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“You don't live with me, you live among the remains of dead people.”

Mann shooting that one POV shot on digital changed his life forever.

Watched on Tuesday June 3, 2025.

I don’t play about all the faction world-building and color coding of the different pirates and their planes.

[IB Tech 35mm]

Snappiest movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life? Such a seamless interweaving of hangout and adventure beats that moved me like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The on-screen chemistry in this is so astronomically charming that you would never believe that this ensemble was acting. Might be my new favorite Hawks movie. I could watch John Wayne capture rhinos and Elsa Martinelli tend to baby elephants for hours upon hours and I wouldn’t get bored.

Watched on Sunday June 1, 2025.

Watched on Sunday June 1, 2025.

Watched on Sunday June 1, 2025.

Watched on Sunday June 1, 2025.

“We can decieve the Lord of Lies.”

Lots of great eye acting in this one.

The haters can try to put him down all they want, but at the end of the day Wes Anderson really is that guy. Every use of POV and negative photography in this genuinely took my breath away. Lots of beautiful live bugs, too. I just love espionage and slapstick!

Reubens and Hartman were the fundamentals of new gen slapstick. I miss the old Burton.

“Where is everybody?”

“They know what's coming. They've all gone home.”

[35mm]

“I think we’ll be okay now.”

MTV Cribs from Hell. First time seeing this since endlessly rewatching it on DVD as a kid and I genuinely think I had a trauma response when “Night #21” came on screen. Stood out so much more on rewatch how much this is just 86 minutes of a woman slowly getting killed by her shitty boyfriend. Contains sound design so scary that it makes me cover my ears. What happened to this house, Mr. Blum?

[35mm]

Spike Lee’s masterpiece. A genuine miracle that he could get away with making it. Seeing all the transitions to film and archival footage on a big screen knocked me on my ass and made me thousand yard stare for hours afterwards. Ancient evil broadcasted for a live studio audience on the digital idiot box.

“There's no nations on this one. There's no rival ideologies, no dogma. It's who keeps their head and who panics.”

Watched on Saturday May 24, 2025.

“The primordial digital ooze from which a weapon evolved.”

In which a phantom communes with god inside a deep sea coffin before facing off against its vampiric messiah in the heavens. A movie beamed in from the post-apocalypse. I could copy and paste my review for Dead Reckoning Part One and it would also hold true for this. Doubles down on every single idiosyncrasy I adore (and others bafflingly hate?) about that movie. Nothing is written, and yet everything feels so earned. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any more Metal Gear Solid 4, they hit me with the Flashback Mania PSN trophy, Johnny Sasaki, and Shea Whigham as Ocelot. Wipe within cross cut within montage within collage. Cruise and McQ clearly saw Avatar: The Way of Water and Oppenheimer then immediately started taking notes. Made me cry multiple times and also made me so white-knuckled that I had a nosebleed when it ended. Cements this series as the best franchise with 5+ movies of all time.

Watched on Thursday May 22, 2025.

“I love you very much. Keep away from me.”

Last time I rewatched this, I thought that it stagnated in the back half. After seeing it in a theater for the first time, I realize I couldn’t have been more wrong. One of the most upsetting video game movies ever made right down to its look and structure.

Fixed camera angles, item inspections, day and night cycles, out of bounds, etc. People who care more about a video game adaptation being “faithful to the story” rather than how much it commits to aesthetic tics like these are weak at heart and probably not even Real Gamers™. There’s a found footage montage of datamoshed iPhone videos in this that genuinely made my jaw drop in awe. Sandberg unchained.

A gleeful “fuck you” to the legacy sequel/“it’s about Trauma™” horror movie industrial complex. Navigates self awareness without resorting to winking and nodding in a way that feels so genuine to Wong and Morgan’s cartoon world and spirit. Whoever designed the Skyview Restaurant Tower and cabin turned doomsday bunker for Death deserves all the flowers. A masterclass in the fake out. Also a really touching send off for Tony Todd. Honestly made me emotional. Genuinely can’t the last time a packed house and I audibly yelled and riffed together in harmony this much during a movie in the theater. Probably one of the biggest indicators as of late that we’re in an economic recession.

“The next war isn't going to be a cold war, it'll be a shooting war.”

