Lists & Rankings

Table of Contents

• Movies
  • Watch Later
• Series
• Books
• Top Movie Directors
• Watch Later
• Restaurants & Cafés

These are my lists that I like to keep. I keep them mostly for myself.
They're based on nothing. And the ratings are just based on how I feel.

Movies

I don't know anything about cinema. These are just my opinions. I score just based on how I felt after watching the movie and some time to reflect on it. There is no exact logic or system to it.

• HER: 8/10

  • Sound was weak, muddy not good overall
  • Outstanding and novel story
  • Great shots
  • Great color edit
  • One of those movies that really makes you think and reviewing it in 2026, it was quite visionary.

• 1917: 7/10

  • A bit boring
  • Outstanding camera work

• Jojo rabbit: 8.8/10

• Honey boy: 8.9/10

• Uncut gems - Josh and Benny Safdie (2019): 9.8/10

  • Outatanding sound and soundtrack
  • Very unique atmosphere
  • One of my favorite movies of all time. I can't really explain it, but this movie really resonated with me

• Good Time - Josh and Benny Safdie (2017): 7/10

• Wardogs - Todd Phillips: 9.5/10

  • Great acting Jonah Hill and Miles Teller
  • Great, engaging script
  • Thoroughly entertaining
  • It's definitley one of my all time favorite movies and I've watched it multiple times.
  • I love this movie with no explanation. There's something about it that really resonates with me and I enjoy watching it every time. It's a mix of everything; I think it's a concentrate of life.

• Joker - Todd Phillips (2019): 9.8/10

  • One of the best acting performances of all time, by Joaquin Pheonix
  • Putting the edgy Instagram posts from teenagers aside, Joker is one of the cinemas bravest and unexpected movies. It went against all odds, from a director mostly known for his comedy movies, on one of the most beloved and gutty fictional characters ever, in a whole different genre! Different both from the directors' previous works and the entirety of the character of "The Joker". Nobody though a psychological, sociological, realist drama about the Joker could be this good.

• Joker: Folie à Deux - Todd Phillips (2024): 7.8/10

  • Great acting by Joaquin Pheonix
  • Great storyline and ending
  • Musicals are always a bit cringe to me
  • Lady gaga cannot act
  • Felt a bit incohesive, especially in regards to it being a sequel to "Joker" it felt like a very different universe and directing
  • I like to describe this movie as "misunderstood". I still think it was a great movie. The musicals weren't about the musical. They were about the inner workings of a deranged, insane person (or persons). I looked at it from the psychological standpoint. It wasn't good in comparison to "Joker" but by itself, it was a pretty good movie.

• Jojo rabbit: 9/10

• Honey boy: 9/10

• Uncut gems: 9.8/10

  • Outstanding sound and soundtrack
  • Very unique atmosphere
  • One of my favorite movies of all time. I can't really explain it, but this movie really resonated with me

• Birdman - Iñárritu (2014): 10/10

  • One of the best camera works ever
  • Simple, realistic script which takes you into the world of tge characters and makes you invest and keeps you invested without trying too hard. This movie never ended for me, it's an ongoing act inside me.
  • One of the best soundtracks ever
  • Amazing acting

• Babel - Iñárritu (2006): 9.5/10

  • One of the best soundtracks ever
  • Amazing storytelling
  • A sign of good art for me, is art that at first when you have experienced it, you aren't very amused by it. You're like "Ok, this kind of sucks, I'm not sure if I like it", and then it lives inside you and you repeat it again and again in your head and the art piece grows and evolves along with you, and one day, you're like "Wow, this is a masterpiece". Babel was one of these pieces for me. At first I gave it an 8/10. I liked it but it was quite anti-climactic for me. Now 3 years later, I give it a 9.5/10 because it just lives inside my head now. This is a signature of iñárritu's work for me. It feels like an itch you can't scratch but in a somewhat good way. It doesn't try to amaze or wow you. It takes you through an experience and story, and then you internalize it and it grows within you.

