>
Mitchell Beaupre
Tomatometer-approved critic
Currently based in Newark, Delaware, Mitchell Beaupre is the Senior Editor at Letterboxd, and a freelance film journalist for sites including The Film Stage, Paste Magazine, and Little White Lies. With every new movie they watch, they’re adding five more to their never-ending Letterboxd watchlist. You can find them on Twitter at @itismitchell.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
First Reformed (2017) |
First Reformed is the distillation of the scream inside us all—or at least those of us paying attention. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Mishima (1985) |
Interrogates living in the world as an artist who feels like words aren’t able to have enough of an immediate impact (if any at all) and direct action’s impact is too fleeting. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Affliction (1997) |
Affliction hones in on masculinity and the demons that men inherit from one another. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Auto Focus (2002) |
When you get to the final, haunting line of “men gotta have fun,” you know exactly why this is a Paul Schrader picture. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Comfort of Strangers (1990) |
Exquisite is the word for The Comfort of Strangers, as the filmmaker packs this puppy with sensorial splendor: costumes by Armani, Dante Spinotti’s breathtaking cinematography, an entrancing score from Angelo Badalementi. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
American Gigolo (1980) |
A story removed from eroticism—a delightful irony for something about a gorgeous gigolo. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Hardcore (1979) |
Each scene reveals something new about this world and its inhabitants. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Cat People (1982) |
Cat People is Schrader’s most overtly carnal picture, using horror to explore repression, intimacy and desire. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Patty Hearst (1988) |
Schrader invites us to question why this kidnapped woman becomes nothing more than a symbol for each side. She’s nothing but propaganda for everyone’s cause, be it the system or the revolutionaries, and what Patty Hearst does is restore her voice. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Master Gardener (2022) |
What sets Master Gardener apart is its overwhelming tenderness. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Adam Resurrected (2008) |
The director brilliantly utilizes Goldblum’s mercurial charm and comedic presence to untether us from our preconceptions, while understanding the gravitas of a man wholly succumbing to survivor’s guilt. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Dog Eat Dog (2016) |
Dog Eat Dog overflows with rage but also a sense of fun and experimentation - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Light of Day (1987) |
Light of Day does thrive in two specific areas: Schrader’s return to the working-class sensibilities of Blue Collar and capturing the daily grind that most musicians go through in pursuing their passion. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Touch (1997) |
Tonally and aesthetically, Touch doesn’t feel at all like a Schrader picture, but it’s nice to see him having fun despite the ill fit. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Walker (2007) |
What buckles The Walker is languid pacing and too much murder-mystery, which isn’t nearly as noteworthy as the social ramifications of this man stepping out of his lane and changing his stripes—or at least considering it. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Dying of the Light (2014) |
Compelling ideas on mortality and indoctrination but clearly, disappointingly shifts about a third of the way through into another generic Nicolas Cage DTV action-thriller. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) |
Schrader’s version still has its issues, but it’s at least more interesting than the DTV-level schlock that was The Beginning. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Canyons (2013) |
There are some compelling ideas here, they just get too often washed out in the muck of navel-gazing nothingness and a truly abominable performance from Deen. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Witch Hunt (1994) |
Witch Hunt is light on its feet, though it ends up feeling ill-defined when all is said and done. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Forever Mine (1999) |
Clearly, Forever Mine is a case of an artist not matching the material he’s going for, even though the intentions made sense. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Jun 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Troy (2004) |
Troy puts immense care into every single beat of its action, and as a result these sequences drive its emotions in a way the script often fails to achieve - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted May 15, 2024
|
|
|
|
Modern Romance (1981) |
Billed as a comedy, Brooks deceptively hides in Modern Romance a scathing indictment of toxic masculinity akin to Agnès Varda’s Le Bonheur and Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2024
|
|
|
|
Real Life (1979) |
Brooks recognizes that the second you put “real life” on screen it becomes something else entirely. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2024
|
|
|
|
Lost in America (1985) |
These narcissistic yuppies thinking that they’re actually doing something bold is an amusing critique of the privileged upper class fetishization of the “freedom” of being broke. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2024
|
|
|
|
Defending Your Life (1991) |
It’s a bold, fascinating concept that feels true to the heart of someone like Brooks, a man who has made neuroses an integral part of his artistic brand. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2024
|
|
|
|
Mother (1996) |
Like Brooks’ best work, there’s an aura of comfort and familiarity, of warmth amidst the neuroses, with a self-effacing acidity underneath. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Muse (1999) |
Charmingly posits questions of how much does one’s juice come from within, and how much from some external, perhaps even mystical force? - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2024
