Table is sortable by clicking in header!
| Seq | Type | Year | Title | Source | Rat | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | film | 2008 | Gomorrah | Matteo Garrone | ||
| 2 | film | 1977 | Office Romance | rec'd Kim | ||
| 3 | tv | 2022 | The Power of Big Oil | PBS | ||
| 4 | film | 2022 | Once You Know | |||
| 5 | film | 2021 | Belfast | rec'd Norah; dir Kenneth Branagh | 3 | Grim but well-made and convincing |
| 6 | film | 2022 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | rec'd Norah | 1 | hated it; continuously annoying |
| 7 | tv | 2018 | Kidding | Michel Gondry & Jim Carrey | 3 | bonkers, uneven |
| 8 | book | 2016 | The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself | Sean Carroll | 5 | excellent and inspiring |
| 9 | book | 2013 | Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era | James Barrat | ||
| 10 | book | 2014 | Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies | Nick Bostrom | 4 | slow going but brilliant and influential; Rationalist anti-AI bias is troubling |
| 11 | book | 2018 | Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth | Adam Frank | 4 | very interesting |
| 12 | book | 2017 | Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law | James Q. Whitman | ||
| 13 | book | 2006 | Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire | Morris Berman; religious twaddle? | ||
| 14 | book | 2013 | Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain | Patricia Churchland | ||
| 15 | book | 2019 | Gender Queer | Maia Kobabe | ||
| 16 | tv | 2022 | Severance | 5 | stunning, love it | |
| 17 | book | 2022 | The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire | Ryan Gingeras | ||
| 18 | film | 2019 | Knives Out | 1 | dumb | |
| 19 | film | 2022 | Glass Onion | 1 | don't bother | |
| 20 | tv | 2023 | The Lying Life of Adults | based on book by Elena Ferrante | 3 | pretty good |
| 21 | book | 2022 | Moral Progress in Dark Times: Universal Values for the 21st Century | Markus Gabriel; I'd probably hate it | ||
| 22 | film | 1993 | Farewell My Concubine | Chinese theatre as backdrop for Cultural Revolution; uncut version is 171 minutes | ||
| 23 | film | 2002 | Cypher | 2 | Cool but messy | |
| 24 | film | 2023 | Sharper | Julianne Moore | 2 | Disappointing |
| 25 | tv | 2011 | Portlandia | 2 | Didn't age well | |
| 26 | film | 2022 | The Menu | horror; looks absurd and ultra-violent | ||
| 27 | film | 1970 | Colossus: The Forbin Project | 2 | Nice try | |
| 28 | film | 2022 | Fleishman Is in Trouble | Clare Danes | 2 | meh |
| 29 | film | 2023 | Inside | Willem Dafoe; dude trapped in an apartment | ||
| 30 | film | 2022 | Joyland | Pakistani | ||
| 31 | film | 2022 | The Fabelmans | 2 | blah | |
| 32 | tv | 2015 | The Last Man on Earth | 3 | Has its moments | |
| 33 | film | 1969 | The Magic Christian | Peter Sellers | 2 | has funny bits but tiresome and incoherent |
| 34 | film | 1989 | Sweetie | 1 | nasty | |
| 35 | film | 1993 | The Age of Innocence | 2 | mildly entertaining | |
| 36 | film | 1990 | The Grifters | 2 | uninspiring despite big names | |
| 37 | film | 2023 | Megalopolis | Francis Ford Coppola; Adam Driver; Brutal Guardian review: megabloated and megaboring? Bafflingly shallow or staggeringly ambitious? | ||
| 38 | film | 2022 | The Tinder Swindler | probably trite | ||
| 39 | film | 2001 | Zoolander | |||
| 40 | film | 1970 | Deep End | |||
| 41 | film | 2004 | The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia | Richard Overy | ||
| 42 | film | 1995 | Pride and Prejudice | |||
| 43 | film | 2023 | Law of Tehran | |||
| 44 | book | 2018 | Brief Answers to the Big Questions | Stephen Hawking | ||
| 45 | film | 2023 | Beef | Netflix | ||
| 46 | film | 2022 | Antidepresan | Mert Demir & Mabel Matiz | 3 | Turkish pop song I keep hearing at Irmak |
| 47 | film | 2022 | How to Blow Up a Pipeline | 3 | Pretty good! Twisty | |
| 48 | film | 2005 | Broken Flowers | Jim Jarmusch | 2 | meh |
| 49 | film | 2002 | About Schmidt | Jack Nicholson | 2 | meh |
| 50 | film | 1999 | Election | 2 | meh | |
| 51 | film | 2010 | Weissensee | |||
| 52 | film | 2022 | Nuclear Now | Oliver Stone | ||
| 53 | tv | 2023 | Silo | 5 | top notch! Candidate for best TV ever | |
| 54 | tv | 2023 | Poker Face | Natasha Lyonne | 2 | occasionally fun but more often tiresome |
| 55 | film | 2023 | Killers of the Flower Moon | Scorsese | 4 | The romance tests credulity but otherwise excellent |
| 56 | film | 2023 | The Zone of Interest | 1 | Holo-kitsch indeed! Pretentious and empty, reduces pivotal history to navel gazing | |
| 57 | film | 2023 | Occupied City | 1 | Like watching paint dry | |
| 58 | film | 2023 | May December | Todd Haynes | 1 | Disappointing and unconvincing |
| 59 | book | 2007 | When the Light Goes | Larry McMurtry | ||
| 60 | film | 2023 | Asteroid City | Wes Anderson | 1 | About what I expected; yawn |
| 61 | film | 1931 | Marius | Alexander Korda | 2 | Not great |
| 62 | film | 2023 | Kidnapped | Belloccio | ||
| 63 | film | 2015 | Diary of a Teenage Girl | |||
| 64 | book | 2022 | Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires | Doug Rushkoff | 1 | Shrill Marxist pseudo-economics and technological pessimism |
| 65 | book | 2023 | Love in a Time of Hate | Florian Illies; titillating study of pre-WWII artists | ||
| 66 | film | 1968 | The Killing of Sister George | |||
| 67 | tv | 2023 | The Gallows Pole | 3 | Gritty take on British villagers driven to coin clipping by Industrial Revolution; weird but amusing | |
| 68 | film | 2022 | Amanda | |||
