Author Archives: Max West

The Hired Hand (1971)

Posted on June 30, 2022 by Max West

SCORE: 4/5 A flop when it was first released, Peter Fonda’s directorial debut The Hired Hand (1971) is now widely considered a minor classic in the then-burgeoning anti-Western subgenre (otherwise known as ‘revisionist Westerns’ , e.g., Little Big Man, McCabe … Continue reading →

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The Pentaverate (2022)

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Max West

SCORE: 1/5 I used to love Mike Myers’ movies: the Austin Powers franchise, So I Married an Axe Murderer, etc. But something happened to him after the critical panning of his last comedic film The Love Guru (2008), which was … Continue reading →

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Slow Horses (2022)

Posted on April 3, 2022 by Max West

When I learned that this new 6-episode spy series on Apple TV – of which the first two episodes have aired — starred Gary Oldman, as well as Jonathan Pryce and Kristin Scott Thomas, I was in. Based on the … Continue reading →

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Vanishing Point (1971)

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Max West

SCORE: 5/5 This movie is a f*cking revelation. A cult fave, I was expecting a more conventional muscle car movie, but this is so much more. Directed by the underrated Richard Sarafian, with stunning cinematography by John Alonzo. A mythopoetic … Continue reading →

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Normism: The Philosophy of Norm Macdonald

Posted on October 30, 2021 by Max West

Normism: The Philosophy of Norm Macdonald, a short book I wrote about a great comedian, is now available on Amazon. *** Norm Macdonald’s philosophy of life, comedy, and death is sketched out thematically from his original material, as well as … Continue reading →

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Avanti! (1972)

Posted on August 8, 2021 by Max West

SCORE: 4.5/5 This vastly underrated comedy directed by Billy Wilder stars Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, and the criminally underrated British actor Clive Revill, who is a comic revelation (his comic timing is absolutely perfect) as Italian hotel manager Carlo Carlucci. … Continue reading →

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Rifkin’s Festival (2020)

Posted on August 4, 2021 by Max West

SCORE: 3/5 Woody Allen has had an incredibly prolific output of films – an average of one per year over the past 45 years – and I, as a big fan of his work, have seen them all. With that … Continue reading →

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Cleopatra (1963)

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Max West

SCORE: 4/5 At 4+ hours in length, I’d been putting this one off for years, but I’m glad I finally got around to it, as this sometimes maligned, big budget film — skillfully directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz — is … Continue reading →

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Devs (2020)

Posted on January 24, 2021 by Max West

SCORE: 4/5 Devs is an outstanding 8-part mini-series with a conservative slant on FX, that I highly recommend to Dissident Rightists. The series, which plays like an extended episode of Black Mirror, is written and directed by Alex Garland, one … Continue reading →

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Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

Posted on November 15, 2020 by Max West

SCORE: 4/5 On many ‘best film noir’ lists, I thought I was going to hate this film due to the “racist white guy and good black guy” aspect of the film. Boy, was I wrong. Robert Wise’s late-era noir features … Continue reading →

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