“Jackson and his post-production wizards haven’t just meticulously restored the footage, they’ve colorized and converted it to 3D, reframing it for widescreen and adding a shattering soundtrack. The result collapses the gulf between past and present, bringing history to life in one of the most visceral experiences I’ve ever had in a movie theater.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/31/2019
Monthly Archives: January 2019
COLD WAR
“A marvel of concision. Here’s a love story spanning almost two decades of seismic geopolitical shifts, but Pawlikowski renders it in clipped ellipses. A movie of furtive kisses and stolen glances, it’s all short, punchy scenes and sad songs with entire years left off-camera to our imaginations. The story skips like a stone across time, to devastating effect.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/18/2019
HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING
“More concerned with sensorial experience than narrative threads, the film is a collection of jagged, fleeting moments and atmospheric longueurs adding up to something far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s the kind of movie you have to swim around in for a little while. Eventually, you’ll find yourself beginning to feel the muggy air of these summer evenings.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/17/2019
REPLICAS
“This is one strange shambles of a movie. The scale is all out of whack, nothing but drab industrial office spaces and a dingy basement. Even the supposedly futuristic scientific tools resemble crummy construction equipment, with Reeves doing his work in a flimsy helmet with a plastic face shield that makes him look like a guy who fixes telephone poles.” – North Shore Movies, 01/12/2019
DESTROYER
“The marketing campaign and awards play have centered on Kidman’s transformation, which is the kind of thing critics are supposed to call ‘brave.’ Honestly I found it all a bit silly and way overdone, wallowing in over-deliberate grotesquerie as some misguided mark of integrity. Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good description of the movie itself.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/11/2019
THE SOPRANOS TURNS 20
“For me, the ending’s meaning has always been more elusive, making visceral the sensation of having this story and these people we’ve grown to love over many years violently ripped away forever without a moment’s warning, abruptly plunging us into silence and nothingness. It’s a death scene alright, but we’re the ones who got whacked.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/09/2019
LIFE AND NOTHING MORE
“As the title might have tipped you off, it isn’t exactly heavy on plot. This largely improvised film has the loose rhythms of day-to-day life, with the director hanging back and regarding his characters in mostly unobtrusive medium shots. A lot of it could pass for a documentary, until upon reflection you realize how carefully Esparza’s set up his story beats.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/04/2019