“Like a lot of great poets, Mary Oliver made what she did look easy. Try it. It’s not. Waters’ engaging documentary strips the artist of that annoying aura of Oprah-fication, burrowing beyond the gaseous platitudes into concrete examinations of her poems that demonstrate how Oliver’s writing is more complex than its reputation might lead one to believe.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 07/20/2026
Always a pleasure talking to my buddy Blake Howard, this time about how Christopher Nolan’s latest opus has raised the bar for summer blockbusters, first in terms of practical location filmmaking and the benefits of doing things the hard way, but also as a reminder that entertainment and ideas need not be mutually exclusive. It’s a thrillingly complicated picture. – One Heat Minute, 07/18/2026
“Thematically, it’s a continuation of Oppenheimer, Nolan’s masterpiece in which a brilliant American Prometheus stole the power of the gods and doomed the world while trying to save it. Odysseus has likewise broken a sacred covenant for what he thinks is the greater good, unleashing unforeseen consequences that will reverberate through the ages.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 07/15/2026
“You can see a clear generational divide in the reception to these films, with most of us old fogeys mystified by the idea of an Evil Dead movie that doesn’t have Bruce Campbell shrieking and making Three Stooges noises while being punched repeatedly in the face. Taking all the kidding out of films that are essentially send-ups is certainly a choice.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 07/12/2026
“The troupe’s trademark blend of anti-comedy non sequiturs feels even more random than usual in this slapdash outing, replete with unfunny, starfucky cameos. Garishly overlit with a distracting reliance on fake bluescreen backgrounds, it’s the first theatrically released motion picture I’ve seen that could pass for a cellular telephone commercial.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 07/10/2026
“The set of self-imposed limitations creates its own aesthetic. Jenkin’s hand-cranked camera won’t run for more than 28 seconds at a time, forcing him to tell the story in a series of punchy, discrete images. Our brains assemble the scenes almost like a mental jigsaw puzzle. It’s amazing how many gaps your mind fills in for you when prompted properly.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 07/09/2026
“Bernstein shoots the phone calls like fuck scenes, the first one climaxing with Eleni wrapped in the curly white cord as if it were bondage gear. It’s lurid and faintly ridiculous, yet knowingly so. She’s doing what Cronenberg did with Crash, exploring the destructive aspects of desire by fabricating a kink nobody has and examining it from the outside in.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 07/09/2026
“With his concave cheeks and haunted eyes, Harry Dean Stanton was nobody’s idea of a movie star. He looked like hard living personified; an iconoclast hanging out on the periphery of the New Hollywood revolution, lending his lonesome cowboy vibes to a remarkable array of landmark films. Just watching some of his movies makes the theater smell like cigarettes.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 07/07/2026
“It isn’t often a screen legend comes to Boston, and almost never do they deign to sit at a table full of nobodies. I recall being in awe when she walked into the room. I was doing a lot of these kinds of things at the time and I’ve never seen anyone better at this. Which I guess makes sense, since she’s been talking to reporters longer than I’ve been alive.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 07/06/2026
“It’s a generational divide you don’t see addressed much in film and television, where typically older folks are presented as prigs who can’t handle the candor of rebellious youth. As an aging Gen Xer, I’m thrilled to see a movie about how these days it feels like the opposite is true, expressly calling out millennials for being annoying little prudes.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 07/02/2026
SPLICED PERSONALITY 