• The Mirror - Tarkovsky (1975) : 9/10

  • Most shots can be framed and hanged on a wall
  • As a signature of tarkovsky, it is more akin to poetry through cinema
  • This is another example of good art for me (link to my description from Babel). At first I really didn't know how to feel about it. But then it grew on me.

• The Place Behind The Pines: 7/10

• One Hour Photo: 7/10

• The Godfather I - Francis Ford Copolla (1972): 9.5/10

  • There are three main things about this movie:
    1. It's raw. It's just so real and believable, it feels like you actually live it
    2. It's memorable. Nobody forgets watching this movie, nobody forgets it's atmosphere and characters
    3. It's truly entertaining. A 3 hour movie and at no point you will feel bored.

• The Godfather II - Francis Ford Copolla (1978): 9.2/10

• The Little Rusty Brains (مغز های کوچک زنگ زده) - Hooman Seyyedi (2018): 8.9/10

  • I think this is one of the most moving and thrilling movies I have ever seen, probably because of how real it is. Hooman Seyyedi has spent years with the people and in the environments that he's portraying. It's like a dramatic documentary.
    The atmosphere is something you never forget, the actings are outstanding, the script is breathtaking, camera work, action, editing, soundtrack, nothing is slacking in this movie.
    You can feel your gut wrench throughout this movie.
    Maybe one of the reasons this movie resonates with me is because I'm Iranian myself. Although the slums and culture portrayed in this movie is an extreme and very far from my life experience, but I know these are real and there are slums and hoods like this outside the cities or in poor parts of the country. The reality of it moves me.

• Life and a day (ابد و یک روز) - Saeed Roustayi (2016): 8.7/10

  • Outstanding script
  • Outstanding acting from all actors, especially Navid Mohammadzadeh
  • One of the expertise of Iranian cinema is how to shatter your heart to pieces; This movie does it perfectly.
    It goes deep into the life of a very poor family in a very poor environment, How they cope with the pain of existance, and how they try to survive and forget the reality of their lives.

• The grave of fireflies - Isao Takahata (1988): 9.8/10

  • I can't believe that the most heartbreaking movie I have ever seen was an animation. It was so sad I could never get myself to watch it again.

• Soul - Pixar+Disney / Pete Docter (2020): 9.8/10

  • I remember watching this movie at one of the hardest times of my life, where I felt lost, purposeless and depressed. I feel like this movie was exactly what I needed to see at the time. It made me cry, and think about my soul and my spark.
    This is one of those movies which became a part of me./ Oh, and by the way, I found my spark.

• Modern Times - Charlie Chaplin (1936): 9.5/10

  • Every single frame is thought out. Every single frame can be printed and hanged on a wall as art
  • A complete piece of art

• A Separation (جدایی نادر از سیمین) - Asghar Farhadi (2011): 8.5/10

  • Breathtaking acting
  • As in true Iranian cinema fashion, this will shatter your heart with realities of life.

• City of God - Fernando Meirelles (2002): 8/10

  • I think "The Little Rusty Brains" took a lot of inspiration from this movie. Both are depicting the poor parts of their country and the tango of corruption and poverty.

• Shoplifters - Hirokazu Koreeda (2018): 8/10

  • This movie has that Japanese minimalism that I can't explain. It makes you cry but not sob, like an itch you can't scratch. It stays in you, and plays inside you, the unfinished movie and unanswered questions, going on as you do.

• The Silence of The Lambs: 9.5/10

  • Great acting from all actors
  • Great, memorable, thrilling story
  • Great cinematography
  • Unforgettable atmosphere
  • A true classic thriller.

