Nathan S
Cinema Addict
Member Since: 08 Nov 2006
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Age: 35
Bio: Since my early teenage years, cinema has been my primary form of education. A travelogue which has afforded me experiences I otherwise haven't had the opportunity of enjoying: different eras, locations, languages, cultures, methods of thought. It's a fulfillment damn near spiritual.
My ratings are divided into five points for a more generalized representation of quality. The less reliance on nitpicky numerology, the better. I have awarded a sixth point to films which have had the largest and longest lasting influence on my own cinephilia. They are my all-time favorites, hence a movie is never given a six on first viewing.
The filmmakers who are most important to me include Chantal Akerman, Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Olivier Assayas, Ingmar Bergman, John Cassavetes, Joel & Ethan Coen, Jules Dassin, Terence Davies, Robert Eggers, Werner Herzog, Alfred Hitchcock, Buster Keaton, Masaki Kobayashi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, Spike Lee, Sergio Leone, Sidney Lumet, David Lynch, Terrence Malick, Jean-Pierre Melville, Hayao Miyazaki, F.W. Murnau, Yasujiro Ozu, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Satyajit Ray, Nicolas Winding Refn, Kelly Reichardt, Jean Renoir, Eric Rohmer, Roberto Rossellini, Martin Scorsese, Isao Takahata, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Francois Truffaut, Ming-liang Tsai, Denis Villeneuve, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, and Kar-Wai Wong.
My ratings are divided into five points for a more generalized representation of quality. The less reliance on nitpicky numerology, the better. I have awarded a sixth point to films which have had the largest and longest lasting influence on my own cinephilia. They are my all-time favorites, hence a movie is never given a six on first viewing.
The filmmakers who are most important to me include Chantal Akerman, Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Olivier Assayas, Ingmar Bergman, John Cassavetes, Joel & Ethan Coen, Jules Dassin, Terence Davies, Robert Eggers, Werner Herzog, Alfred Hitchcock, Buster Keaton, Masaki Kobayashi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, Spike Lee, Sergio Leone, Sidney Lumet, David Lynch, Terrence Malick, Jean-Pierre Melville, Hayao Miyazaki, F.W. Murnau, Yasujiro Ozu, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Satyajit Ray, Nicolas Winding Refn, Kelly Reichardt, Jean Renoir, Eric Rohmer, Roberto Rossellini, Martin Scorsese, Isao Takahata, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Francois Truffaut, Ming-liang Tsai, Denis Villeneuve, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, and Kar-Wai Wong.
Recent Ratings
Check out Nathan S's...
Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986) - Rated 03 Jul 2025
""I'm 20!/I'm 13!" A bit of an embarrassing display for metalheads (where I count myself among the ranks), but nevertheless a raw and amusing time capsule. I suppose it proves that you don't need too much more than an idea to make a movie. Gen Z has taken this form and run with it."
Taxi! (1932) - Rated 03 Jul 2025
"Fiery class conscious melodrama that leaves me wanting a little more. It briefly glances at the politics of its central conflict between labor and conglomeration, instead being a showcase for Cagney to talk tough and destroy any semblance of happiness around him. That's an interesting angle, but the film relents with a cop out ending which undermines much of the preceding murky morality. Even so, lots of fun performances and a nice depiction of New York fueled by immigration in the early 20th."
We're All Going to the World's Fair (2022) - Rated 02 Jul 2025
"Informed by its director's trans existence, but effective as a general depiction of dysphoria in the terminally online. Having the presence of mind to discern truth or reality, and our own place in it, might become difficult when the physical and digital landscapes are muddied and so much of the "game" takes place in our head. Recalls memetics seen in The Ring, with an actually literate depiction of the internet, which still feels somewhat rare and refreshing. A little scary, immensely sad."
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (1924) - Rated 27 Jun 2025
"Initially it seems to be an engaging if less enthralling follow up to Siegfried. Lang is adept with hard symmetry and choreographed throngs, but this is generally not reaching the magical visual heights of its predecessor, all while displaying an unflattering racism throughout. But the last quarter is a thrilling culmination which is hard to imagine not leaving a huge imprint on Kurosawa. Margarete Schön cuts a mean figure as the single-minded and heart-hardened Kriemhild."
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924) - Rated 26 Jun 2025
"Gosh, what an impressive film. Like most of Lang's silent work, a towering achievement of vision and ingenuity. The effects, sets, and general art design are astonishing, and strain comprehension about how things like this were even feasible in 1924. There's nothing primitive about it. Spellbinding and really cool."
Scarface (1932) - Rated 12 Jun 2025
"The periodic moralizing is somewhat forgivable if only because it is so obviously shoehorned into an otherwise very hard-nosed gangster film. Genuinely thrilling, and quite a bit better than its most cited contemporaries like Little Caesar and The Public Enemy."
After Life (1998) - Rated 13 May 2025
"This early Kore-eda is higher concept than much of his later work, but still relayed with soft-spoken humility. A provocative idea, on perceiving oneself, the formative wellspring of memory, and the reflecting glass of cinema itself. Slow and solemn, but with a healthy sense of humor and generally warm outlook."
The Long Good Friday (1980) - Rated 22 Apr 2025
"Harold Shand fancies himself an important leader. Proud Londoner, something of a mild nationalist, paving the way for a new European order. Charming, high spirited, ruthless. His diplomatic skills aren't quite up to the task though, either unable to comprehend or unwilling to reckon with the true nature of the sociopolitical upheaval rocking his kingdom. Turns out he's just a gangster, but then again aren't they all. Incredible performance. Mirren too. Cool movie, barely hampered by dated music."
Safe in Hell (1931) - Rated 09 Apr 2025
"Straight and to the point, an amusing if ultimately slight pre-code exotic erotic melodrama. A lot of creative visual composition, and a large supporting cast of fun scoundrels."
Nosferatu (2024) - Rated 08 Apr 2025
"It's good. The performances and visual design are good. Still I can't help but feel that, despite the material being squarely in his wheelhouse, some of this director's more audacious tendencies seem to have been rounded off."
