The Punisher (2004)

★★★½
The Bride has some competition. Uma Thurman's character from Kill Bill: Volume 2 isn't the only one going on a revenge spree. The Marvel Comics hero The Punisher comes to the big screen once again (previously seen in a 1989 movie) and, like Spider-Man and Daredevil, he does so with a vengeance, literally. The movie is an explosively good time, but it doesn't settle for pyrotechnics to carry it. This is a strong character-driven film fueled by an intense performance by Thomas Jane and a surprisingly sadistic performance by John Travolta, in what is probably his best role since Pulp Fiction.

Matchstick Men (2003)

★★★½
While I liked Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning Gladiator, I didn't think it represented his best work. He's a solid director, who made Black Hawk Down and Thelma & Louise some of the most talked-about films of recent years. Matchstick Men is another winner, a film of surprising complexity and strong characterizations. It features another stellar performance by Nicolas Cage, and a string of captivating supporting performances that enhance the film's rich texture.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

★★★★
One of the television show's enduring images is that of Laura Palmer's reveal. We see it first within minutes of the premiere episode of Twin Peaks, and we see it again towards the end of David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. It is heartbreaking. Those eyelids and her melancholy posture suggest the saddest of stories. Even as motionless Laura Palmer, Sheryl Lee was still acting. She conveyed emotion with a slight tilt of her head and that sorrowful frown. Hers was a life that ended horrifically when it should have been glorious. Blue Velvet opened with an immediate warning signal—that of burrowing ants—to suggest the horrors to come in a town of picturesque neighborhoods complete with white picket fences. Now imagine Blue Velvet was itself only the surface, and there exists a small town with even darker forces at work. Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth was an evil character, but the antagonist in Fire Walk with Me is a force of nature that feeds off suffering.

Update on Site

Update, May 27, 2024: Due to health issues, I will be adding new reviews infrequently and posting old reviews from my archive. I will continue to watch movies and update my lists as I go.

This Film is Not Yet Rated (2006)

★★
The Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.)* has long been a thorn in the side of film critics, fans and independent filmmakers for decades. Its mission is to offer a voluntary rating system to help parents determine whether a movie is suitable for their children to watch. The organization sees itself as a guide to help with these decisions, but from the outside, the organization is a censorship arm of the big studios and theater owners that applies different standards to mainstream releases and smaller productions. Screeners for the M.P.A.A. view similar content in movies and grade them inconsistently, so that an oral sex scene in one movie (Single White Female) will appear in an R-rated production while a similar scene in Boys Don't Cry between women will contribute to an NC-17 rating. Kirby Dick's documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated explores this curious process by attempting to uncover who these screeners are and who backs them.