| 69 | tv | 2022 | Bad Sisters | Irish black comedy | 3 | cool! |
| 70 | film | 1965 | Das Kaninchen bin ich | Alex J | ||
| 71 | film | 1969 | Women in Love | Ken Russell | 3 | decent! |
| 72 | film | 1973 | A Touch of Class | 1 | cliched | |
| 73 | film | 1963 | The Running Man | 1 | a bit flat; violent and trashy | |
| 74 | film | 2022 | The Dropout | 2 | not bad | |
| 75 | film | 1993 | Falling Down | Michael Douglas; everyman loser is pushed too far | 3 | pretty good but too predictable; feeds violent right-wing tropes |
| 76 | film | 2022 | M3gan | Guardian AI | 4 | brilliant! |
| 77 | film | 2022 | Brian and Charles | Guardian AI | 4 | brilliant! |
| 78 | film | 2012 | Robot and Frank | Guardian AI | 4 | great! |
| 79 | film | 2022 | Blank | Guardian AI | 2 | slow |
| 80 | film | 1986 | Short Circuit | Guardian AI | 4 | hilarious |
| 81 | film | 2009 | Moon | Guardian AI | 3 | has its moments |
| 82 | film | 2021 | The Mitchells vs the Machines | Guardian AI | 2 | silly |
| 83 | film | 2006 | Wristcutters | |||
| 84 | film | 2015 | Avengers Age of Ultron | Guardian AI | 1 | insulting |
| 85 | film | 1977 | Demon Seed | Guardian AI | 3 | dated but weird and wild |
| 86 | film | 2022 | Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis | |||
| 87 | film | 2016 | The Rehearsal | |||
| 88 | book | 2020 | The Ministry for the Future | rec'd Annamarie; Kim Stanley Robinson; utopian cli-fi with nonfiction aspects | 3 | Exciting start but becomes increasingly implausible, absurdly so by the end; occasionally inspired writing but disappointing overall |
| 89 | film | 2023 | Poor Things | Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone | 5 | Stunningly good, a tour de force, comparable to City of Lost Children |
| 90 | film | 1960 | Eyes Without a Face | |||
| 91 | book | 2023 | The Coming Wave | Mustafa Suleyman; AI is coming; probably dumb | ||
| 92 | film | 2023 | The Killer | David Fincher; Samurai-styled hit man procedural, likely absurd, boring, and hideously violent | ||
| 93 | book | 2023 | Doppelganger | Naomi Klein; self-obsessed? | ||
| 94 | film | 2023 | Hit Man | Richard Linklater | 2 | Occasionally funny but uneven and unconvincing |
| 95 | film | 2023 | Sympathy for the Devil | Nicolas Cage | 1 | predictable and unconvincing, yawn |
| 96 | film | 2023 | The Climate Pandemic | Dennis Meredith | ||
| 97 | film | 2023 | Dream Scenario | Nicolas Cage | 3 | Surprisingly good, Cage shows unexpected versatility playing against type |
| 98 | book | 2012 | A Higher Call | also film? | ||
| 99 | film | 1963 | Irma la Douce | Billy Wilder, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon | 3 | occasionally amusing but overlong |
| 100 | film | 1996 | From Dusk till Dawn | Tarrentino, vampires; probably awful, why bother? | ||
| 101 | book | 2019 | Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses | browsed at CitizenM Paris | ||
| 102 | film | 2015 | Going Clear | Scientology doc | 3 | not bad, but "Bare-Faced Messiah" book was way better |
| 103 | film | 2023 | The Creator | Gemma Chan | 4 | terrific! Love it! |
| 104 | film | 1976 | Blue Collar | Richard Pryor & Harvey Keitel | 4 | gripping and great! |
| 105 | film | 1973 | The Amusement Park | George Romero | 2 | Slow and predictable but moderately interesting allegory of the plight of the elderly |
| 106 | book | 2023 | Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism | Yanis Varoufakis; extremely biased, possibly propagandistic | 2 | Full of starry-eyed nonsense; father gimmick gets old fast; he should stick to politics |
| 107 | film | 2023 | Dumb Money | 3 | Pretty good! | |
| 108 | film | 2023 | Napoleon | Ridley Scott, Joaquin Phoenix; got terrible reviews; allegedly bloody, silly, and erroneous | ||
| 109 | film | 2023 | Killers of the Flower Moon | Scorsese, DiCaprio | 3 | quite good |
| 110 | film | 2023 | Oppenheimer | Cillian Murphy | 2 | mildly entertaining but plodding |
| 111 | film | 2023 | Barbie | Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling | 4 | surprisingly good, with considerable depth; stunning production, absolutely unique |
| 112 | tv | 2023 | Bargain | Korean, Squid Game-like, Guardian, trailer inauspicious | ||
| 113 | film | 2000 | Nine Queens | Argentine | 3 | Very clever! |
| 114 | film | 2008 | Vicky Cristina Barcelona | Woody Allen | 1 | stiff, dull, artificial |
| 115 | tv | 2022 | Dark Winds | Zahn McClarnon; Native American reservation cop procedural | 2 | Interesting at first, but wears thin, and overly violent |
| 116 | film | 1945 | I Know Where I'm Going! | |||
| 117 | film | 2024 | The Holdovers | Paul Giamatti, dir Alexander Payne (Sideways) | 1 | Disappointing sad sack routine |
| 118 | film | 2024 | Dune II | 3 | Purées last 2/3 of the book, adding comic book dialogue; effects are awesome though | |
| 119 | film | 2022 | Tár | Cate Blanchett | 3 | quite good and spooky though vague and occasionally too slow |
| 120 | film | 2018 | Book Club | Jane Fonda etc | 3 | sappy but occasionally hilarious |
| 121 | book | 2023 | Democracy in a Hotter Time | David W. Orr; anthology; bad reviews, possibly depressing; Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the contributors | ||
| 122 | film | 1980 | Melvin and Howard | Jonathan Demme, Mary Steenburgen | 3 | sentimental but pretty good |
| 123 | film | 2003 | Code 46 | Tim Robbins | 2 | visually impressive but derivative |
| 124 | film | 2004 | 2046 | 2 | Like watching paint dry. Makes Tarkovsky's Solaris look like a thriller. The 1960s styling is great though. | |
