull.
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Nickel Boys (2024) *

Very odd and very pretentiously directed film, that somehow became some critics' darling. But it fails to connect on any level, emotional or intellectual. Way too abstract for its own good.
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December 12, 2023

Top 10 Films of 2023

1. "Perfect Days" (Wim Wenders, Japan)

2. "About Dry Grasses" (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey)

3. "The Zone Of Interest" (Jonathan Glazer, UK)

4. "The Holdovers" (Alexander Payne, USA)

5. "Past Lives" (Celine Song, South Korea)

6. "Oppenheimer" (Christopher Nolan, USA)

7. "Poor Things" (Yorgos Lanthimos, USA)

8. "Smoke Sauna Sisterhood" (Anna Hints, Estonia)

9. "Asteroid City" (Wes Anderson, USA)

10. "Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World" (Radu Jude, Romania)


Other great films:

Anyone But You (Australia)
BlackBerry (Canada)
Concrete Utopia (South Korea)
L'Ete dernier (France)
Fallen Leaves (Finland)
Farador (Canada)
Godland (Iceland)
Io Capitano (Italy)
Jour de merde (Canada) 
Monster (Japan)
Robot Dreams (Spain)
Rojek (Canada)
Solo (Canada)
Suzume (Japan)
Testament (Canada)
Yannick (France)


Top 10 Guilty Pleasures of 2023:

1. "La Passion de Dodin Bouffant" (Anh Hung Tran, France)

2. "Chlopi" (Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Poland)

3. "No Hard Feelings" (Gene Stupnitsky, Sony)

4. "Somebody I Used To Know" (Dave Franco, Amazon Prime)

5. "Infinity Pool" (Brandon Cronenberg, Canada)

6. "Frontières" (Guy Édoin, Canada)

7. "The Delinquents" (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)

8. "El Conde" (Pablo Larraín, Chile)

9. "Beau Is Afraid" (Ari Aster, A24)
10. "Chuzhaya" (Aleksey Lukanev, Russia)


Top 3 Shorts:

1. "The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar" (Wes Anderson, USA)

2. "The Swan" (Wes Anderson, USA)

3. "Poison" (Wes Anderson, USA)


Other great shorts:


Top 3 Music Videos:

1. "Kill Bill" (Christian Breslauer, SZA)

2. "Flowers" (Jacob Bixenman, Miley Cyrus)

3. "The Beatles: Now And Then" (Peter Jackson, The Beatles)


Other great music videos:


Top Commercial:

"Breaking Good" (PopCorners)


Other great commercials:

Busch Guide

TV Top 10:


6. "Life On Our Planet" (Netflix)

7. "The Crown: Season 6" (Netflix)

8. "Fargo: Season 5" (FX)

9. "MH370: The Plane That Disappeared" (Netflix)

10. "Succession: Season 4" (HBO)


Top 3 Cartoons:

1. "Once Upon A Studio" (Dan Abraham, Trent Correy, Disney)

2. "27" (Flora Anna Buda, Hungary)

3. "Letter To A Pig" (Tal Kantor, Israel)


Other great cartoons:

I Am From Palestine
Our Uniform (Iran)
Pachyderme (France)
Papercut (UK)

Top 3 VR films:

1. "Mondes disparus" (Guillaume Martini, France)


2. "Over The Rainbow" (Craig Quintero, Taiwan)


3. "Colored" (Stephane Foenkinos, Pierre-Alain Giraud)


Top Stand-Up Comedy Show:

"Chris Rock: Selective Outrage" (Joel Gallen, Netflix)


Weak films of 2023:

Hey, Viktor! (Canada)
Ma Saigon (Canada)
Le Plongeur (Canada)
Richelieu (Canada)
Ru (Canada)
Sweet Dreams (Holland)

Weak shorts: 

Invincible (Canada)
Muscat (Canada)

Weak cartoons:

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