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[rioreviews]

hello! I am a film student, and my new years resolution was to watch at least three new movies I've never seen before every month and read one book I've never read before every month. i'll be posting my reviews of these movies and books here

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Moonlight

dir. Barry Jenkins (2016)

watched 03/22/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

This movie is genuinely a masterpiece. I think it might be the most well crafted and intentional film I've ever seen. The script is impeccable. It's perfectly paced. The segments of Chiron's life that were chosen to be displayed were perfect. When we switched to teenaged Chiron, I was so sad to see that Juan had passed, and I wanted to see more of him, and for a while this was something I considered detracting from the movie. But of course it doesn't, it puts the audience perfectly in the perspective of Chiron with Juan gone as a fact of life, since it had been so long since his initial passing. I love how we go back to the beach in each segment, even if it's only as a memory. This movie had incredible color grading and incredible acting and incredible editing. I genuinely think it's as close to perfect as a movie can be.

 movie review #12 watched at home

rating out of five stars: 5⭐️

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Everything Everywhere All At Once

dir. Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (2022)

watched 03/21/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

 This movie might have changed my life. Obsessed with the fact that Evelyn is queer but repressed and it's why she's projecting her homophobia so much onto her daughter. The acting from everyone was so incredible I genuinely don't have words. This movie was so amazing and absurdist and perfectly written. Every moment of this movie had me grinning ear to ear or sobbing so loud I could barely hear the dialogue. Every single alternate universe was tragic in so many innumerable ways, from the family being successful in their business but still unhappy and separate, to Evelyn and Waymond staying in China and never getting together, to rocks on a lonely cliff. I think I could sing Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and Michelle Yeoh's praises until I die for this movie. Their performances elevated the movie to a level it could not have reached without them, and all three of them deserved oscars. And choosing Mitski for the credits was the nail in my coffin. I have always been obsessed with the idea of what my life could have been if I had just made another choice and this movie really helped me come to terms with the fact that you can't live a life that could've been. I love this movie.

movie review #11 watched at home

rating out of five stars: 5⭐️

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How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

dir. Donald Petrie (2003)

watched 03/21/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

I enjoyed this movie. I like when characters are screwing each other over equally. I loved Kate Hudson's character's wardrobe, it was incredible. I am sick and tired of the portrayal of certain types of women considered undesirable being sexist caricatures of the valley girl, but that's neither here nor there. I do not like Matthew McConaughey. I don't like his face or his voice or his personality, and so unfortunately he did detract from my viewing experience. And I know his character was also supposed to be a douchebag, but I don't really think he stopped being a douchebag the whole movie, as the conclusion to his character's goals was stealing a marketing opportunity from two women. I also want to say that Kate Hudson's character was very smart, so why did she think it was ever going to work out for her if she tried to write about the political state of the world at a womens' magazine. She's smart enough to know to sell that story to a different publication. She can be a freelance writer, clearly her boss favored her enough that she would certainly let her as long as she kept writing the articles they wanted from her. The trend of sacrificing money for your dreams when you could have both in movies is absolutely frustrating me. A job is a job. Money is money. And money matters. Anyway I did like the dynamic between Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey's characters after they started to let their walls down, and Kate Hudson's 90s curls are going to make me pass out with jealousy. A fun romcom at the end of the day.

movie review #10 watched at home

rating out of five stars: 3 ½ ⭐️

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The Batman

dir. Matt Reeves (2022)

watched 03/20/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

I watched this movie in a home theater while I was housesitting, and it still wasn't enough. I wish I could've seen this movie in IMAX in 2022 so badly, because holy shit it's gorgeous. The visual language of this movie is so strong. This movie pays homage to Batman: Year One in the best way. All of the actors were incredible, and the makeup artists too. Finding out after the movie that the Penguin was played by Colin Firth had my jaw on the ground. Zoë Kravitz was actually amazing and I'm afraid to watch any other movie with Catwoman in it because Zoë's Selina Kyle was so good. I always enjoy it when characters with the same goal have different methods and are not working together for a large portion of the story due to their different methods and then those methods cause their ultimate goal to be pushed further from them because they got in their own way. And yeah this movie does that wonderfully. Selina had such agency and power which was beautiful. I was never really convinced of Robert Pattinson as Batman, mostly because of his physical appearance, but this movie made me forget that I was watching Robert Pattinson. Stills I would see of the movie and the ways that Pattinson was styled as Bruce always put me off, but they were actually perfect and so characterful. I actually think I could watch the last thirty minutes of the movie on loop for twenty years and never get sick of them. I love it when we get to see Batman actually helping people, instead of just fighting bad guys and busting crime lords. It's so much more grounded and real and justified to me when we get to see the material good he's doing, even if it's just helping one person by stopping a thief from taking their purse. I love how this movie managed to accomplish the same short-sightedness and self-absorption that Year One Batman also displayed when in conflict with Selina and the other sex workers. It did piss me off that she kissed him right after he was a jackass. I'm afraid that my favorite version of a Catwoman and Batman romance is one where they don't really ever experience that catharsis of being with the other person, even if it's just a kiss, so I do wish they hadn't kissed, mostly because he was pissing me off with his ignorance and she was yelling at him for it and then kissing him. Like I know why she was kissing him but I feel like the same thing could've been achievved another way, I don't know. Basically this movie was fucking awesome and I'm so excited for the sequel.

movie review #9 watched at home

rating out of five stars: 4 ½ ⭐️

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Twinless

dir. James Sweeney (2025)

watched 03/19/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

This movie was really fresh and interesting to me. The switch from Dylan O'Brien's character's perspective to James Sweeney's character might be the best reveal of this century. The first fifteen? or so minutes give you the impression that this movie is going to be so very different. And those first fifteen minutes are a great movie, but the switch was just so genius on James Sweeney's part. I love it when characters just like objectively suck, which is the role James Sweeney's character inhabits. He's misogynistic, he's convinced of his own self importance, he's so unbelievably selfish. But you fully understand his thought process the entire movie, and why he does what he does. On the contrary, Dylan O'Brien as the surviving twin is somebody I fully support in ever decision he makes the entire movie. Dylan O'Brien is a phenomenal actor, and he differentiates the twins so well, even when portraying the ways that they miss/grieve each other while they're both alive. His character of course lives with his own flaws. Dylan O'Brien's character is perfectly vulnerable to James Sweeney's manipulation without the fact that he was manipulated or the ways that their friendship functions being emasculating at all. Dylan O'Brien's character is one who is finding a childlike comfort and calm in a person, and he was just unlucky that the person he's connecting with is a liar. It's also so interesting to compare James Sweeney's character's relationship to both of the twins, insomuch as he is a person they are both able to be very vulnerable with in a short amount of time, even when it's something that clearly is typically uncomfortable to them. I love how the character functions as both a mirror and a bridge between the two characters, as they both use him as a substitute for speaking to their own brother, but the character also manages to fit inside that dynamic, he's got the same type of solemnity and nature as the brothers have. In another life, the characters are great brother-in-laws, best friends. Or in another life the twin who managed to survive is in a loveless relationship where James Sweeney's character is only with him because the other brother is heterosexual. Either way it's a fun time. The movie has a great premise and pretty great execution. There are moments where it drags, but I couldn't suggest to cut those bits, as they do add important character work. I don't know if I'll rewatch this movie by myself, but I'd show it to a friend maybe.

movie review #9 watched at home

rating out of five stars: 3 ½ ⭐️

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Send Help

dir. Sam Raimi (2026)

watched 02/19/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

This movie was actually so much fun. This was the first time I realized that Rachel McAdams has moles. All of the build up and foreshadowing in this movie are so enjoyable. For me, I knew that she was crazy, and I think that was probably clear to most viewers. But they still make the reveal of her being crazy effective and interesting by "revealing" how crazy she is with paralyzing Dylan O'Brien's character, baiting us into thinking that she's just like that. And then the fight in the jungle, with the boar and with each other, again they bait you into thinking that this is as bad as it could get. But then we make it to the vacation home and it's just worse than you could've thought. Dylan O'Brien and Rachel McAdams did so amazing in these roles. They're both the worst person you've ever met and yet you are rooting for them both and different points in the movie. My dream ending for this movie is that Rachel McAdams' character continues living her Survivor fantasy with Dylan O'Brien's corpse propped up on the beach alongside her. However the transition between her smashing his head in and her golfing was quite genius, as well as them playing her karaoke song over the ending of the movie. This is a movie that is very detail oriented and I really enjoyed it. I honestly wish it had been more dark, more graphic, more scary. The visions of Dylan O'Brien's dead fiance were something that I enjoyed, and I wish Raimi had gone darker with the film. But I overall did enjoy it a lot.

movie review #7 watched in theaters

rating out of 5 stars: 3 ½ ⭐️

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Stranger

by Albert Camus (1942)

read 02/31/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

This book was so bizarre to me. Because I was there reading it, fully immersed in the narrator's world. I know that I am likely more similar to him than I am different, but still so much of his worldview is so strange to me. He's so autistic to me, in the way that he's outside society's rules and he gets severely punished for it. I did enjoy this book. This review is suffering from the fact that it has been so long since I read it, and I do apologize, I got so busy. I was fluctuating between his treatment of his lover being unbearably misogynistic but also endearing. I did enjoy the story though, and I found it really interesting. I'm not sure how much more I have to say on it. Justice for him, he didn't do it even though he did do it, but like I probably would've done it too.

book review #2

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GOAT

dir. Tyree Dillihay (2026)

watched 02/13/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

This movie was so enjoyable. Gorgeously animated. I adored the fact that the best player of all time, the one our main character aspires to be since he was a young boy, is a woman. Specifically a flat chested woman. It's really great to see. Again, especially since her patterning and coloring leads to the coding that she is a darker skinned woman. This is significant because the other character who I would say is primarily dark skin coded is the antagonist of the movie. I will never get sick of a good optimistic rookie and cynical mentor dynamic, especially if there's legacy and people you want to prove yourself to. However this movie did really let me down. Specifically with the casting. Why were there so many white people in this movie. White people in lead roles. I view animal movies as an interesting opportunity to cast in interesting ways. If you have a character who's a rhinocerous, I would choose to cast a person who is from the region that the animal is from. I would not choose David Harbour, although he did a good enough job that I did not realize it was him until after the movie. And the ostrich, Olivia? Why is she British? Why is she a white, blonde woman? It just feels like an interesting choice to make a movie that is a direct allegory for a sport that has been primarily comprised of POC for many years now, and make about half of your main cast who plays that sport not POC. And it's not even like the white people you're casting are particularly special like I promise you Jelly Roll could've been anyone else and no one would've cared. And in the case of David Harbour the rhino, he's a family man, right? I think it would've sent a nice message to see a black, masculine character, someone whose prime motivation is love for his daughters succeed. The movie broke down a lot of anti-black stereotypes, but it had so many opportunities to do more, and that's really a missed opportunity that would've been incredibly easy to do, from my eyes. But whatever. Also why is the lizard man slavic, regionally that doesn't make any sense whatsoever the lizards he's based on aren't from any slavic countries or regions whatsoever and I really just prefer that if you're going to choose to make a character that is based off an animal that is from islands in Indonesia it feels like an interesting choice to not make the character Indonesian and specifically make them a white character. But whatever, it's fine, maybe I'm the woker, either way I really liked the movie. The voice actors all did really great, especially Caleb McLaughlin and Gabrielle Union.

movie review #6 watched in theaters

rating out of 5 stars: 4 ⭐️

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Pitch Perfect

dir. Jason Moore (2012)

watched 02/08/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

Filing this movie under the list of movies I wish I was raised on. Growing up in a theater and fine arts space, this movie was constantly referenced, but it took me so long to watch it. And I loved every single fucking second. I mean not actually but practically. Anna Kendrick's character is so fucking pickme in this movie but also I love her? It's a mystery. This movie really is just an unbelievable amount of fun. And it's even more fun when you're watching it and you're thinking that the Ted from HIMYM lookalike guy should totally end up with Ben Platt's character and Anna Kendrick and that redhead girl are meant to be. And it was also a lot of fun to watch it with my friends who have seen it and my friends who haven't at the same time and yet we were all able to snig along to all the songs in the movie because it's just that classic and iconic and they chose such good songs. I'm never getting over the fact that they got BEN PLATT in this movie and had him sing for less than one entire minute overall??? INSANE moves but like sure whatever let's all pretend that he wouldn't make it into the male acapella group despite the fact that he's the most talented man in a twenty mile radius. Also them trying to sell the white love interest man as the best vocalist with Ben Platt in the movie, once again, cracks me the fuck up. Who are they kidding. All this being said, Anna Kendrick and 90s Jimmy Fallon are really meant to be, because they're both so incredibly pickme. How are you an average white man who dresses poorly and you've still pioneered the title of performative male. Super great. This movie is so much fun. The rating is how much my heart grew while I watched it. RIP Rebel Wilson it's too bad you did these movies and then disappeared from public life forever and no one knows anything about you anymore. Right? P.S. the AcaFellas definitely should've won because Magic was so gorgeous I ascended to the heavens.

movie review #5 watched at home

review out of 5 stars: 4 ½ ⭐️

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Iron Lung

dir. Mark Fischbach (2026)

watched 02/05/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

This movie was really interesting. As much as I love horror, I am a big scaredy cat. I was at the edge of my seat through the first half of this movie (before I stepped out for two minutes to piss) and I am very thankful there were a minimal amount of jumpscares throughout this movie. The horror in this movie is very effective at what it does. It is a slow build up and escalation throughout the film. When I heard people were complaining about the pacing, I was absolutely taken aback, as it was one of the first things I praised when the credits rolled. The reveals and horrors all work very well because of the amount of time we get to sit and wait, right alongside our main character Simon. The constant repetition with the visuals of the film in this beginning part also worked very well alongside us sitting and waiting, and contributing to the tension building. Specifically the reveal that the camera is an x-ray machine worked really well for me, because Simon didn't realize what that meant, while I, and hopefully the rest of the audience, did. It meant that the skeleton he found likely wasn't a skeleton. And I am a huge sucker for angler fish imagery, it's genuinely so incredibly well done within this film. There are a couple moments, especially towards the end of the movie that the sound design was suffering a little bit, and I was struggling. When we also heard that other voice through the radio, the voice from the creature, and there was a different accent, that also caused me some issues. However, the soundtrack is something that really struck me. I really enjoyed it and it helped sustain momentum throughout the movie really well. There were a few moments that did confuse me though, and maybe that's because I'm someone who came into the movie with zero knowledge of the video game, the film, or Markiplier as a person. When Simon was under the deck, repairing the blinking light or whatever it was, he heard voices, and he froze and seemed afraid. And then that fear left him and he ascended the ladder and there was no one there. I'm unsure if I was meant to recognize those voices as people from Simon's past or people who were a part of the angler fish creature or if I perhaps made up this moment from the film entirely. When I mentioned the scene to my ex-girlfriend, who I was attending the movie with, she absolutely did not know what moment I was referencing. So who knows? A lot of the lore stuff with the peculiar tree and the rebel group Simon used to be a part of and the symbolism of the ginkgo leaf was a miss for me, but how his guilt was dealt with was spectacular. I really was also less affected by the insistence that he was meant to complete this mission and save the world or whatever. The body horror really cannot be praised enough, from the sheer amount of blood that was sweating through the walls of the submarine to the scene of Simon at the surface to Simon's body blistering and warping and betraying him at the very end. The costume and character design of this movie is incredible, as well as the set. The attention to detail was as it should be for a movie that is almost entirely a bottle movie. There are, of course, two scenes outside of the submarine. Simon's memory of that tree of life or whatever and him breaching the surface of the ocean. If I was making this movie, I would've cut the tree of life scene for the impact that the only moment that was not spent inside the submarine was the scene of Simon at the surface, because that was a scene that stuck with me far more and it could've been more effective in this way. Overall there is so much about this movie to praise, beginning with the budget and ending with the care and passion put into this piece of work. I loved it.

movie review #4 watched in theaters

rating out of 5 stars: 4⭐️

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The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

read 01/31/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

Now comes the moment of truth. Have I been Gatsby posting on my page for years? Yes. Have I read the book until now? No, I have not. I am glad to have crossed that off my list now. I'm planning on rereading the book and annotating it in the future. This was a book I enjoyed. For years now, my dad has been going on and on about how much he hates this book, as he was forced to read it in high school, and I'm sure he's exaggerating because he's just as contrarian as I am — I had to get it from somewhere. But I found it interesting. What really surprised me about the book, however, was how much it didn't contain. I finished the book and I was honestly left wanting. I wanted more. I wanted a deeper look into that summer of glamor. I wanted to know more of Gatsby's stories and Nick's past and Daisy's repression and Jordan's flirtations. I still want those things. This book explores a lot of interesting interpersonal dynamics, but it does so in a way that is so surprisingly surface level when it had so many opportunities to dig deeper. That being said, I do love the characters. But it's hard to say how I would've felt had I begun with the book. Instead my first real introduction was chatter online and the musical, and I wonder if I'm carrying too much of my preconceived affections with me into the novel. It really is a surprise to me that this book in particular became one of the Great American Classical Pieces of Literature. I do hope someday to write a show or movie inspired by the Great Gatsby, Clueless style. I wish the book had really emphasized or deepened its metaphors, its symbols, the character struggles. I wanted to know more about the idolization and the obsession on Daisy and Gatsby's parts. I wanted a deeper look into the other characters' psyches. And Nick, our narrator, is at a unique position to recieve this personal information from these characters, as the bridge between them, which is an element I felt was underutilized within the book. But anyway, shoutout to gay Nick Carraway.

book review #1

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Opus

dir. Mark Anthony Green (2025)

watched 01/12/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

This movie really really wants to be Midsummer if it was set in New Mexico and not Sweden. The movie genuinely wants to be Midsummer so bad, and that's part of what makes this movie so flawed. Ayo mostly did great. The script didn't give her the most ever to work with, but she did her very best. This movie really was just shallow. There were a few moments of the movie that did captivate me, but not many. There's a scene in a desert themed orange room where the cult leader is revealing one of his songs and he dances around a circle of his seated guests. This scene did compel me, to a degree. There were moments that I thought would lead to greater depth for the characters, but which were not explored. This movie really just falls short in almost every aspect. It disturbs you by having strangers cut the characters' pubic hair, but it stops there. It really really really just reheated Midsummer's nachos so much. We have pubic hair, cult activities, people disappearing, mutilated bodies, but it executed each concept worse than Midsummer did. I think the choice to give the movie a cult leader, someone who is supposed to be personable and charming was a wrong choice. I wasn't convinced that this man was the most incredible musician in the world, or that he was charismatic enough to be a cult leader. I also think there were interesting racial components, similar to Midsummer, that could have been explored with Ayo's styling and how the white man styled her versus how she styled herself, but it really again was just a whisper of complexity or depth.

movie review #3 watched at home

rating out of 5 stars: 2 ½⭐️

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The Greatest Hits

dir. Ned Benson (2024)

watched 01/11/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

This movie was mostly just underwhelming. I understand that good music is expensive for movies, but I was expecting something more impactful when it came to the songs chosen. The songs weren't bad, but they were vague in a way that was kind of draining, when you would expect a movie with this premise to assign meaning to the music. The songs were a plot device, when they could have been narrative tools that assisted in providing weight and depth to whatever scene they transported the main character back to. For a movie that has Justin Min and David Corenswet, their acting abilities were so severerly underutilized. For a movie about grief, I saw grief shown in some actions, but not in a majority of actions, not in the acting and not in the script. This is a movie that has a lot of concepts that could have been interesting, if executed well, but which simply were not executed well. I wasn't particularly moved by the acting of the lead actress, Lucy Boynton, although she wasn't necessarily bad. I wish the script had given her and her costars more opportunities to do interesting things, so I can't particularly speak on the overall quality of her acting, but this movie was quite disappointing and she was not an insignificant part of that outcome. I liked a lot of elements, like the burden that Justin Min's parents had put on him by leaving him the shop, but I just wish we could've gotten to explore his relationship with his parents and his sister. Everything about this movie was just so surface level. Even the relationship between Lucy Boynton and David Corenswet was so severely underdeveloped. We never saw them fight or have any difficulties in their relationship, and one could argue that it's the rose-colored glasses one uses to look back upon a lost loved one, but if we're buying into the premise of this movie, she doesn't have control over what memory she gets transported to, and by that logic there should have been at least one bad memory. What we get is incredibly flat and it makes both their characters worse off for it. Justin Min and Lucy Boynton's relationship is also incredibly surface level. I just don't believe that any of these characters are emotionally invested in their lives or even impacted by anything that happens to them. There are so many opportunities for an interesting exploration of grief and desperation, and at every turn the movie chooses the safest and least interesting route. The movie gives the vibe of a movie that had a lot of script and scenes cut from it, so it feels incomplete even. I honestly just would not ever rewatch this movie. If you want to see Justin Min looking super hot and David Corenswet also looking hot then sure, watch the movie, but if you're looking for an engaging narrative, please look in any other direction.

movie review #2 watched at home

rating out of 5 stars: 2 ⭐️

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Marty Supreme

dir. Josh Sadfie (2025)

watched 01/02/26

this review contains spoilers AND it contains my opinion thank you very much

Marty Supreme was a mostly engaging movie that unfortunately won’t leave a lasting impression on me. The tension of the movie is largely well maintained and I was on the edge of my seat alongside the characters for much of the action. However the midsection dragged just enough for me to be influenced to check my phone to wonder how much time could possibly be left. The movie probably could’ve shaved 15-25 minutes off its runtime and not suffered for it. The color grading of the movie is so wonderful that I wish I could drink it up. The same goes for the costuming and the set design and the casting. I wish we’d gotten more of a resolution to Gwenyth Paltrow’s character. I was confused about why she was crying in her room. I have to assume that it’s guilt over cheating on her husband, but the fact that there were so many women comforting her leaves me questioning that assumption. I might have missed a detail. I also wish we’d gotten something more concrete to wrap up Tyler Okonma’s character, although that’s less pressing, I just think he could have been the one to drive Marty to the hospital from the airport or something. My biggest qualm with this movie is honestly that it exists. Why should I care? Why should I care about Marty? His ping pong ball prototypes went nowhere. He was incredibly unlikeable from the beginning to the end of the movie. I think this was an interesting choice for them to make, and the last scene of the movie with Marty’s tears upon seeing his son was impactful to me, but I wanted Marty to lose his match in Japan. His opponent was far more interesting to me, a deaf ping pong player in Japan in the wake of WWII. An exploration of nationalism and disability and the culture of the 50s in Japan would’ve been far more interesting to me. Marty Supreme, to me, is propaganda. The choice to make a movie about Marty is a political choice. The ping pong match against Endo was framed to be a rematch for Japan and the USA, and Marty’s win is one of American pride. This works in the context of the time period, and I do think it is accurate to how the characters would’ve processed the event, however I dislike America and men and so it put me off. But it is a good movie overall and I do not feel like I wasted my money seeing it in theaters.

movie review #1 watched in theaters

rating out of 5 stars: 3 ½⭐️

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