A movie that actively takes its time, weaponizes age and iconography, and leans into the limitations/paranoia of its mid-pandemic production, thus trapping its ghostly hero in a cold and isolating augmented reality. The entire franchise’s omnipresent thesis regarding analog having to triumph over the unreliability of technology comes to a head here with its chewiest depiction yet: A rogue AI, its vampiric worshipper, and the crucifix that will stop it. All of these peer beyond the story they’re in and seep into the visual language itself, with Cruise, McQuarrie, and co. using the first shot on digital Mission: Impossible as a pixelated showcase for dutch angles, cross cutting, off-center blocking, and nearly invisible fades (feels natural that this visually homages Battleship Potemkin at many points). In doing so, they have made what feels like the first real evolution of what De Palma was getting at nearly 30 years prior, making for the thorniest, scariest, and most visually dynamic mission yet with the biggest emotions. Deepfakes won’t kill the algorithm, they’ll just make it stronger.

TLDR: Hideo Kojima catnip

“Fate whispers to the warrior.”

“A storm is coming.”

“And the warrior whispers back.”

“I am the storm.”

Pacifist Ethan vs. the Patriots from Metal Gear Solid. In hindsight, this is just a redux of Mission: Impossible 2. A triumph for the helicopter sequence alone.

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to face your fate.”

In which the Mission: Impossible movies go full on, unbridled Alan J. Pakula mode. Lingers in my mind more and more after every subsequent viewing. Contains one of my favorite final confrontations in the whole series. Such an intimate yet bold contrast from everything that comes before. Also, what else is there to say that hasn’t been said already about the Turandot sequence? Just never a dull moment with this one.

Watched on Sunday May 11, 2025.

[35mm]

Andrew DeYoung’s The Cable Guy. Without trying to sound reductive, this is essentially just a feature length I Think You Should Leave sketch at the end of the day; a tad bit overlong, features a Russian roulette of recognizable bit players popping in and out (Conner O’Malley steals the show as always), and is equally stitch inducing, stomach churning, and saddening. Tim Robinson is a performer right out of the silent era.

Watched on Friday May 9, 2025.

Watched on Friday May 9, 2025.

Watched on Friday May 9, 2025.

“He’s killing himself.”

“Failure to a terrorist is just a rehearsal for success.”

The movie peaking at its midpoint and the early 2010s Jeremy Renner hostile takeover of it all are unfortunately felt more and more with each rewatch. However, I can still excuse that when said peaks are so cartoonishly high. Images of Tom Cruise getting blown away by the rubble of a crumbling Kremlin, lunging his body into cars stacked in a parking garage, and flying through the air before smacking his face on the side of the Burj Khalifa are forever gonna define a major transition for this franchise, its star, and its future authorial muse. Someone needs to free Brad Bird from the Disney gulag again now more than ever. I wish Paula Patton stuck around after this one.

“If you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt. Only more love.”

Analog to automatic. Internet to ment. A world constantly in motion to the point that two people don’t even have the words or actions to keep up with it or each other anymore. The party has quite literally died. For my money, the quintessential movie of the decade. Jia Zhangke remains to be one of the world’s most vital filmmakers and Zhao Tao just might be the greatest performer to ever grace the silver screen. Counter-Strike cinema.

“I want your stories. And I want your songs. And you can have mine too.”

Full Motion Video tutorial. I hope George Lucas has seen this.

A movie made for me on every single textual and aesthetic level. Like being trapped inside an amusement park ride safety video.

“There’s no fucking future.”

”Kiss me.”

[35mm]

Nightmare version of That Thing You Do! So many deep focus images in this that made me think I was watching it in 3D.

As a debut, this naturally feels more loose in its compositions compared to what would follow this up in Jia’s oeuvre. However, once that final shot hits you realize the whole thing was a mission statement for his entire body of work. Most embarrassing crash out in cinematic history.

“Tell me it’s real.”

“Follow me.”

JJ Abrams’ attempts at mystery boxes and Spielberg oners/Tony Scott shaky-cam never cease to be clunky and televisual, but the love triangle between Ethan, Julia, and Luther at this movie’s core keeps me coming back to it. Philip Seymour Hoffman playing Tom Cruise also never fails to make me giggle with delight. Instead of saving it for the IMF network television series that doesn’t exist, more Keri Russell with gun, please.

[4K]

Made me want to rewatch The Incredible Shrinking Man. Some of the best rod puppet work I’ve ever seen in any movie ever made. Gay Guy City looks equally enticing and terrifying, let me tell you that much.

“Her body was the world. The meaning and the purpose of the world.”