| 125 | tv | 2019 | On Becoming a God in Central Florida | Kirsten Dunst takes on a vicious multi-level marketing cult | 4 | darkly funny and very entertaining |
| 126 | film | 2023 | How to Have Sex | Guardian; teen sex drama on Crete | ||
| 127 | film | 2011 | The Descendants | dir Alexander Payne | 2 | Not so good! Predictable tearjerker |
| 128 | film | 2011 | Melancholia | Lars von Trier, Kirsten Dunst | 1 | I should have known better |
| 129 | tv | 2021 | Foundation | The Asimov series tv-ified | 4 | Pretty awesome, binge-worthy; does justice to the books |
| 130 | tv | 2023 | Extrapolations | climate change; probably awful | 2 | Not quite as awful as expected but still pretty bad; this is cheese |
| 131 | book | 2021 | The Dawn of Everything | David Graeber; popular, but allegedly sloppy and grossly biased, and I would hate it | ||
| 132 | film | 2017 | Marjorie Prime | Lois Smith, Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, Tim Robbins | 2 | Terrific acting undone by increasingly absurd premise and flat filming; it strains credulity that a new prime wouldn't have access to data from other relevant primes, or at least know its own last name |
| 133 | tv | 2023 | The Curse | Guardian; Emma Stone; looks hilarious | 4 | Slow, almost unbearably cringe-inducing, but unique and brilliant nonetheless |
| 134 | film | 2023 | Dream Scenario | Nicolas Cage | 2 | Funny premise grows tiresome; interesting to see Cage play against type |
| 135 | book | 2023 | Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World | John Vaillant | ||
| 136 | book | 2023 | Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party | Jonathan Karl; we've heard enough about that son of a bitch | ||
| 137 | tv | 2023 | Such Brave Girls | 2 | Mildly amusing satire of grotesquely dysfunctional British family; repetitive gags, thin characterizations, lowbrow | |
| 138 | film | 2021 | Ich bin dein Mensch | Rec by Katarina (Pomeranze); can't find it with English subtitles | ||
| 139 | film | 2023 | Leave the World Behind | Sam Esmail, Julia Roberts; looks awesome! | 4 | Dark as it gets but fascinating and weirdly funny |
| 140 | film | 2023 | Eileen | Guardian; wild prison guards!? | ||
| 141 | film | 1997 | Face/Off | Guardian; Woo, Cage, Travolta | ||
| 142 | tv | 2022 | Slow Horses | Guardian; Gary Oldman, Graham Yost; British spy drama | 4 | Gripping, well-made; massive cringe factor but Oldman is outstanding and surprisingly funny |
| 143 | film | 2023 | Saltburn | Guardian; crass satire of posh nobs | 3 | Witty and amusing but hardly groundbreaking |
| 144 | tv | 2023 | Rain Dogs | Guardian; British comedy-drama | 3 | Intense but too glum to be funny |
| 145 | film | 2007 | Atonement | Guardian; Keira Knightly | 3 | Moderately interesting WWI family drama |
| 146 | tv | 2018 | Barry | Guardian; Henry Winkler; Hitman takes an acting class | 1 | Ridiculous, implausible, annoying |
| 147 | tv | 2014 | Happy Valley | Guardian; British female police drama; Michael and Maggie liked it; looks glum and violent | ||
| 148 | film | 2023 | Fair Play | Guardian; couple in high finance, competition gets out of hand | ||
| 149 | film | 2023 | All of Us Strangers | Guardian: gay fling with neighbor, clubbing, ketamine, coming out | ||
| 150 | tv | 2019 | Love, Death, and Robots | animated; David Fincher; rec by Jun | 1 | I saw it when it first came out but forgot it, apparently for good cause |
| 151 | tv | 2023 | Fargo season 5 | Jon Hamm as viciously patriarchal militia-leading sheriff; Juno Temple as his relentless adversary | 4 | Brilliant, suspenseful, well-acted, spooky as hell |
| 152 | film | 1961 | Splendour in the Grass | Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, dir Elia Kazan | 1 | Melodramatic and propagandistic even by the standards of its period |
| 153 | tv | 2024 | Expats | Guardian; Nicole Kidman; poor reviews | 3 | Slow and excessively natalist and heteronormative, but has its moments; photography, Hong Kong scenery, and Filipino culture make it worthwhile |
| 154 | film | 2023 | Anatomy of a Fall | Christina recd | ||
| 155 | tv | 2016 | Billions | Paul Giamatti as US Attorney pursuing legal vendetta against shady hedge fund tycoon | 2 | Gets off to a roaring start, but by S07 the thrill is gone; the characters ossify and the plot becomes tepid, repetitive and contrived, but the NYC settings are always a pleasure |
| 156 | film | 1990 | Chameleon Street | Guardian; documentary on infamous black con artist | ||
| 157 | film | 1965 | Juliet of the Spirits | Fellini | 3 | Charming, offbeat, doesn't age well |
| 158 | film | 2021 | Titane | Rec by Vito; likely grotesque | ||
| 159 | film | 2024 | Drive-Away Dolls | Ethan Coen; raunchy lesbian road movie | 2 | Tries hard to be funny and charming, mostly fails at both |
| 160 | film | 2009 | Dogtooth | Yorgos Lanthimos; Rec by Vito | 2 | Meandering family torture and incest gross-out; too much splatter for me but the dancing is terrific |
| 161 | film | 2024 | Gassed Up | Guardian; moped gang, thriller | ||
| 162 | book | 2024 | The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World | Atossa Araxia Abrahamian (Guardian) | ||
| 163 | film | 2021 | Seo Bok | Gpt | ||
| 164 | film | 2017 | The Discovery | Gpt | ||
| 165 | film | 2019 | Synchronic | Gpt | 2 | Gets off to a reasonable start, but loses steam rapidly; cool effects and evocative New Orleans shots can't make up for lack of ideas |
| 166 | film | 2017 | Dragonfly Eyes | Xu Bing; Recd Lydia | ||
| 167 | tv | 2021 | Can't Get You Out of My Head | Adam Curtis; Recd Lydia | 1 | Intolerable, see my review in email |
