“Of course she is an exasperating woman who makes terrible choices. Loden isn’t asking that you admire the character or applaud her decisions. Wanda just wants you to acknowledge that she exists. Spend a little time in this person’s company and maybe even leave the theater with a feeling for what she’s going through. That’s what art’s for.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/25/2018
“Wispy and underwhelming, there’s a lackadaisical, conflict-averse quality to Jonah Hill’s directorial debut that leaves a galling aftertaste. It is a film short on incident but long on carefully curated period details. There isn’t much here in the way of compelling drama, but if you like to gawk at Air Jordans and old CDs this is will be 84 minutes of heaven.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/24/2018
Had a grand old time sitting in with pals Kris Jenson and Evan Crean to talk about Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and John Carpenter’s original 1978 Halloween before discussing my recent journey through some of its shoddy sequels and how much we all improbably enjoyed director David Gordon Green’s nifty new installment. – Spoilerpiece Theatre, 10/19/2018
“A raucous roller-coaster ride full of bravura set-pieces and applause breaks. It’s a wild Friday night at the movies, celebrating hoary old slasher tropes with a degree of artistry seldom seen in the genre. Green stages the scare sequences with the verve of a movie-mad kid who can’t believe he gets to play with Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. It’s infectious.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/19/2018
“A gentle caper comedy full of wistful, wrinkly smiles and a sweetly elegiac tone. Putting these two at odds is an inspired pairing, with Affleck’s rumpled deadpan and miserable mustache consistently outshone by Redford’s mega-watt charisma. The younger actor seems to have prematurely Matthau-ed, displaying withered grimaces that are comedy gold.” – North Shore Movies, 10/18/2018
“Audiard’s oddball cutting patterns mean scenes and entrire storylines tend to self-destruct in eruptions of left-field violence, the film constantly interrupting itself on the way to wherever you might think it’s going. That is, until a gorgeously unexpected ending, which sneaks up on you with a warmth one never imagined from a bloody picture like this.” – North Shore Movies, 10/18/2018
“Featuring nine new features packed into three days at the Brattle, the autumn event is a straight-up binge for movie buffs. But while previous installments may have provided area audiences with our first looks at Moonlight, Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, there’s more to the series than just early peeks at Oscar contenders.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/16/2018
Honored to join host Blake Howard on his epic discussion of Michael Mann’s magnum opus, one minute at a time. We talk about the electricity of opening night, the strangeness of two New York guys starring in a Los Angeles crime saga and the peculiarities of Pacino’s performance, including his poor phone manners and some of the all-time great gum acting. – One Heat Minute, 10/16/2018
“Chazelle diminishes one of humanity’s most astonishing accomplishments into the semi-suicidal refuge of a broken man who refuses to grieve. This dour, unpleasant film wallows in a masochistic self-abnegation similar to the director’s 2014 music school psychodrama Whiplash, except banging on astrophysics instead of drums.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/12/2018
“Particularly now, when the world is too much with us, it can be enormously cathartic to just go into a dark room and sob for a little while. Cooper’s confidently melodramatic remake of A Star Is Born understands this better than most pictures. It’s a big, brashly old-fashioned pop entertainment. This is the kind of movie everybody says they don’t make anymore.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/04/2018
SPLICED PERSONALITY 