• The Lord of The Rings (Trilogy): 9.2

  • One of the greatest modern stories. turned into a great script
  • Jaw dropping visual effects
  • Amazing directing of an epic

• Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (2026): 6/10

• Steve - Tim Mielants (2025): 7.8

• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Ben Stiller (2013) : 9.9

  • I can't explain it, but this movie has been a part of me ever since I watched it in my teens. It just resonates with me and makes me think about values of life. I see it as a pure work of art and love, with the perfect amount of surrealism and realism, comedy and seriousness, great script, storytelling and amazing visuals.

• Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese (1990): 7.2/10

  • A classic Scorsese, DeNiro movie. Not much more to say

• The Deer Hunter - Michael Cimino (1978): 8.7/10

  • Amazing acting
  • Amazing directing
  • The reality of war is ugly, and no matter how much tgey try to sugarcoat it, that's never going to change.
    Idiots make the decisions, women, children and young men get buried.

• Roofman - Derek Cianfrance (2025): 6.7/10

  • Fun, kind of funny
  • The interesting thing about it is the debate it made between me and my sister on wether Jeff was a Good person or bad person. She says he's a bad person but I think he wasn't necessarily bad, and he wasn't good either. Just a misfit, dumb guy. He had been deployed to Afghanistan in war and now they just ask him to be a normal person (actually, what he may have done in there might make him a very bad person, but based we're judging by the information provided by the movie.

• Exit 8 (2026): 6.5/10

  • Interesting concept, reminded me a lot about non-eculadian geometrics and I couldn't shut up about non-eculadian geometrics during the movie. My friends were pretty fed up I think.
  • Quite dull. Not really scary, not really interesting, not really thought provoking.

• Project Hail Marry (2026): 6.2/10

  • Silly, cute, fun movie. Good for watching with family or kids. Not really much to it. Not thought provoking, no amazing features to it.
  • It was like a sci-fi Disney princess movie.
  Spoilers

  • I didn't like how the extremely intelligent alien was like a silly puppy.

• The Banshees of Inisherin - Martin McDonagh (2022): 7.9

  • A great mix of comedy and tragedy.
  • The comedy was my type of comedy. The type that tickles you inside until you laugh. It doesn't try to be funny.
  • Sticks with you and makes you think
  • VFX wasn't good
  • Scoring and soundtracks could be better. If this movie was paired with a good music (I'm thinking some sophisticated folk Irish music) it would be immensely better. The soundtracks were rather bland and kind of unrelated to the movie.
  • I really liked the message. When Pádraic was talking about "I don't give a shite about Mozart. Me mum was nice, I remember her. Me dad was nice, I remember him. Me sister is very nice, I'll remember her forever...Being nice lasts..." This concept, which sounds pretty cheesy but is absolutely true, really reminds us of why we're here. I really don't care about Mozart, Or Einstein or Tesla or whoever. I might admire their work, but I don't admire them as a person necessarily. But niceness is the true thing that matters and lasts.
    It's easy to get caught up in a race of "greatness", while the only true greats that lasted, were the ones that were loved. Being loved by one person is worth more than being studied and admired for your work by thousands.

• Dance with Me (جهان با من برقص) - Soroush Sehat (2019): 8.6/10

  • A great mix of comedy and tragedy
  • TODO

• Hamnet (2025): 8/10

• Lawless: 8.9/10

• The Place Beyond the Pines: 8.2/10

• Santoori - Dariush Mehrjooyi: 7.2

Watch Later

• Odyssey (2026)
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)
• Locke (2013)
• Three Colors trilogy - Krzystof Kieslowski

Series

• Breaking Bad: 10/10
• Chernobyl: 9.8/10
• Peaky Blinders: 7.5/10
• The vikings: 7/10
• Severance: 8.5/10
• The night of: 8/10
• The punisher: 4.5/10
  • First season was so good but as it went on it became so low quality and the script became so horrible it felt like a literal child has written it.
• Army of brothers: 5.5/10
  • Good acting
  • Literal US army propaganda. "The US army liberated the world from evil and while everybody else were idiots, we saved the world (as always)"

