“It’s a Cameron Crowe movie; full of reportorial detail, foolhardy young lovers and heartsick, jingling-guitar pop songs on the obsessively curated soundtrack. It’s also weirdly ersatz and clangy. With every film, Crowe’s formula seems to come more increasingly unhinged from any recognizable reality. Now his movies seem to take place on Mars.” – Movie Mezzanine, 05/29/2015
Sat in with fellow Boston Online Film Critics Association members Kris Jenson and Evan Crean to talk spoilers about three new releases. Nice things were said about two of them. We also bitched a bit about Me and Earl and the Dying Girl because we couldn’t help it. – Spoilerpiece Theatre, 05/29/2015
TOMORROWLAND * * *
Starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw and Hugh Laurie. Screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird. Directed by Brad Bird.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD * * * *
Starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz and Hugh Keays-Byrne. Screenplay by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris. Directed by George Miller.
“I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with Steven Seagal lately, but it’s fun checking in every now and again in that mean way that the Germans have a word for, because the dude got really fat. Like, he’s getting Brando heavy. Filmmakers go to great lengths to not make him move around much. This is kind of a problem when you’re an action star.” – Movie Mezzanine, 05/14/2015
“It is impossible to observe the film’s interviews with Spinney and not be taken aback by the man’s extraordinary sensitivity, and the deeply unhappy childhood that seems still very much with him today. That this vulnerability manages to come through an eight-foot-tall fluffy bird costume is testament to what a brilliant performer Caroll Spinney is.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 05/13/2015
“This middling little number feels like a rejected pilot for one of those sex-crime-fixated, baby-napping network procedurals designed to scare the crap out of senior citizens and security moms for ratings gold. But at least that kind of garbage has a pulse. The only mystery here is how so many talented people wound up working on this dreck.” – Movie Mezzanine, 05/13/2015
“These two gals are constantly being underestimated, Vergara for her sheer va-va-voom and Reese for her clenched, constipated carrying-on. (It’s a glorious comedic performance, as if all Tracy Flick’s Type A tendencies imploded into a twangy black hole of Witherspoonian repression.) And yet when push comes to shove, they rise to the occasion.” – Movie Mezzanine, 05/08/2015
MAGGIE * * 1 / 2
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson, Bryce Romero and Jodie Moore. Screenplay by John Scott 3. Directed by Henry Hobson.
“It feels like a Hallmark Channel movie that just so happened to land a couple of cinema legends in the leading roles. Swaddled in burnished cinematography and cozy music cues, 5 Flights Up is not an unpleasant film; watching Freeman and Keaton is too much of a treat. But it is a false one that was tantalizingly close to being true.” – Movie Mezzanine, 05/07/2015
SPLICED PERSONALITY 