A Brief History

Thumbs Up in Star

A lifelong film buff and natural-born critic, I have been logging my movie ratings (evaluations) since 1987. From September 1988 to January 1990, I was the co-host of “Film Close-Ups,” a weekly 30-minute program on KALX-FM, the U.C. Berkeley radio station. During my tenure on the show, I reviewed one to two movies a week and had the opportunity to interview several filmmakers. From December 1989 to July 1990, I wrote movie reviews for the arts section of The Daily Californian, U.C. Berkeley’s independent daily newspaper, serving the campus and community. Since January 1990, I have been involved on and off with “Movie Magazine International” (the successor to “Film Close-Ups”)—for which I occasionally reviewed movies in 1991-92 and for which I built a website in 1995.

Recent Ratings

Below are my ratings for the last 10 movies I watched — on a scale of one to five stars. (Note: my ratings may seem to skew high and more towards See It than Skip It because I tend to watch only movies that rate fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. i.e. I try to watch only “good” movies for the most part.)

TitleYearRatingVerdict
Origin 2023★★★★☆See It
Dune: Part Two2024★★½Skip It
Under Paris (original title: Sous la Seine)2024★★★★☆See It
Hit Man2024★★★★☆See It
Godzilla Minus One2023★★★★☆See It
Molli and Max in the Future2023★★★½See It
Tickled2016★★★★☆See It
Cat Daddies2022★★★★☆See It
The Family Fang2015★★★☆☆See It
American Fiction2023★★★☆☆See It

All Ratings

View all of my Movie Ratings (over 2,900 movies).

Below are links to all my movie reviews.

Note: The star rating you will see on each review is on a scale of 0-4 stars (following the convention popularized by Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin). By contrast, on my Movie Ratings list, I have recalibrated my ratings to use the more conventional 1-5 stars.

Below are the question and answer transcripts of seven interviews I conducted for KALX “Film Close-Ups”.

Below is everything else: my top 10 lists and special reports I wrote for KALX “Film Close-Ups”.

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