Promising Young Woman (2020) Review
Carey Mulligan plays a medical school dropout who fakes being drunk to catch predatory men. The first act is a 7, the middle sags to a 4, and the third act took me by surprise. It's a 6.5, worth it…
Tag: Black Comedy
Black comedy laughs where laughing feels forbidden, which is exactly why it works. This tag collects reviews of dark comedies: death, disaster, and taboo played for laughs that cost something.
2000sSouthland Tales (2006) Review
Southland Tales (2006) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Richard Kelly took an unfinished cut to Cannes because nobody turns down a competition slot, was booed, recut it, and watched it earn under four hundred thousand dollars.…
1990sNatural Born Killers (1994) Review
Natural Born Killers (1994) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Oliver Stone made a satire about media appetite for violence that is itself a two-hour delivery system for violence. Tarantino wrote the story, disowned it, and asked…
1940sInglourious Basterds (2009) Review
Inglourious Basterds (2009) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Tarantino wrote it in 1998, could not solve the ending, made Kill Bill instead, and came back a decade later. The opening scene is a twenty-five minute conversation…
1960sLolita (1962) Review
Lolita (1962) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Kubrick adapted a novel about a predator by removing everything the Production Code forbade, which was most of the subject. He later said that had he understood the censorship…
1980sAmerican Psycho (2000) Review
American Psycho (2000) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Mary Harron read a novel everybody called unfilmable and found the comedy in it. Made for seven million dollars, mostly in Toronto, and it is far funnier and…
1990sThe Big Lebowski (1998) Review
The Big Lebowski (1998) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A Raymond Chandler plot handed to a man with no interest in solving it. Failed on release, found its people later, and spawned a festival and something…
2010sParasite (2019) Review
Parasite (2019) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A house built on a vertical axis, a family climbing it, and a genre change at the midpoint that almost no film survives. The first non-English winner of Best…
2020sTriangle of Sadness (2022) Review
Triangle of Sadness (2022) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A luxury cruise, a great deal of vomit, and an island where the toilet manager is in charge. Blunt satire in three parts, and the third one…
1980sBrazil (1985) Review
Brazil (1985) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A clerical error kills the wrong man and a whole film proceeds from a typo. The most internally consistent world in the genre, and Gilliam fought Universal for most…
AmbiguityThe Paw
A cat catches a hamster behind the dryer, pins his tail, and gives him a choice: find her missing kitten or get eaten. He goes down into a pipe no cat can follow, finds the kitten, and finds out why…
1980sVampire’s Kiss (1988)
Nicolas Cage delivers one of the most committed and bizarre performances ever as a yuppie who thinks he's turning into a vampire. Vampire's Kiss earns its 6.5 as a fascinating, deeply strange film that is far more interesting as a…