The Official Movie Thread

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Watched for the first time, in memory of William Friedkin.

A little uninvesting initially. Couldn't tell most of the criminals they were investigating apart. But once the investigation starts to hone in on "Frog One", it becomes pretty great. People talk so much about The Car Chase I thought that'd be all there is to it, but it also features a deeply cynical take on law enforcement (with an unforgettable sleazebag cop protagonist) and lots of chillingly callous New Hollywood brutality. Car Chase was amazing obv. and the tense train hijacking sequence it was intercut with elevated that whole part to the stuff of legends.

I knew how it was gonna end because Walter White spoiled it in Breaking Bad, but I loved the way it was pulled off. Things abruptly go wrong and then it just ends without any reflection or resolution, like the cinema equivalent of a video game where you make the wrong choice and get a bad ending conveyed in two paragraphs of text and then a game over screen, instead of a lovingly crafted epilogue.
 
I saw The French Connection for the 1st time fairly recently. The disassembling & reassembling of the car is entertaining. Based on something a police mechanic told Friedkin his garage was capable of, and that guy landed the role of the head mechanic in the film.
 
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Trying to get into letterboxd more, do you guys have good suggestions to follow and/or wanna throw yourself in that mix? ❤️
lol yall knew this was coming...

me:
https://letterboxd.com/tomnixon/ ()

CiG:
https://letterboxd.com/stoicorum/ ()

the film freak central crew:
https://letterboxd.com/walter_chaw/ (my fav critic, warts 'n all)
https://letterboxd.com/bill_chambers/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/amuredda/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/ianshade/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/campbart/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/astoehr/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/bfrazer/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/j_robbins/ ()

slant magazine writers (damn, i think croce deleted his account? he's the best one, all his stuff is here though https://www.cinepassion.org/):
https://letterboxd.com/repulsion/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/ephender/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/jakepcole/ (very prolific, definitely worth following)
https://letterboxd.com/jessecataldo/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/kenjfuj/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/jdcronk/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/wjweber/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/lund_carson/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/clayton_dillard/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/gregcwik/ ()

other prominent film critics:
https://letterboxd.com/gemko/ (love him or hate him, he's a treasure of the industry. and a frustrating prick.)
https://letterboxd.com/bilge/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/vrizov/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/daveyjenkins/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/davidehrlich/ (like the fantano of movies, follow him if you wanna know what the zeitgeist looks like. even better: dont follow him lol
https://letterboxd.com/glennkenny/ ()
https://letterboxd.com/jrosenbaum2002/ (the most beloved critic by cinephiles of the past half century, not sure he really puts much effort in on here though)
https://letterboxd.com/sallitt/ (critic turned very good filmmaker)
https://letterboxd.com/nicksflickpicks/ (always liked his work over at nicksflickspicks, not sure how much he uses lboxd though)
https://letterboxd.com/brofromanother/ (really solid critic imo)

archival accounts for dead/old critics:
https://letterboxd.com/notandrewsarris/ (father of auteurism in america, legend)
https://letterboxd.com/notericrohmer/ (cahiers critic turned legendary director)
https://letterboxd.com/notpaulinekael/ (love her or hate her, a treasure of the industry. and a frustrating bitch.)
https://letterboxd.com/notdavekehr/ (another old-school legend)
https://letterboxd.com/mannyfarber/ (one of the first great critics)

