Shane Barlow

Shane Barlow Patron

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Favorite films

  • Dune: Part Two
  • What's Up, Doc?
  • Do the Right Thing
  • It Follows

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  • The Fall Guy

    ★★★

  • The Frozen North

    ★★½

  • The Paleface

    ★★★

  • Men

    ★★

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  • The Zone of Interest

    The Zone of Interest 2023

    ★★★★★ Watched 05 Apr 2024

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

    A brilliant exploration of the human condition. Several scenes and images will really stick with me.

    The the Hoss family’s garden right against the wall at Auschwitz is such a potent image and tells you everything you need to know about this family. They benefit from the atrocities, and they don’t even see them as atrocities. They’ve tricked themselves into thinking this is okay. Many, many, many people do the same thing today in many different contexts. 

    There is also…

  • Dune

    Dune 1984

    ★★★½ Rewatched 11 Mar 2024 1

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

    The story actually made some sense this viewing now that I’m familiar with Dune. Still, the movie packs so much story into 137 minutes that it’s impossible to get proper character development. The fremen accept Paul and Jessica immediately and Paul and Chani basically fall in love at first sight. Some of the expositional dialogue is laughably bad since they have to move the story forward so quickly. Without reading the book or watching Villeneuve’s Dune it would be nearly…

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  • The Limey

    The Limey 1999

    ★★★½ Watched 20 Apr 2024

    Really enjoyed the editing for the most part. It brings us inside the mind of the main character and shows us how he’s feeling and what he’s thinking without any need for voiceover. And the use of footage from Poor Cow for his backstory was ingenious. 

    Also, Nicky Katt’s performance is good but he’s stuck wearing an all-time awful wig. 

    Overall, an interesting postmodern take on a revenge story even if some moments didn’t work for me.

  • Strange Way of Life

    Strange Way of Life 2023

    ★★★ Watched 13 Apr 2024

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

    An unrealistic, melodramatic version of a western, which makes sense for Almodovar. It’s well made but too short to have a strong impact.

    The characters directly tell us a ton of exposition and backstory. I think it could’ve worked better if it was a feature length film and the story could be doled out in a more imaginative and suspenseful manner. 

    Also, the timeline doesn’t really make sense. They have a romantic night together and then the next morning Hawke doesn’t trust…

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  • The Moustache

    The Moustache 2005

    ★★★★ Watched 22 Jan 2024

    For some reason I expected this to be more of a comedy but on Letterboxd it’s more accurately placed in the drama and mystery genres. This was a bizarre head-scratcher that I really enjoyed. 

    Carrère’s direction is very assured and subtle, which is especially impressive since this is his directorial debut. I loved the use of slow zooms/push ins to reflect the building tension in the characters’ relationship. Vincent Lindon’s performance and Philip Glass’ score are also both excellent. 

    I’m…

  • Dragged Across Concrete

    Dragged Across Concrete 2018

    ★ Watched 30 Mar 2019 1

    This movie actually dogwhistles the insane conspiracy theory that Jewish people (aka "globalists") run world finance. And not from the perspective of the characters, but from the perspective of the narrative, and therefore the perspective of Zahler. This movie's ideological point-of-view is shockingly far-right. Also, the women have no character beyond creating melodramatic and cliched backstories for the male leads. It also tries to justify police brutality by essentially presenting a straw man argument. Aside from those horrific things (and…

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