| 168 | film | 2024 | Hamlet | Ian McKellan; recd Guardian | ||
| 169 | tv | 2022 | Babylon Berlin season 3 | 3 | Not as good as the first two seasons; notably soapy, despite using the rise of the NSDAP as a backdrop, but the sets are still excellent and the detailed depictions of Weimar poverty are remarkable | |
| 170 | tv | 2023 | Babylon Berlin season 4 | Not available yet (except in USA on MHz Choice) | ||
| 171 | tv | 2024 | The Regime | Kate Winslet as Central European dictator; supposedly a mess | 3 | Packed with cliches but nonetheless surprisingly entertaining |
| 172 | film | 2000 | Traffic | Won best director | 1 | Can't imagine why; watered-down Narcos topped with cheese |
| 173 | book | 2011 | Sapiens | Yuval Noah Harari | 5 | Brilliant! Endlessly quotable! I no longer need to write a book |
| 174 | tv | 2024 | Mary and George | Julianne Moore as the Countess of Buckinghan who moulds her son to seduce King James I | 4 | Excellent period drama, and surprisingly historically accurate |
| 175 | book | 2022 | One Nation Under Blackmail - Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein | Whitney Alyse Webb; two volumes, available on IA; spectacular allegations, but likely mere conspiracy theory; author is also a 9-11 truther who regularly appears on right-wing media, and no respectable outlet has reviewed her work | ||
| 176 | book | 2020 | The Alignment Problem | Brian Christian | 4 | Thought-provoking and quotable |
| 177 | film | 2024 | Restore Point | Czech Blade Runner ripoff; brutalist architecture looks awesome | 2 | Tough lady cop action. The buildings are indeed awesome but the plot is convoluted and the acting is wooden |
| 178 | tv | 2022 | Kleo | Stasi action-thriller comedy | 3 | Amusing and surprisingly visceral depiction of DDR corruption and depravity |
| 179 | film | 1960 | Purple Noon | Alain Delon; based on The Talented Mr. Ripley | ||
| 180 | film | 1999 | The Talented Mr. Ripley | Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Phillip Seymour Hoffman | 1 | Overlong and unconvincing |
| 181 | tv | 2024 | Riply | Netflix; based on The Talented Mr. Ripley | ||
| 182 | film | 1961 | One-Eyed Jacks | Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Slim Pickens | 2 | Weak and narcissistic attempt to match On the Waterfront; Brando tries and fails to elevate mumbling to high art |
| 183 | film | 1953 | Julius Caesar | Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud | 2 | Emblematic of 1950s Hollywood; even the noblest lines are reduced to cheese |
| 184 | film | 1975 | The Promised Land | Zeimia Obiecana; industrial horror; best-rated Polish film of all time | 3 | Vividly realistic; easy to see how communism got started |
| 185 | film | 2024 | Civil War | Alex Garland, Kirsten Dunst; possibly empty, but lots of action | 1 | Empty doesn't do it justice; insipid |
| 186 | book | 2011 | The Beginning of Infinity | David Deutsch; Sam Altman supposedly likes it | 3 | Erudite and ambitious, but mostly conjecture posing as fact |
| 187 | film | 2023 | Paradise | German sci-fi; Norah says it's up my alley | 3 | Inventive premise, but more than a whiff of fromage; vaguely reminiscent of In Time, Children of Men, Never Let Me Go. |
| 188 | film | 1963 | Muriel | Alain Resnais | ||
| 189 | film | 1968 | Je t'aime, je t'aime | Alain Resnais | ||
| 190 | film | 2000 | Memento | dir. Christopher Nolan, w. Carrie-Ann Moss | 3 | Bold premise but falls short: too cute by half |
| 191 | film | 1992 | The Unforgiven | Recd Vito; Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman | 3 | About what you'd expect; well-executed but nothing new |
| 192 | film | 1966 | The Battle of Algiers | Recd Vito; won many awards, one of Stanley Kubrick's favorites | ||
| 193 | film | 2016 | La La Land | Musical; Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone; won six Academy Awards including best Director and best actress; trailer looks awful | ||
| 194 | film | 1984 | Electric Dreams | Virginia Madsen, Lenny von Dohlen, Bud Cort; supposedly awful but music by ELO and Giorgio Moroder | ||
| 195 | tv | 2024 | A Man in Full | Netflix, from the director of Big Little Lies; Diane Lane, Succession lite, bad reviews | ||
| 196 | tv | 2022 | Handmaid's Tale season 5 | 4 | Excellent production values and writing, brilliant twists | |
| 197 | book | 2019 | The Testaments | Margaret Atwood | 3 | Evocative and taut, with some twists, but increasingly pat towards the end. Given Aunt Lydia's previous portrayals, her heroism strains credulity. The ending feels rushed and unconvincing, but that was also true of THT. It might make good TV. |
| 198 | film | 2024 | Cabrini | Kika recd; Nun struggles to help Italian orphans in 1890s New York | 3 | Surprisingly good though histrionic; convincing period sets and costumes |
| 199 | tv | 2017 | Electric Dreams | Amazon series | 3 | Uneven and threadbare, but a few episodes are inventive |
| 200 | film | 2023 | Mars Express | Jun; French animated neo-noir | ||
| 201 | tv | 2018 | Darling in the Franxx | Jun; Japanese dystopian anime | ||
| 202 | tv | 2013 | Utopia | Jun; dystopian, British; extreme violence | ||
| 203 | film | 2023 | The Beast | AI, useless humans | 3 | Bold premise but slow and overlong |
| 204 | film | 1971 | Klute | Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland | 2 | Fonda is always a pleasure, but the story is cliche and predictable |
| 205 | film | 1975 | Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles | |||