assorted other good reviewers:
https://letterboxd.com/andrewdignan/ (kind of a d'angelo rip off but i quite like that style of review tbh)
https://letterboxd.com/preston/ (total lunatic capsule writer, never boring though, right-leaning i think. kind of a more eccentric mike d'angelo)
https://letterboxd.com/samcmac/ (great for asian cinema)
https://letterboxd.com/filipe_furtado/ (prolly the most insanely knowledgeable person on lboxd even if half his reviews seem like they were put through a 20 year old version of babelfish)
https://letterboxd.com/antbit/ (my go-to for obscure genre shit, found so much stuff through him. actually attended a fest when he was there once but didn't get the chance to say hi)
https://letterboxd.com/colonelmortimer/ (only does short reviews but has introduced me to a lot of good genre cinema)
https://letterboxd.com/pobrecito/ (another good genre cinema guy, irl buddy of the above)
https://letterboxd.com/thejoshl/ (the better version of matt lynch, probably the best mainstream capsule reviewer on there)
https://letterboxd.com/theendofcinema/ (expert on asian genre cinema)
https://letterboxd.com/billystevenson/ (very in depth academic long form essays)
https://letterboxd.com/neilbahadur/ (one of the most respected on there in h/c cinephile circles, sometimes annoying but frequently insightful, a must-follow)
https://letterboxd.com/sisterlisa666/ (lboxd and rym legend in my book, unique thinker and writer)
https://letterboxd.com/jakeaesthete/ (another legend, discovered so much great stuff through him)
https://letterboxd.com/jacobknight/ (nice genre cinema capsules)
https://letterboxd.com/patrickpryor/ (ditto)
https://letterboxd.com/pd187/ (absolute treasure of the site, got banned and it caused such an uproar they ended up reinstating him. dude is absolutely unhinged, a true one-off with an incredible turn of phrase)
https://letterboxd.com/waltz3/ (good vulgar auteurist guy if you're into that)
https://letterboxd.com/nrh/ (fantastic for indian cinema in particular)
https://letterboxd.com/mattmccrac/ (one of the most penetrating writers on there imo)
https://letterboxd.com/lgarcia/ (rich man's mike d'angelo)
https://letterboxd.com/cvall96/ (very good brazilian critic)
https://letterboxd.com/diogoserafim/ (another brazilian, good capsules)
https://letterboxd.com/jawclick/ (one of my favs, more on the 'poetic' side but great capsules)
https://letterboxd.com/timeistheking/ (maybe my favourite of the brazilian critics, ultra knowledgeable but very snarky and hates everyone on there lol, needs google translate though)
https://letterboxd.com/jrhovind/ (one of my favourites, great capsule writer)
https://letterboxd.com/lencho_o_t_apes/ (oddball but always interesting)
https://letterboxd.com/sakana1/ (very female perspective, YMMV)
https://letterboxd.com/tectactoe/ (one of the best reviewers on RYM, really hard to please which i like in a reviewer tbh)
https://letterboxd.com/fieldmouse/ (good for genre stuff)
https://letterboxd.com/willwill/ (another one of a kind writer)
https://letterboxd.com/juliantowers/ (distinctive)
https://letterboxd.com/przewalskihorse/ (ditto)
https://letterboxd.com/zint/ (right wing prick, but ya need a few of those to balance things out)
https://letterboxd.com/markcira/ (has written some extremely illuminating long form stuff)
https://letterboxd.com/pratt360/ (great for asian cinema)
https://letterboxd.com/monsoonchowder/ (one of the few good capsule writers on RYM)
https://letterboxd.com/dillamonster/ (not the deepest writer but a likeable one, and prolific)
https://letterboxd.com/comrade_yui/ (h/c leftist dude)
https://letterboxd.com/kaiamlegend/ (good writer when he's making an effort and very prolific)
https://letterboxd.com/jfrankensteiner/ (more of a twitter legend than a lboxd legend but v active here too. in fact that friedkin thread i linked above was his)
https://letterboxd.com/brianformo/ (high effort prolific guy)
https://letterboxd.com/joshuadysart/ (bit pretentious but cool, has been involved with some major graphic novels and shit as per his bio)
https://letterboxd.com/drlemon/ (one of a kind nutter)
https://letterboxd.com/adamkatzman/ (one of my concisely incisive no-caps bros)
https://letterboxd.com/iksvecjart/ (one of my concisely incisive no-caps bros)
https://letterboxd.com/plifal/ (one of my concisely incisive no-caps sistas)
https://letterboxd.com/louferrigno/ (longform essays)
https://letterboxd.com/dreki/ (good capsule writer when hes not being lazy)
https://letterboxd.com/whoisdavidfu/ (always promising when the most popular reviews are all negative, especially if you're rms)
https://letterboxd.com/dmc/ (rly good writer on older stuff)

ok i'll stop.......................... for now.....
 
there used to be this insane trans woman on there who was obsessed with griffith and wrote these endless conservative diatribes about the state of the modern world, like 15 separate reviews per movie or something, but i think she got banned or suicided or something
 
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there used to be this insane trans woman on there who was obsessed with griffith and wrote these endless conservative diatribes about the state of the modern world, like 15 separate reviews per movie or something, but i think she got banned or suicided or something

Damn, that's twice as many reviews as this mmcc guy has of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

(I added a bunch of people from your list (and also this guy with a familiar avatar who seems cool) and now I'm just going around checking what the consensus is on contentious movies)
 
i see speed racer (and LotGH, and the apartment), i click follow

i would like to stress i don't necessarily endorse the opinions of some of those people i listed, a few of them are absolutely batshit crazy lol. i think i mentioned before how many people on lboxd jerk off over that movie though. i still haven't seen it.
 
Haven't done one of these posts in ages.
Over the last month or so, these movies have been the bigger highlights of everything new(ish) I watched:

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Sympathy for the Devil (Yuval Adler, 2023) A 'trapped in a car with a lunatic' thriller with an unhinged overacting Cage vs a reserved underacting Kinnaman. Mysterious, tense, simple, 'chamber piece' fun. I daresay Cage tapped into Face/Off a bit here.

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Among the Beasts (Matthew Newton, 2023) Tory Kittles' performance here is up there with Dragged Across Concrete for me. A slow-burning vigilante revenge thriller. This man deserves more and more killer roles.

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ManFish (Marc Coleman, 2023) A funny little working class British indie horror/comedy about a suicidal man with a drug-dealing wife who meets a sea monster. Emphasis on the comedy.

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The Passenger (Carter Smith, 2023) A psychological crime drama/thriller about trauma and guilt that develops in a very interesting way by the end. Kyle Gallner is great, not seen him in much but he feels to me like a great untapped source for character acting.

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Dinner in America (Adam Rehmeier, 2021) After being so impressed by Gallner in the previous film, I checked this out and it blew me away. Don't even know how to describe this one. Like a subversive punk rock black comedy romance...? Anyways my favourite discovery in months.

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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Kemp Powers, Joaquim dos Santos & Justin K. Thompson, 2023) I'll cheat and just repost my review from elsewhere; Just over 2 hours of what amounts to a build-up/filler movie dedicated almost exclusively to character development in service of a third film. I was slightly frustrated by the way the animation bounces between mind-blowing, eye-popping quality and lame PS4-tier cel shading. That aside, the pacing was S-tier, it felt about as fast paced and energetic as its soundtrack. Lots of Easter eggs to spot (lol) along the way. Miguel O'Hara is badass and Hobie is a Cockney legend, they stole every scene they were in.

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The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (Bomani Story, 2023) Some debut fumbles aside, it's a pretty creative reimagining of the classic Frankenstein story, steeped in social commentary, and garnished with a nice dose of ultra-violence and throwback gore. Think season 1 of The Wire meets Frankenstein meets His House meets Spike Lee.