Watching
My last 10 watched from Letterboxd.
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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Apparently I logged this before but watching it again I didn’t remember anything about it. And a lot of memorable shit happens in this movie. It’s pretty bleak! The ending is just wild. This is probably the most serious I’ve seen Song Kang-ho, who normally injects his roles with humor. Here he’s just a man on a mission up until the very end.
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The Rip
This movie is a complete slog until it gets going. The first 40 minutes or so make Den of Thieves look like Citizen Kane. When it finally starts cooking, it’s mostly a mindless, glossy exercise, stacked with talent, like nearly every other high-profile Netflix original. But it’s hard to deny this cast elevates even the worst dreck to “watchable.” This could have been a tight 90 minutes if there wasn’t so much repetitive dialogue and exposition. Also, how are you gonna cast Scott Adkins and not have him kick all sorts of ass? Completely missed opportunity.
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Sore: A Wife from the Future
This is a horror movie about a woman stuck in purgatory who has to fix a man. Besides being played by a mediocre actor, there’s very little to indicate the man is even worth fixing. The movie finally starts to get interesting when the woman gives up on trying to fix the man and instead pursues her own interests and happiness but, of course, that doesn’t last long. Things finally take an inexplicable left turn that left me baffled in the end. This is a good looking movie, shot in beautiful locations, and the woman who plays Sore is very sympathetic. But just as her character struggles to change the man, she also struggles to carry this movie across the finish line by herself. What a frustrating endeavor.
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Civil War
This movie came out a year too early. Who would have thought when it was released we’d be living through another Trump administration, our neighbors being abducted, gassed, and shot to death. The idea of a civil war seemed implausible at best. Now this movie takes on a whole new relevance. Gorgeously shot and well-acted, I love how it builds this world with very little exposition. Though what we do learn still seems highly fantastical — that California and Texas would join forces against the president, that journalists would do anything but be a mouthpiece for the regime, that anyone formidable would stand up for us besides our own neighbors. Another year could see this become even more prescient. Hopefully it’s final shot most of all.
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Marcello Hernández: American Boy
There’s no way his mom didn’t beat his ass backstage after talking all that shit about her. 😂
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Fackham Hall
I found this to be mildly amusing. It’s a sad state for comedy films if we’re so desperate for them that people are comparing this to Airplane and Naked Gun. GTFOH.
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The Getaway
A couple good scenes but this otherwise feels needlessly long. I really don’t get what the big deal was with Steve McQueen. I guess you had to be there.
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Southern Comfort
Basically Predator but with more inept soldiers and a bunch of Cajun hunters instead of an alien. If there’s a lesson to be learned here it’s that we should lure a bunch of ICE agents into a swamp and laissez es bon temps rouler.
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Rental Family
This was my favorite film of 2025, so was thrilled for it to come out on digital finally. Filled with moments of joy, beauty, heartache and connection, it moved me more than any other movie I saw last year. I really don’t get the “white savior” criticism this movie is getting. Brendan’s character is the audience surrogate, and his character is as affected by the people he meets as they are by him, if not more so. This movie only works because he is a gaijin. A Japanese person in the same role would just accept the cultural differences as normal and not have the same impact on their “customers”, if any at all. Brendan plays the part with an openness and curiosity that few other actors could pull off. And the girl who plays Mia is wonderful. Still needed a box of tissues on second watch.
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Pillion
An interesting movie, to say the least. Like Secretary with motorcycles. Maybe not. Melling and Skarsgard are both great. I don’t get the appeal of being a sub personally, but Pillion certainly explores it in depth.