| 206 | film | 2024 | Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga | Bad reviews, torture porn, spare your eardrums? | 1 | Grotesque waste of time |
| 207 | film | 2024 | Kinds of Kindness | Yorgos Lanthimos, Willem Dafoe, Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons; likely cruel and dull | 1 | Nauseatingly pointless cruelty; ghastly, forget it |
| 208 | film | 2024 | Anora | dir Sean Baker (Tangerine); more sex worker adventures | 4 | Brilliant, devastating, relentless |
| 209 | film | 2023 | Hit Man | Richard Linklater | 2 | Moderately amusing romcom and somewhat true |
| 210 | book | 2024 | The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& How it Came to Control Your Life) | George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison; Guardian | 3 | Excellent history of civil society's rollback, thorough and maddening; interesting distinction between technocratic and oligarchic neoliberalism |
| 211 | film | 2022 | The Grab | Documentary about China and others grabbing up food and water resources; Guardian review | 3 | Scary AF, all too real |
| 212 | film | 2013 | Hard to Be a God | Recd Kim | 2 | Repulsive and interminable, but in a class by itself |
| 213 | tv | 2021 | Nine Perfect Strangers | Recd Kika | 2 | Nicole Kidman as psychedelic-pushing wellness cult leader; Pretty good but too natalist, Kidman's Russian accent is dubious |
| 214 | tv | 2024 | Sunny | Guardian; Japanese, killer robot, mystery, dark comedy, | 3 | Weird and hard to follow, but entertaining; sharp twists |
| 215 | film | 1992 | Bob Roberts | Recd Steve H; possibly anachronistic and cheesy | ||
| 216 | film | 2010 | David Wants to Fly | Recd Eric; very uneven reviews | ||
| 217 | film | 2018 | Aniara | ChatGPT; Swedish, climate disaster, slow | 1 | Terminally glum, devoid of suspense, and natalist lesbian subplot doesn't help |
| 218 | film | 2019 | The Platform | ChatGPT; brutally violent and dystopian Spanish prison food horror, possibly derivative of High-Rise | 1 | Too sadistic, the trailer was enough |
| 219 | film | 2015 | Equals | ChatGPT; romance, bad reviews, plot sounds similar to The Beast | 2 | Steals from THX-1138; tepid romance; locations are impressive |
| 220 | film | 2013 | The Congress | ChatGPT; Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, John Hamm, Paul Giamatti; Drastic re-envisioning of Stanisław Lem's The Futurological Congress | 4 | Deeply flawed masterpiece; very depressing |
| 221 | film | 2005 | The Island | ChatGPT; Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi | 3 | Derivative, plenty of plot holes, but peerless action |
| 222 | film | 2014 | The Giver | ChatGPT | 3 | Clever concepts and language, but too cute; "Precision of language" |
| 223 | film | 1964 | Nothing But the Best | Guardian; Alan Bates, cin. Nicholas Roeg; obscure | ||
| 224 | book | 2024 | Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks | Yuval Noah Harari; dubious reviews | ||
| 225 | film | 1972 | The Seduction of Mimi | Lina Wertmüller | 3 | Sharp satire of cultural differences between north and south Italy |
| 226 | tv | 2024 | Kaos | Guardian; Jeff Goldblum; updated Greek gods | 4 | Unique, blackest satire; tragically canceled |
| 227 | tv | 2024 | The Perfect Couple | Guardian; Nicole Kidman Nantucket whodunit and class satire; great reviews | 2 | Weak rehash of Big Little Lies and White Lotus |
| 228 | film | 2024 | The Room Next Door | Guardian; Almodóvar English language film on euthanasia | ||
| 229 | book | 2022 | Annihilation | Guardian; supposedly references me; 700 pages and likely a hard slog | ||
| 230 | tv | 2011 | Homeland | CIA thriller; Clare Danes; recd Christina; Obama and Hillary are fans; likely racist and xenophobic | 2 | Blatant Zionist propaganda, though entertaining; enough scowling and twitching to give the actors nerve damage; with Brody dead, can't bother with the rest |
| 231 | film | 2024 | The Substance | Body horror; Demi Moore; supposedly similar to Death Becomes Her | 2 | Nauseating and thinly conceived but surprisingly effective as parody; reminiscent of John Carpenter |
| 232 | film | 1992 | Death Becomes Her | Guardian; Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, Isabella Rossellini | 2 | Mild body horror; jokes often fall flat and all-star cast can't transcend the hackneyed writing, but impressive effects for its time |
| 233 | film | 1997 | The Fifth Element | Recd Kim | 3 | Cheesy sci-fi, in which Bruce Willis is regrettably miscast, but with surprisingly good effects for the time |
| 234 | film | 2024 | Will & Harper | trans doc, mixed reviews, trailer is ok | 4 | Love it! Unique! Fav doc about being old, grumpy and trans |
| 235 | book | 2015 | Homo Deus | Yuval Noah Harari | ||
| 236 | film | 2017 | The Florida Project | Recd Vito; dir Sean Baker (Tangerine), Willem Dafoe | 3 | Grim portrayal of sex worker and her kid near Disney World; proves CoE's point |
| 237 | book | 2024 | Juice | Tim Winton; cli-fi; Guardian liked it | ||
| 238 | book | 2024 | World Without End | Christophe Blain and Jean-Marc Jancovici; climate change comic book, pro-nuke | ||
| 239 | film | 1983 | Local Hero | Scottish oil drama, magical realism, Al Gore's fav | 3 | Surprisingly good though Burt Lancaster is woefully miscast and mermaid subplot is cloying |
| 240 | book | 1992 | Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson; cyberpunk classic, about time I read it | 2 | Occasionally witty satire of postmodern capitalism, marred by mythological twaddle and ceaseless nauseating violence |
