“The 94-minute feature offers an entertaining overview of how technological advances in sound impacted movie history, from Al Jolson telling stunned 1927 audiences ‘You ain’t heard nothin’ yet,’ to the digital roars of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Credit Costin for covering an extremely complex subject without getting bogged down in the technical weeds.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/31/2019
“Shot in collaboration with Springsteen’s longtime videographer Thom Zimny, it’s an excellent performance that doesn’t radically reinvent any of the orchestral arrangements from the album but rather draws us closer inside them, with the movie theater surround setup really bringing out those stabbing strings and distant, lonely horns.” – North Shore Movies, 10/31/2019
“They’ve saved the best for last, closing with Céline Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire. It’s a swooningly romantic, thrillingly sexy movie with a lot on its mind about what it takes to really look at someone, and what it means to be truly seen. I can’t think of a better way to wrap up a weekend of movies than with one so adroit about the act of watching.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/28/2019
“For those of us who grew up on Murphy’s comedy, it feels like a glorious homecoming. He hasn’t exactly made it easy to be a fan over the years, and few are less adept at disguising their contempt for weak material. What a thrill it is to watch him reconnect with his joy of performance, to once again bask in the glow of that naughty, contagious smile.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/24/2019
“The scatological humor and old-timey camera trickery suggest an Adam Sandler comedy directed by Guy Maddin. All this rib-nudging phallic imagery and hopped-up masculine energy make The Lighthouse feel like the world’s most elaborate penis joke, cackling at the erect, elongated title structure and the seamen stuck inside, ready to blow.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/23/2019
Joined my dear friend Blake Howard again on Day 18 of the Marvel vs. New Hollywood conflagration, after Francis Ford Coppola got Martin Scorsese’s back about these endless sequels not being cinema. I don’t even even agree with Coppola claiming that Marvel movies are ‘despicable,’ I’m just glad that somebody out there is. Especially Francis Ford Coppola. – The Take Podcast, 10/23/2019
“Bong’s films turn ideology into action. Think of the class warfare allegory in Snowpiercer as the disenfranchised in the back fought their way to the front of the train, or the giant reptile monster in The Host growing out of a U.S. Army base’s reckless pollution. His stories are his political stances, and every shot in Parasite is some sort of argument.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/18/2019
“Wood’s collegial approach runs counter to the deliberately provocative content of the pictures being made, and to my mind gives the work short shrift. These are complex films worthy of further discussion than all this anecdotal back-patting. I mean jeez, it’s a two-hour documentary about Quentin Tarantino movies that never once mentions women’s feet.” – North Shore Movies, 10/18/2019
Back on the Michael Mann beat with Blake Howard, this time talking about the soaring climax of the director’s 1992 James Fenimore Cooper adaptation. We riff on Daniel Day-Lewis’ working methods, the wonders of Madeline Stowe, Wes Studi’s long overdue honorary Oscar and a dead-on parody from The Ben Stiller Show. – The Last (12 Minutes) Of The Mohicans, 10/16/2019
“The bad boy melodramatist from Madrid turned seventy last month, and this is the kind of picture an artist makes when they’re getting on in years and taking stock of things. It’s a gentle, episodic movie about mending fences and making peace, and how part of getting older is realizing there are some things you should apologize for and some you still shouldn’t.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/16/2019
SPLICED PERSONALITY 