Books

• Rhinoceros - Eugène Ionesco
  • #threatre #play #avant-garde #surreal
  • Rhinoceros is one of my all time favorite plays. Deep, thought provoking meaning, beautiful writing and directing of the play, and the scene, and a surrealism that just makes you read through. I can say it's like a Dali or Rene painting, but deeper, an as a theatrical play.
• Fight club - Chuck Chuck Palahniuk
  • #novel
  • You might say this is pretty typical and mainstream book. Maybe it is, but it's a masterpiece in my view.
    It's one of my all time favorite novels. I have read it multiple times both in Persian and in English. An interesting thing to me was that although the Persian translation by "Peymaan Khaaksaar" wasn't that good, and it also had to censor lots of things, I think that fascinatingly, just the intrinsic poetry and beauty of Persian really resonated with this book's style and it was more pleasant for me to write.
    Fight Club is like a mix of poetry, philosophy, psychology, sociology to me. It's something that you read and just lives with you for the rest of your life.
• "The blue room (اتاق آبی)" - "Sohrab Sepehry (سهراب سپهری)"
  • #persian #diary
  • It's a diary/journal form of writing from the famous Iranian neo-poet Sohrab Sepehry.
    While Sohrab is famous and renowned for his poetry, you can see how that resonates in his plain writing even in the form of diary/journals. I think "The blue room" is one of the most beautiful pieces of modern Persian writing. It's honesty, clarity, and poeticity is simply mesmerizing; Just like his poems.
    I especially like about the section where he remembers memories from school "our painting teacher". It resonated so much with me when I was in highschool, since I was a free spirited kid with very artistic tendencies, and still does.
    I cried with it and got goosebumps every time.

Top Movie Directors

• Inarritu
• Capola
• Scorsese
• Tarantino
• Wes Andersen
• Tarkovsky
• Abbas Kiarostami

Watch Later

• 21 Grams

Restaurants & Cafés

• Avishoo - Māzandarān, Kelārdasht: 9/10
  • #restaurant #persian
  • Great food
  • Beautiful design
  • Clean
  • Good service
  • A bit on the expensive side
• Chef Esmail (اسماعیل سرآشپز) - Māzandarān, Kelārdasht: 6.5/10
  • #restaurant #persian
  • Good food
  • Good price
  • This is one of the oldest restaurants in the city and I have a lot of nostalgia with it. Me and my family ate there everytime we were in the city, since I was born.
• Bāgh e Pedari (باغ پدری) - Māzandarān, Āmol : 9/10
  • #café-restaurant
  • Great food
  • Bautiful place, a huge garden, it has different sections and all are beautiful and well designed.
  • Amazing persian food especially the local Mazani and Gilani foods.
  • A bit expensive
• Café Godot (کافه گودو) - Tehran, Lowlagar: 6.5/10
  • #café
  • Beautiful design and atmosphere
• Setāreh Vanak (ستاره ی ونک) - Tehran, Vanak, Seoul sq.: 4.5/10
  • #restaurant #chinese #asian
  • I'm not sure but I think it's one of the oldest chinese restaurants in Tehran
  • Cheap especially with a good offer from somewhere like foodro
  • Small portions
  • Underwhelming food taste and quality
  • Kind of dirty
• Termeh - Lavāsān: 8/10
  • #persian #restaurant #café #garden
  • Very big, beautiful vomplex with different types of sittings (Persian arbors, chairs and tables, both)
  • Has large Persian arbors which seem to be able to host at least 10-12 people, great for family gatherings
  • Is a garden-restaurant with lots of trees and vegetation.
  • Staff are nice
  • Good food quality
  • Good hygiene
  • The restroom (WC)
    • is small
    • too few units for such a big place (only 2 units for such a big complex)
    • The doors are translucent glass doors with a pretty big gap between the wall. It really doesn't give a comforting and provate feel. At least in persian culture, it's really unacceptable.
  • On the Expensive side, but it's expected