|
|
|
|
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005) |
Has some quality elements, including a standout sequence where Brooks performs a show in New Delhi that is completely tanking. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2024
|
|
|
|
Two Lovers (2008) |
No film has captured how we idealize others in relationships better than Two Lovers. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Mar 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
The 'Burbs (1989) |
That sense of frivolity helps you tuck yourselves into bed at night in your safe home, trusting in the knowledge that Tom Hanks saved the neighborhood. But The ‘Burbs also contains the lingering reminder of Ray’s words: “It’s not them, it’s us!” - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Feb 17, 2024
|
|
|
|
Anatomy of a Fall (2023) |
Each scene uncovers new layers in their relationship, exploring the ways in which we all build up resentment, ache, jealousy, and sometimes even rage over time. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Holdovers (2023) |
A bitter movie, but it’s not a cynical one. It finds value in the small victories, even if that’s just as small as having someone sit next to you so you feel less alone when you’re completely alienated from the rest of the world. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
Afire (2023) |
Catnip for insecure, resentful, bitter, and judgmental writers who are decently talented but not nearly as good as they think they are or want to be. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
Oppenheimer (2023) |
A violent reckoning with America’s bloodlust, filtered through a man whose ego and naïveté facilitated one of the most unspeakable monstrosities in the history of the world; an unprecedented devastation that still reverberates through civilizations today. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023) |
Remarkably bold in its formal and aesthetic approach, the courtroom drama is practically Bressonian in its minimalism and removal from conventional cinematic attributes. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Killer (2023) |
The Killer feels like the Rosetta Stone for David Fincher: the core of his entire thesis as an artist. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) |
It's not a eulogy for these men, for this way of life, for the realization that they’ve lived it all for nothing — it’s a eulogy for a country, for an entire culture of people who are being washed away by the unrelenting violence of white men. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
Passages (2023) |
Josée Deshaies’ cinematography uses ingenious framing and blocking techniques to emphasize the torrential emotional interiority of the characters in every scene. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Burial (2023) |
A stellar Jamie Foxx performance at the head, perfectly instilling a showboating ambulance-chasing huckster persona with deep-rooted insecurities that start to crack and a desire to do something greater. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
Fallen Leaves (2023) |
Our Finnish comp to Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismäki is in top form with another feature that gives you the urge to smoke a cigarette and hit the town at night. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jan 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) |
High School Musical wouldn’t have ever been what it was without Efron’s wholly committed performance selling every high and low with aplomb—the kind of screen presence that comes around once in a blue moon. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Oct 24, 2023
|
|
|
|
Out of Time (2003) |
Out of Time comes on like a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day, featuring Denzel at the peak of his powers and an impeccably laidback aesthetic somewhere between the palpable sweat of Body Heat and the orange-hued romanticism of Tony Scott. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Oct 03, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Warriors (1979) |
While the race-against-the-clock narrative propulsion is positively gripping, the smaller elements laced throughout The Warriors leave the most lasting impression. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
Southern Comfort (1981) |
It’s a film which exemplifies Hill’s skills as an action director, with masterful cross-cutting to keep the tension at a fever pitch, slowly burning as the situation starts dire and somehow keeps getting worse. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Driver (1978) |
It’s a film that exists in the bleary hours between dusk and dawn, with Hill emphasizing shot economy and patience in his visual storytelling while his characters trade barbed-wire, matter-of-fact dialogue. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
Streets of Fire (1984) |
Not only is it the greatest opening sequence of Hill’s career, it’s the greatest opening in film history, period. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
Hard Times (1975) |
As hard as the hits land every time, it’s the capitalist exchanging of cash and leveling up of wagers on these beaten men’s ability to sock each other out that knocks you down the hardest. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
Extreme Prejudice (1987) |
While Extreme Prejudice plays the Peckinpah elements straight, Hill throws some extra flavor in with intentional slices of outlandish embellishment to reality, as well as the long-simmering rivalry between its main characters. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
Trespass (1992) |
Paxton's performance utilizes his tremendous gift for taking a mild-mannered average man, placing him on the razor wire of a moral dilemma, and watching him twist and turn as his ethics fall to the wayside and he has to fight to survive. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
48 HRS. (1982) |
The film never shies away from the thornier elements that develop in this story, refusing to be sanded down by studio notes to become something more palatable for mainstream audiences. - Paste Magazine
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2023
|