Alex Griffith Pro

Favorite films

  • Duck Soup
  • Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You!
  • Lost Highway
  • The Thing

All
  • Pam & Tommy

    ★★★

  • Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

    ★★★½

  • The Watermelon Woman

    ★★★★

  • Grimsby

    ★★★

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Killers of the Flower Moon

2023

★★★★½ 2

Monumental. I expected Dicaprio to put me off with permanent Grumpy Cat frown face, but he might have pulled in his second best performance ever here. (Best being Jordan Belfort of course) You believe he loves his wife, and you believe he’s ok with killing off her whole family, and you as a viewer have to juggle this in your head through three plus gorgeously shot, designed, and edited hours.

A bit weird though that Scorsese appears at the end to tell us to boycott The Marvels.

Shin Godzilla

2016

★★★★ Liked Watched

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Actually engrossing to watch bureaucrats come together in a crisis to “save the nation” - a sentiment that gets evoked again and again in this excellent procedural. If a film set in a western country had this kind of small-p patriotism, I might be skeptical of it's worldview. But Shin-Godzilla isn't, so I'm not.

Of course, it takes a Godzilla film to insightfully depict the Japanese-American relationship (alliance?) as a transactional, shallow friendship full of doubts and misgivings.

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Pam & Tommy

2022

★★★ Watched

Doesn’t totally justify its eight episodes - like a lot of glossy TV it’s too long - but it is immaculately made and performed and zips along with Craig Gillespie’s Scorsese-lite dollies and tracking shots.

At its most interesting when dealing with the birth of the Internet, and Pam’s tortured, tragic fight to protect the privacy of her body and marriage. And I like Tommy Lee’s half-aware slide into irrelevancy as grunge and Third Eye Blind take over the 90s.

Has the catchiest, most indulgent and expensive needle drops I’ve heard in ages. That’s Disney money for you.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

2025

★★★½ Liked Watched

This “final” instalment has its share of flaws - the long runtime, the endless exposition, the gratuitous side characters - and yet what can I say - I was (mostly) entertained from start to finish.

Tom Cruise carries this movie on his 62-year old back with his unique charm and endless wells of charisma. I still love watching him emote and react and spout lines seriously, even as the series gets more and more hagiographic. There’s a scene where his…

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The Watermelon Woman

1996

★★★★ Watched

Refreshing and ahead of its time. Benefits a lot from a low-budget, rough DIY quality - those early digital transitions!! And yet the historical photos and footage looks astoundingly real - it’s a shame Dunye wasn’t able to develop her style further.

Camille Paglia’s scene is hilarious - I hope she was joking?

Has a great balance of serious political content with breezy, well-observed romantic comedy. In the end Faye’s story hits emotionally hard, partly because it is, in Dunye’s words, “a work of fiction.”

Videodrome

1983

★★★★★ Liked Watched

“We make inexpensive glasses for the Third World and missile guidance systems for NATO.”

Just a really original, well-made movie, you know? And it’s set in my (sort of) hometown of Toronto. I think I saw a Regg Hart poster behind James Woods as he was walking down Queen Street.

Speaking of the Woodman, what perfect casting. A lizardy, flinty presence, he’s the perfect soft core porn executive. “What is it, mafia? They do business.”

Videodrome is the exact kind…