THE WAY BACK

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“The screenplay is pretty boilerplate stuff. Think Hoosiers with Dennis Hopper as the head coach, or The Bad News Bears if Buttermaker’s alcoholism was supposed to be sad. But the thing about formulas is that they work, and it’s impossible not to get swept up in the familiar beats of a misfit coach turning around his losing team just in time for the playoffs.” – North Shore Movies, 03/08/2020

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SPENSER CONFIDENTIAL

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“It’s all exhausted Southie stereotypes and donkey Irish burlesques, most characters carrying on like that Casey Affleck Dunkin’ Donuts commercial from Saturday Night Live. The low point is probably a bar brawl during a Sox game while everybody’s singing ‘Sweet Caroline.’ This is the kind of Boston movie you’d expect from a couple of Lakers fans.” – North Shore Movies, 03/06/2020

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TRAVELING LIGHT: THE FILMS OF KELLY REICHARDT AT THE HFA

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“Reichardt movies are immersive experiences, inviting you to settle in and let your metabolism power down to their pace. These are films of loaded glances and pregnant pauses, where even the slightest gestures become seismic. The stories are told in the spaces between the dialogue. Everything’s happening when it seems like nothing’s going on.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/05/2020

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CANE RIVER REDISCOVERED AT THE MFA

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“This 1982 romantic drama was independently bankrolled by a wealthy Louisiana family of mortuary owners and made with an all-black cast and crew, most of them working in their positions for the first time. It’s a vital artifact from a lost part of film history, a tantalizing glimpse of a nascent black independent cinema movement that almost was.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/03/2020

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2019 MURIEL AWARDS: COUNTDOWN TO BEST PICTURE

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“Suffused with a twilight longing, the most moving moments for me are the film’s evening montages, whether it’s the sun going down to the sound of Jose Feliciano’s ‘California Dreamin’’ or the achingly lovely parade of neon signs clicking on at dusk as the Stones sing ‘Out Of Time.’ All good things will soon come to an end, probably sooner than you think.” – The Muriel Awards, 03/01/2020

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