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Showing posts from January, 2021

Lucy (2014)

Lucy is about doing a lot of drugs and becoming the singularity; watching it feels like doing it and doing it is what gets it done, so don't skip this late luc besson classic - and also don't mind the haters; they just don't understand his genius. 

lolita (1962)

for any old movie this one's pretty great, in that it's entertaining, provocative, and earns its 2.5 hour runtime - but for a collaboration between nabokov and kubrick, I don't think it really lives up to its potential.

Book Review: Albion's Seed, by Scott Alexander

This book review of Albion's Seed by David Fischer (which I've also recently read and reviewed) was actually the essay that first introduced me to the book and convinced me to read it, and now, having read the original and then re-read the essay, I can say that I'm very grateful to S.A. for introducing me to the book, but that you really can stick to his essay and skip the thousand-pager, thereby proving the truism that most books ought to be essays (and most essays, tweets).

death to smoochy (2002)

is it a little corny sure but it's funny, often sharp, amazing to see a young Edward Norton and Jon Stewart, fun to see Robin Williams in a different kind of role than usual, and features one of my favorite character archetypes (overly idealistic Rube who somehow succeeds anyway).

Soul (2020)

there's a lot to unpack here; this struck me as a unique and very psychedelic story, which I appreciated (and of course as a pixar feature it's very entertaining!), but I'm not sure if I trust (trust in a "keep your hands off my brain" kind of sense) the underlying metaphysical assumptions the narrative's plot implied. 

bound (1996)

yes in terms of historical import it's great and hilarious to see the wachowski siblings pre-matrix doing their thing, and yes you can definitely see the influences and it rocks, but also this movie is, on its own merits, a ton of fun!