| 241 | tv | 2020 | Industry | Aspiring investment bankers and their appalling sex and drug habits | 3 | Relentless backstabbing, but fascinatingly informative on British class conflict |
| 242 | film | 2023 | Psychedelic Revolution: The Secret History of the LSD Trade | 3 | Pretty good! includes footage of Kesey and the pranksters; plenty of messianic megalomania, but Pickard is spooky and fascinating | |
| 243 | film | 2015 | The Sunshine Makers | doc about Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully | 3 | Fairly balanced assessment of the main cooks, their enablers, and the cops who chased them |
| 244 | film | 1993 | The Remains of the Day | Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson; interwar drama | 2 | Nazi patsy Lord Darlington's post-war disgrace is the backdrop for doomed romance between servants; slow and glum with stiff upper lips galore; set in the same mansion used in S03 of Industry |
| 245 | book | 2020 | Antkind | Charlie Kaufman; 700-page postmodern word porn featuring a neurotic anti-woke protagonist; NYT loved it but most called it a long slog | ||
| 246 | film | 2020 | I'm Thinking of Ending Things | dir Charlie Kaufman, Jesse Plemons; failed romance, surreal horror | 1 | I may have seen it on a plane; intentionally confusing, slow, depressing, maggots |
| 247 | book | 2024 | Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future | Jason Stanley | 3 | Timely to say the least, and quotable; education is the thing to watch |
| 248 | book | 1993 | Parable of the Sower | Octavia E. Butler; recd Steve H | 1 | Preachy pretentious woo woo; couldn't get past the first chapter, returned it for a refund |
| 249 | film | 2013 | The Machine | British AI sci-fi/action; Denis Lawson | 1 | Derivative schlock |
| 250 | book | 2024 | Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown | Wim Carton and Andreas Malm; NYT, David Wallace-Wells | 4 | Concise, tart and infuriating |
| 251 | film | 1971 | The Plot Against Harry | recd Lydia; obscure verité drama about Jewish gangster trying to go straight | ||
| 252 | film | 2023 | His Three Daughters | recd Papa and Maggie; Natasha Lyonne | 1 | Glum and dull, despite the attempts at drama. It might've worked better as a play. Lyonne plays the same wiseass in every film, and it gets tiresome. |
| 253 | film | 2023 | They Cloned Tyrone | recd Jim and Libby, sci-fi blaxploitation | 1 | Ludicrous mishmash of racist and sci-fi clichés |
| 254 | film | 1993 | The Piano | New Zealand, Academy Award winner | 1 | If you like mud, spousal abuse, and dismemberment, it's a jolly good time; I bailed right before the severed finger. |
| 255 | film | 2024 | A Citizen of the People | Arte; play depicting the rise of a populist right wing leader in Germany | ||
| 256 | film | 2023 | Fitting In | Intersex teen drama; Canadian | 2 | Heavy on the vagina, occasionally moving and funny |
| 257 | book | 2024 | Hum | Helen Phillips; Guardian review; hum stands for humanoid robot; dystopian | ||
| 258 | book | 2024 | Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human | Guy Leschziner; Guardian review; why? | ||
| 259 | tv | 2023 | The Gilded Age season 2 | Julian Fellowes, huge cast | 3 | Terrific! Astonishing attention to detail; the sets and costumes are to die for |
| 260 | tv | 2025 | Fresh | Dating a cannibal, horror/humor | ||
| 261 | tv | 2025 | The Gilded Age season 3 | Guardian alleges silliness | 3 | Idealizes its subjects to the point of absurdity, but great costumes |
| 262 | film | 1962 | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence | dir John Ford, John Wayne, James Stewart; Shown briefly in "Belfast" | ||
| 263 | film | 1952 | High Noon | Gary Cooper; Shown briefly in "Belfast" | 3 | Taut drama with well-executed period details; I can certainly see why John Wayne hated it |
| 264 | film | 2024 | 2073 | dir Asif Kapadia; dystopian speculative fiction mixed with documentary; time travel, techno-authoritarianism; Guardian loves it but bad reviews elsewhere | 1 | Disappointingly dull; not enough plot |
| 265 | film | 2021 | Red Rocket | dir Sean Baker | 2 | Pimp returns to Texas City and screws up badly; bleak, gripping, reminiscent of the Florida Project; not as funny as it presumably aims to be |
| 266 | tv | 2024 | Dune: Prophecy | Loosely based on book by Herbert's son | 2 | The sets dazzle, but the plot meanders to the point of near incomprehensibility |
| 267 | film | 2024 | The Brutalist | Adrien Brody; Hungarian architect struggles to adapt to America | 1 | Much too long and much ado about nothing |
| 268 | film | 2024 | Babygirl | Nicole Kidman plays kinky CEO; cringe factor likely | 1 | Meh! |
| 269 | film | 2024 | The Order | True crime thriller, white supremacist cult; Jude Law, Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One), Nicholas Hout (Equals) | 2 | Not bad, but predictable. |
| 270 | tv | 2017 | 4 Blocks | recd Peter Mitterer; Lebanese crime family drama, set in Neukölln / Kreuzberg | 2 | Grim and overly violent, but the scenes in my neighborhood are very amusing |
| 271 | tv | 2015 | The Bureau | French espionage thriller; recd Christina B | 4 | Brilliant! I love it! Except the last two episodes |
| 272 | film | 2013 | The Double | Guardian; loosely based on eponymous Dostoyevsky novella; Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowsky | 2 | Blatantly derivative of Brazil, doppelgänger ho-hum, It's been done 100 times and better, sets are good, but otherwise forget it |
| 273 | film | 2025 | One Battle After Another | dir Paul Thomas Anderson; loosely based on Vineland | ||
| 274 | film | 2002 | Punch-Drunk Love | dir Paul Thomas Anderson | 3 | Reminiscent of Rain Man. Who knew Adam Sandler could act so well? |
| 275 | film | 2007 | There Will Be Blood | dir Paul Thomas Anderson | 3 | Bleak but brilliant period drama. Justifiably famous. |
| 276 | film | 2012 | The Master | dir Paul Thomas Anderson | 2 | Has its moments, but a little too meandering; to the extent that it's based on Hubbard, the real story is much more interesting |
| 277 | film | 2024 | A Real Pain | Way offbeat Holocaust-themed buddy road comedy; Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg | 1 | Pain is right! Unbearably annoying, gave up halfway through |
| 278 | film | 2024 | The Last Showgirl | NYT; dir Gia Coppola; Pamela Anderson, Jaime Lee Curtis | 2 | Who knew that PA could act? Pretty good, though the plot peters out towards the end. |
| 279 | film | 2024 | Conclave | Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini; Likely very silly, but supposedly good acting and impressive sets | 3 | Surprisingly good, with unexpected twists. Excellent photography too. Edward Berger also directed Deutschland 83, one of my all-time favorites. |
| 280 | film | 2002 | The Rules of Attraction | Guardian; loosely based on Brett Easton Ellis novel, and Ellis claims it captured his intent better than the other films made from his books | 1 | nasty, empty and pointless; that's presumably why Ellis liked it |
| 281 | film | 1987 | Prick Up Your Ears | Vanessa Redgrave, Gary Oldman | 2 | Captures 1960s gay London to a T but the writing is overly melodramatic and oddly stiff |
| 282 | film | 1992 | Howard's End | Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson | 3 | Not bad! Very authentic period portrayal |
| 283 | film | 1995 | To Die For | dir Gus Van Sant, Nicole Kidman; Guardian | 1 | Faux documentary plods despite big names; shallow and unoriginal |
| 284 | film | 2025 | Companion | Robot horror film, possibly amusing; NYT liked it | 4 | Gruesome but brilliant! Sophie Thatcher is outstanding; cleverly references The Stepford Wives, taut, funny and deep |
| 285 | book | 2025 | The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind | Dr. Richard Restak; NYT review | ||
| 286 | book | 2025 | How to Survive the Climate Upheaval | Gaia Vince; Guardian | ||
| 287 | book | 2025 | Waste Wars: Dirty Deals, International Rivalries and the Scandalous Afterlife of Rubbish | Alexander Clapp | ||
| 288 | film | 2025 | Black Bag | Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbinder, dir Steven Soderbergh, looks amusing | 1 | Convoluted plot, wooden acting, like a spoof but humorless |
| 289 | film | 2013 | Blue Jasmine | Cate Blanchett, dir Woody Allen, Cate won a best actress Oscar for it | 2 | Not terrible. Unsubtle references to A Streetcar Named Desire. Cate Blanchett's American accent is all over the place and gets on my nerves fast. |
| 290 | film | 2025 | Spinal Tap II: The End Continues | Likely tiresome; not sure I can stomach it | ||
| 291 | tv | 2025 | The Studio | Seth Rogen; supposedly good | 2 | Starts with a bang, but the sad sack routine gets old fast; Woody Allen he's not; star cameos are fun though |
| 292 | film | 2022 | Glass Onion | Guardian | 1 | Just more product; inept parody of the ultra rich mixed with plodding whodunit |
| 293 | film | 2024 | The Return | Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche; slow but grimly realistic telling of The Odyssey's last part | 4 | Excellent, like taking a time machine to antiquity; arrow stunt is dubious but the rest is pitch-perfect |
| 294 | tv | 2025 | Your Friends and Neighbors | Jon Hamm; sacked finance bro sinks to burglary | 3 | Predictable but trenchant satire; Hamm is terrific as always |
| 295 | book | 2025 | The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It's Too Late | Wim Carton and Andreas Malm; sequel to Overshoot | ||
| 296 | film | 2025 | The Electric State | rec'd Anthony (halfheartedly) | 3 | Absurd dystopia with comic book villainy, but astounding design |
| 297 | tv | 2025 | Paradise | Dystopian prepper drama; James Mardsen | 2 | No match for Silo; tepid despite lavish production; parts of it vaguely resemble The Truman Show |
| 298 | book | 2025 | Vanishing World | Sayaka Murata; sexless utopia? | ||
| 299 | tv | 2022 | 1899 | recd Electric Indigo; same team as Dark; mixed reviews | 2 | Confusing but entertaining, with dazzling effects, but less original than Dark and sometimes blatantly derivative, like the bullet-stopping scene; Matrix, Westworld, Truman Show |
| 300 | book | 2025 | Capitalism and Its Critics: A Battle of Ideas in the Modern World | John Cassidy; Guardian | ||
| 301 | book | 2021 | How to Blow Up a Pipeline | Andreas Malm | 1 | Shrill diatribe full of unlikely scenarios |
| 302 | film | 2024 | Flow | Latvian animated dystopia with cats; recd Libby | 2 | Astonishing animation; glum story meanders and becomes increasingly surreal |
| 303 | film | 2017 | Slaughterbots | Short documentary about autonomous drone weapons; Future of Life Institute and Stuart Russell | 2 | Grim and all too credible |
| 304 | tv | 2025 | Sirens | Meghann Fahy, Julianne Moore; satire | 2 | Interesting twists; pretty good but heavy-handed and gags wear thin |
| 305 | film | 2025 | Mountainhead | Guardian; Succession spin-off; Alpha bros trade zingers in a ski resort | 1 | Attempts to be both serious and funny, but falls short of both; surprisingly theatrical |
| 306 | tv | 2024 | Dark Matter | physicist builds a box and kidnaps himself in an alternate timeline; bad reviews | 3 | Too family-oriented, but edgy concept, tight script and wild effects make it worthwhile |
