“Mara and Affleck star as a couple torn asunder by his untimely death, with Affleck hanging around the house for an eternity afterward wearing a morgue sheet over his head like a Peanuts cartoon. Somehow this silly image grows to be quite plaintive and moving, with an element of deadpan Kabuki in the wry observations of a world that refuses to stop turning.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/22/2017
“Playing a suave negotiator who speaks multiple languages, Wahlberg’s lunkhead line-readings elicited titters of laughter at the advance screening I attended. There are still a few days left before the movie opens, so maybe Ridley has time to replace him with Clive Owen, Michael Fassbender or anyone who actually might make sense in the role.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/22/2017
“The film luxuriates in the sun-kissed settings, languorous and largely devoid of conflict. Adapted by 89-year-old screenwriter James Ivory, it exhibits that specific brand of watchable, genteel restraint that made Merchant Ivory the arthouse Marvel Studios of the 1980s and ‘90s. It’s the kind of movie that discreetly pans to billowing curtains during a sex scene.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/22/2017
“The movie pretty much drops the whole shrinking business altogether to focus on Damon’s sudden discovery of an underclass. Payne’s early, acidic satires like Citizen Ruth and Election used to skewer this exact sort of self-congratulatory, limousine liberal BS. The filmmaker’s softening over the years has been one of cinema’s slow-motion tragedies.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/22/2017
“I’m pretty sure there’s an audience for this deliberately naïve, pie-eyed, old-fashioned musical celebrating the life of P.T. Barnum as a ‘Hey, let’s put on a show!’ tribute to outcasts and oversized dreams. But I’m even surer that I’m not a part of that audience, given how much of the running time I spent groaning with my face buried in my hands.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/22/2017
“The movie feels at odds with itself, chiding the audience for disrespecting Harding’s underprivileged background while at the same time chock full of sight gags sniggering at poor people. There’s also a thuddingly obvious collection of needle-drop soundtrack cues so on-the-nose I left the theater wishing someone could have kneecapped the music supervisor.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/21/2017
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI * * * *
Starring Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac and Carrie Fisher. Written and directed by Rian Johnson.
“The first time I saw All That Jazz I was zonked on cold medicine with a high fever and afterward figured I must have hallucinated most of it. The movie is a geyser of flowing images, often cut counter-intuitively against the beat of the soundtrack songs and following movements and transitions that defy linear logic while making perfect emotional sense.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/13/2017
1. A Ghost Story 2. Phantom Thread 3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 4. Lady Bird 5. The Florida Project 6. First They Killed My Father 7. BPM (Beats Per Minute) 8. The Beguiled 9. Marjorie Prime 10. Lucky
Honorable Mentions: After The Storm, Alien: Covenant, All These Sleepless Nights, Colossal, Columbus, Get Out, Good Time, Jane, Logan Lucky, Long Strange Trip, The Lure, Nocturama, On The Beach At Night Alone, The Post, Their Finest – BOFCA, 12/08/2017
“Enchanting and annoying in equal measures, this perversely adult fairy tale plays like a collection of the filmmaker’s private fetishes spackled over with an unconvincing coat of feel-good whimsy. The Shape Of Water is one of those peculiar movies that clearly means a lot to the person who made it, but leaves the audience stranded on a distant shore.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/08/2017
SPLICED PERSONALITY 