The performances are ~atrocious, flickering myths too much so, pacing sluggish, et narrative flaccid, but we appreciate the bizarre alternative horror/western mix, puzzle-like mystery, atmospheric fogset VFX of this postbellum ghost story. 4.6/10.
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Category: Western
The Power Of The Dog (2021)
A cinematic origami flower crafted with razor intricacy by a mythological Campion, TPOTD is a masterfully-acted/directed [BC-led] slowburn on toxic masculinity, isolation, & psychosexual repression in rawhide palisades of 1920s Old West. 9.2/10.
[category:western,date:2021-06-17,rate:9.2,type:movies]
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The Green Knight (2021)
A hypnotic, VFX-fueled epic of pure fantasy atmosphere, complex nature allegory, & bravura ocular craftsmanship w. a genius Dev Patel typecast, medieval necromancy, honor/religion/masculinity exposition, & modernize knights of round table. 9.6/10.
[category:actionadventure/fantasy/horror/drama/western/folk-movies,date:2021-08-30,rate:9.6,type:movies]
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Cry Macho (2021)
Though one of the greatest movie-stars and western presences of all-time, Cry Macho isn’t so much a swan song as retirement prayer; worthy themes lost in dust of deconstructed masculinity, cowboy-iconography, & early career nostalgia. 3/10.
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The Forever Purge (2021)
Though remixed western iconography, signature IP malevolence-pageantry, and potential rife themes of postapocalyptica twisting the rules of its franchise engage, TFP: poorly-realized, badly-acted, predictable, blunt mess of Bayesqueisms. 4.6/10.
[category:horror/dystopian/apocalyptica/western,date:2021-01-05,rate:4.6,type:movies]
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Chaos Walking (2021)
One of the most inane, fatuous, repugnant, imbecilic sci-western concepts I’ve ever heard, C.W. is everything wrong with the young-adult novel/film subgenre – a [somehow] double-sexist apocalypse of despair tone, wasting a godly cast. 2.1/10.
[category:science-fiction/western/actionadventure/dystopian,date:2021-05-13,rate:2.1,type:movies]
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The Good Lord Bird (2020)
The best Tarantino project QT-himself never made, TGLB pays capable homage to bonkers, outrageous, hyperviolent, sardonically-comedic signatures of its patriarch w. magnificent E. Hawke lead, moralistic abolitionism crux, epic irreverence. 8.5/10.
[category:western/comedyromance/periodhistorical,date:2020-03-01,rate:8.5,type:tvshows]
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First Cow (2020)
Despite a bizarre finale, FC’s a gentle-and-refined directorial tale of 1820’s pastoral manifest destiny, foundation of American capitalism, masculinity, & natural/human friendships by a grassroots Rechardt love-letter to film’s lost genre: westerns. 8/10.
[category:western/periodhistorical,date:2020-12-07,rate:8,type:movies]
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The Mandalorian (2019)
A bounty-hunting glimmer of hope for the fledgling Disney/Star Wars consortium with Neo-Western undertones, badass Pascal lead, & magisterial set pieces + Baby Yoda, but maddening TV-PG not-dark-enough tone & selective-CGI finesse. 9.2/10.
[category:western/fantasy,date:2019-10-11,rate:9.2,type:tvshows]
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The Revenant (2015)
Though it finally got DiCaprio his [long-overdue] Best Actor Oscar amidst powerful natural landscapes, Iñàrritu’s grisly historical western revenge survival-thriller is a heavy, punishing, graceless experience of pure excruciation in a war/blizzard. 5/10.
[category:western/survival/war/actionadventure/periodhistorical,date:2015-10-02,rate:5,type:movies]
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