| 307 | tv | 2004 | Lost | Island plane crash, Lord of the Flies mixed with mysticism; probably awful | ||
| 308 | film | 1984 | Cal | Helen Mirren; Guardian | 2 | Bleak tale of poverty, sectarian violence and doomed romance during the Troubles |
| 309 | film | 2025 | M3gan 2.0 | Guardian; looks campy and ultraviolent, heavy on horror and girl fight cliches | 3 | Better than expected but still cheesy; astonishing CG |
| 310 | film | 2013 | Oblivion | planet-eating alien overlord clones Tom Cruise and his hotties | 1 | Expensive effects marred by tepid drama |
| 311 | film | 2019 | Uncut Gems | NYT; Adam Sandler as profane gem hustler and degenerate gambler | 2 | Energetic, but Anora it's not; hysteria wears thins, soundtrack is overdone |
| 312 | film | 2016 | Toni Erdemann | NYT | 1 | my vote for weirdest movie ever filmed in Bucharest |
| 313 | film | 2006 | Volver | NYT; Almodóvar, Penelope Cruz | 3 | Hilariously weird |
| 314 | film | 2007 | Michael Clayton | NYT; George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, dir Tony Gilroy | 3 | Tense, atmospheric; surprisingly transcends police procedural clichés and family drama |
| 315 | film | 2018 | Roma | NYT | ||
| 316 | tv | 2025 | Such Brave Girls season 2 | Guardian | 2 | More of the same; gross and a bit too predictable |
| 317 | film | 1975 | Three Days of the Condor | dir Sidney Pollack; Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow | 2 | Medium spy drama, oddly tepid romance despite big names; good 70s NYC footage |
| 318 | film | 1999 | But I'm a Cheerleader | Natasha Lyonne, Mink Stole, Bud Cort, Ru Paul; Gay conversion comedy | 1 | Tepid drama, tired cliches, disappointing |
| 319 | film | 2024 | Parthenope | dir Paolo Sorrentino | 2 | Magical realism; slick, shallow, freak show, lacks narrative structure but beautifully shot in Napoli and Capri |
| 320 | film | 1993 | The Firm | dir Sidney Pollack; Tom Cruise, Holly Hunter, Gene Hackman | 3 | Surprisingly good; taut thriller |
| 321 | book | 2025 | Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse | Luke Kemp; Guardian rev. | ||
| 322 | book | 2024 | Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture | Kyle Chayka | 5 | Excellent and often quotable; if you hate mediocrity, this book is for you |
| 323 | book | 2025 | Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress | Roy Scranton | ||
| 324 | film | 2023 | There's Still Tomorrow | Paola Cortellesi; Italian B&W period comedy-drama about women's suffrage | 3 | Excellent, though I'm not in a position to judge its accuracy |
| 325 | book | 2025 | The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: A Planetary Experiment | Allen Lane; excerpt Guardian | ||
| 326 | book | 2025 | Everything Evolves: Why Evolution Explains More Than We Think, From Proteins to Politics | Mark Vellend; review Guardian | ||
| 327 | film | 2025 | The Roofman | Guardian; crime; Kirsten Dunst | ||
| 328 | film | 2025 | Caught Stealing | Guardian; crime; looks cliche but funny | 1 | Repulsive; alleged comedy delivers little humor but plenty of graphic violence; Brooklyn slums, Yiddish cliches |
| 329 | film | 2025 | The Woman in Cabin 10 | Guardian; crime; Keira Knightly on a yacht; cheesy? | 1 | Obvious, shallow, contrived; trash like this gives Netflix a bad name |
| 330 | film | 2025 | The Mastermind | Guardian; crime; set in 1970s MA, looks downbeat but interesting; Bill Camp! | ||
| 331 | film | 2024 | Eden | Guardian; Jude Law, dir Ron Howard; salacious fictionalization of true story; violent and possibly terrible | ||
| 332 | book | 2025 | The Haves and Have-Yachts | Evan Osnos; recd Norah; NYT was more circumspect | 2 | The details are occasionally entertaining but the lack of affect gets old fast; like reading The New Yorker |
| 333 | tv | 2025 | The Girlfriend | Guardian; Robin Wright directs and co-stars; billionaire incestuous sex triangle | 2 | Disappointingly unsubtle; Olivia Cooke shines, but the rest are aggravating |
| 334 | book | 2025 | If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies | Eliezer Yudkowsky (founded Less Wrong) and Nate Soares; Guardian | 2 | They sound like cult leaders; I hope they're More Wrong |
| 335 | tv | 2025 | The Lowdown | Neo-noir set in Tulsa with Ethan Hawke, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle MacLachlan, many great characters, dir Sterlin Harjo; Guardian | 3 | Very entertaining, Hawke is surprisingly terrific |
| 336 | tv | 2021 | Reservation Dogs | dir Sterlin Harjo; Zahn McClarnon, Gary Farmer, | 1 | Tries hard to be funny, but more bleak than anything else; one season was plenty |
| 337 | tv | 2025 | House of Guinness | Guardian; Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders); trailer looks overwrought; | ||
| 338 | book | 2025 | We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate | Michael Grunwald; Guardian rev | ||
| 339 | book | 2025 | Shadow Ticket | Thomas Pynchon; consensus is he's slipping, but still one of a kind so enjoy it anyway | ||
| 340 | book | 2025 | Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It | Cory Doctorow; Kyle Chayka reviewed it for NYT; 300 page snarky blog post? | ||
| 341 | book | 2025 | Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist | Liz Pelly; rec Dr. Frank Eckert; dovetails with Kyle Chayka's Filterworld | ||
| 342 | film | 2025 | Bulgonia | dir Yorgos Lanthimos; Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons; conspiracy theory goes wrong |