Jeff's Reviews | Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

recent product reviews

Zero Days (2016)

Reviewed on Feb 23, 2017

Great collection of footage and high-quality interviews. Good explanation of some pretty technical stuff. It all really opens your eyes to how much is going on that we don’t know about. The visual effects, diagrams are ever-present but help to make things more stimulating and informative. The subtle droning of…

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Towelhead (2007)

Reviewed on Feb 21, 2017

Strange title, and I understand the controversy around it. This movie is less about racial slurs (she’s never even shown shown wearing a hijab) than it is about a young girl’s sexual awakening. Sexual coming-of-age stories seem to be Alan Ball’s thing. It’s no coincidence that he wrote and produced…

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Motel Hell (1980)

Reviewed on Feb 19, 2017

It’s a little cheesy and goofy, but as far as horror films of the 80’s go, it’s gruesome and creepy and surprisingly good. Sticks with the horror movie traditions of gore, camp, black comedy, hot women, sex, deviancy, and of course, chainsaws. The formula works. And it actually has a…

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Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Reviewed on Feb 17, 2017

Three stories told in parallel, and there are some interesting metaphorical connections between them all. But the experience of watching the film, as cleverly layered as it is, is quite disturbing and unsettling. Tom Ford is an interesting dude. The desert story alone would have been a good movie. A…

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Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Reviewed on Feb 14, 2017

An odd story oddly put together. Flashbacks are jarringly subtle. Some scenes with delightful sarcasm start to be funny but are lost in the greater tragedy of the movie. A few other scenes, entertaining as they are, involve characters other than the obvious protagonist, which makes me wonder what role…

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Carol (2015)

Reviewed on Feb 13, 2017

I wasn’t born in the 50’s, but I imagine this is how it really looked, this is how people acted, and this is how people talked. Even the photography has a slight fade and color cast to it that evokes another time. Oscar-worthy in terms of it’s costumes and visual…

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The Sessions (2012)

Reviewed on Feb 8, 2017

Heavy and well-made. Definitely a unique storyline. I know it’s based on a true story, but I really enjoyed the complex relationship between the patient and the surrogate. It lost a bit of steam when it veered away from that plotline just as things were getting interesting toward the end…

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