Would honestly make for a great double bill with Conner O’Malley’s Pipe rock theory. Feels equally horrifying, hilarious, and beautiful that the filmic culmination of Cronenberg’s ever evolving speculative worlds of tech is a stripped down assault of Memoji aesthetics. Contains some of the most viscerally upsetting flashback/dream sequences I’ve seen in a long time.

State of affairs, tear ducts, hearts, and entire planets all shattered on the big screen in the year 2025? *sigh* Welcome back, Bush era. If only Eisenstein was alive to see the cross cutting montages in this movie.

“Let's get lost.”

This movie and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty releasing one year after another feels like the beginning of a generational run of game cyclically recognizing game. Introducing the concept of an evil IMF team is a stroke of genius that feels like it’s still impacting every subsequent entry in the series. Obviously the hottest, most romantic one.

[IMAX 70mm]

“Maybe once a week, I wake up paralyzed reliving that night. But before the sun went down, I think that was the best day of my life.”

I find it genuinely shocking that Coogler would want to direct another Black Panther movie after this. Upon rewatch, the ending reminded me of Titanic more than anything. I love movies clearly made by and for real lovers.

“It looks like we got another schizoid embolism.”

[IMAX 70mm]

Coogler escaped the Kevin Feige™ slop gulag, picked up the pen, then reckoned, “What if the studio ops that showed up to my functions unannounced and asking to be invited in were just vampires?” I just know he was wearing out that childhood copy of John Carpenter’s Vampires on VHS and running Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies easter eggs through LFG forums like there was no tomorrow. The Ultra Panavision to IMAX transitions in this combined with the milky practical SFX blood + Ludwig score going full on Fabio Frizzi mode are gonna be seared into my brain for a long time. Certified late 90’s Dr. Pepper and a matinee magnum opus.

Feels like the end of an era for a certain kind of studio filmmaking. Love that the whole set up to this is J and K’s resentment for each other. Generational performances from Josh Brolin and Michael Stuhlbarg. Not ashamed to it that the end of this still gets me emotionally. Quintessential Obama era cinema.

Really disappointing that Lara Flynn Boyle and Johnny Knoxville are actually some of the weakest parts of this. Tommy Lee Jones as Postal Service Agent K, Michael Jackson, and the Ballchinian bit carry.

We need Barry Sonnenfeld physical comedy and Rick Baker special effects to save the populist moviegoers of today right now more than ever. Vincent D’Onofrio’s performance in this changed my life as a kid.

1. Caught by the Tides
2. The Shrouds
3. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
4. In the Lost Lands
5. Black Bag
6. Final Destination Bloodlines
7. Sinners
8. Eephus
9. Presence
10. The Phoenician Scheme

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

(ordered by release)

• Hundreds of Beavers
• La Chimera
• The Beast
• Challengers
• Evil Does Not Exist
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Trap
• Red Rooms
• Megalopolis
• Rap World

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

(ordered by release)

• Skinamarink
• Knock at the Cabin
• Showing Up
• Asteroid City
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
• Oppenheimer
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• The Killer
• May December
• The Boy and the Heron

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

(ordered by release)

• RRR
• Jackass Forever
• Ambulance
• We're All Going to the World's Fair
• Crimes of the Future
• Mad God
• Elvis
• Nope
• TÁR
• Armageddon Time

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

(ordered by release)

• Zack Snyder's Justice League
• Old
• Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
• Annette
• Malignant
• The Card Counter
• Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
• Licorice Pizza
• Benedetta
• West Side Story

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Phase IV
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
• The Evil Dead
• The Beyond
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch
• Creepshow
• One Dark Night
• Phenomena
• Prince of Darkness

A list of cinematic inspirations for a Gothic Neo-Giallo written and directed by @charliecompton and I. Follow @thefivefingersofadogfilm on Instagram for more details.

• Un Chien Andalou
• Meshes of the Afternoon
• Blood and Black Lace
• The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
• El Topo
• The Long Goodbye
• Messiah of Evil
• Rabid
• Martin
• Halloween

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

https://www.festival-entrevues.com/en/retrospectives/2014/double-feature-kiyoshi-kurosawa

• The Boston Strangler
• Cure
• The Ballad of Cable Hogue
• License to Live
• Emperor of the North
• Charisma
• The Innocents
• Séance
• Lifeforce
• Pulse

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

https://www.festival-entrevues.com/en/double-feature-john-carpenter

• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Dark Star
• Rio Bravo
• Assault on Precinct 13
• Psycho
• Halloween
• The Birds
• The Fog
• Death Wish
• Escape from New York

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Spree
• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm