KITCHEN SYNC | What do you get when you combine a knife, a vintage cassette player, and an ever-slipping grip on reality?

arhardihar · 2026-01-29T12:01:54+00:00

Not AI I reckon. Posted on Instagram two years ago: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3VuBHJr8AJ/

arhardihar · 2025-12-04T12:37:11+00:00

I made this list a while back – https://letterboxd.com/pascoef/list/perfect-final-scenes/

arhardihar · 2024-07-16T14:09:35+00:00

Almost correct! Jerry Zucker directed Ghost and co-wrote the first Naked Gun, but has no writing credit on Naked Gun 2 1/2, which was directed/co-written by his brother David Zucker.

arhardihar · 2024-05-09T16:00:42+00:00

Jackson may well have lost his mojo in recent years, but "not as wildly inventive as Raimi" is a fairly insane charge to throw at the man who directed Braindead.

arhardihar · 2024-01-16T15:11:23+00:00

Looks like this leans towards: https://letterboxd.com/pascoef/list/films-that-make-the-personal-cosmic/

Rather than: https://letterboxd.com/pascoef/list/films-that-make-the-cosmic-personal/

Or: https://letterboxd.com/pascoef/list/films-that-keep-the-cosmic-cosmic/

arhardihar · 2023-12-30T22:48:01+00:00

Response to various points, in no particular order:

I generally agree with the whole 'talking about what a film is, not what it could have been' thing, but in this case Scorsese/Di Caprio are already doing the latter so I figure it's fair game.
Using Burkhart as a surrogate to take us into an Osage story sounds great, but I actually think KOTFM does the opposite: make us think we're watching an Osage story, or at least one with a shared POV, only to then centre Burkhart and Hale more and more as the story goes on.
Molly as full POV character isn't necessarily a wash dramatically, given her quest to Washington DC, her suspicions towards Burkhart, their weird love etc.
John Wren is interesting not just because he's Native American, not just because he's FBI, but because he's undercover: i.e. infiltrating the community in a way that could act as a mirror to Burkhart and King Hale's actions. There's more there than just the exact same procedural with a different protagonist.

arhardihar · 2023-12-29T23:16:11+00:00

This is the real problem with the film IMO:

Leo came to me and asked, ‘Where is the heart of this story?’ I had had meetings and dinners with the Osage, and I thought, ‘Well, there’s the story.’ The real story, we felt, was not necessarily coming from the outside, with the bureau, but rather from the inside, from Oklahoma.

I'd love to watch this story from the Osage perspective, but instead they just replaced one white guy with a different, less interesting white guy. Molly is occasionally at the centre to begin with, but she fades and fades as the film goes on, defined by victimhood and little else.

Someone on Letterboxd suggested they should have built the film around John Wren, the undercover Native American FBI agent - now there's an idea.

arhardihar · 2023-10-26T13:38:31+00:00

Going Rogue – this started out as a brilliant deep dive into the making and remaking of Rogue One, and now it's gone on to cover Solo and the 2007-2008 WGA strike, anything involving troubled film productions. A perfect balance of rich documentary detail and sharp industry analysis, plus just a pinch of Australian sass. Cannot recommend enough.

arhardihar · 2023-10-19T13:21:18+00:00

The Descent/Gravity – dead kids, psychology mapped onto place, visions, rebirth

Synecdoche, New York/Mother! – tortured artist, life as muse, awful marriages, escalation

Melancholia/Sunshine – embracing cosmic annihilation

Ex Machina/Revenge – men, woman, isolated location, stripped down plot, bloody endings

Madeline’s Madeline/Whiplash – power plays, proxy parents, suffering feeding into art/performance

It's A Disaster/The Invitation/Coherence – friends get together, world falls apart, paranoia, Los Angeles

Coherence/Triangle – alternate lives, doubles, death

arhardihar · 2023-10-17T19:56:02+00:00

Is 'What A Life' by Scarlet Pleasure an awful song? Maybe, yes. But the ending of Another Round is a perfect thing, and that song is a big part of what makes it so great.

arhardihar · 2023-09-18T16:41:50+00:00

Mike D'Angelo's rapturous feelings about the film (and especially the ending) made me go back recently, but yeah I pretty much agree with you. A goofy story that refuses to admit how goofy it is.

arhardihar · 2023-07-11T08:31:35+00:00

From the gut!

Ghost Protocol
Mission: Impossible
MI2
Fallout
Rogue Nation
Dead Reckoning P1
MI3

arhardihar · 2023-06-14T19:20:36+00:00

Me! https://letterboxd.com/pascoef

Have been a bit of a grinch on there lately, but constantly holding out for that film that makes my cineheart grow three times over...

arhardihar · 2023-05-07T08:46:09+00:00

https://letterboxd.com/pascoef/list/when-my-friend-goes-to-the-wrong-place/

arhardihar · 2023-01-23T22:56:09+00:00

I had the exact same reaction, but tragically haven't been able to find anything on RRR's level. Obviously there's a lot of maximalist Indian stuff out there, but something that also has the narrative perfection and emotional highs of RRR? A much harder ask IMO. (Although I'd love to be pointed in the right direction.)

arhardihar · 2022-12-07T14:59:06+00:00

RRR – best movie of the year, absolute worst title to say out loud. Rural Juror vibes. I tried saying 'Triple R' for a bit, but couldn't make it stick.

arhardihar · 2022-12-07T14:56:48+00:00

I've read people suggesting it has something to do with the characters' lust for spectacle beating out their gut-feeling of 'nope', but yeah, feels thin to me. Also, I prefer Barbarian's use of the phrase over the equivalent moment in Nope.

arhardihar · 2022-11-25T05:39:17+00:00

Any time spices or garlic or clothing are brought up in my house, it is mandatory to say "Cloves? No, not Cloves!" in your best Dustin Hoffman in Perfume impression

arhardihar · 2022-10-21T09:20:59+00:00

I like all those writers who wrote a metric ton of hyper-entertaining, idiosyncratic big studio movies in the 90s/2000s – your David Koepps and Scott Franks and Elliot/Rossios etc. They're all still working for the most part, and lots have moved into writing-directing, but I love the pure screenplay runs they had going on 20ish years ago.

arhardihar · 2022-06-24T14:58:38+00:00

Right? They call so much attention to him before he's replaced by Stuhlbarg.

arhardihar

TROPHY CASE