“There are bits that you could do a couple years ago that you can’t do now. When has that not been true? Culture evolves and mores change. You can’t go back. And the flipside of it is, you have to let people adapt. If you said something that was untoward eight years ago, well it was eight years ago. Good for you, if you’re willing to learn and grow.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/28/2021
“It’s the mortifying prepubescence of Wright’s worldview that gets under my skin. The guy is my age but his films still feel like a kid playing with action figures. It’s a cinema for collectors: the movies are like Mondo limited edition posters of themselves, designed to be ranked on Letterboxd lists and parsed on Reddit threads for clever references to earlier, better films.” – North Shore Movies, 10/28/2021
“The Outlaw Josey Wales is the first of Eastwood’s directorial efforts to try and reconcile these two seemingly contradictory sides of its director’s personality: the snarling, reactionary avenger and the groovy, NorCal dude who digs foreign films and jazz. It’s a tension that animates all his most interesting work, and to this day remains unresolved.” – Crooked Marquee, 10/22/2021
“Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi eco-fable is a gargantuan spectacle, pummeling viewers with visual splendor and a sound mix that feels like an assault. It’s as massive a movie as you’re going to see this year and possibly the next. I’m talking huge. You don’t watch Dune so much as you surrender to it. At least I did, quite happily.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/21/2021
“This week’s IFFBoston Fall Focus is a welcome return to the organization’s original mission: gathering the community together to share the experience of seeing movies with one another in the area’s historic independent venues. And as always, they’ve put together an enticing lineup of films featuring everything from porn stars to Princess Diana.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/19/2021
“A tribute not to the legendary filmmaker’s techniques but to his restless, questioning spirit, unafraid to dive into the messy overlap between art and life. Yet this is a much kinder, gentler film than any by Bergman, taking a moment to champion the virtues of Sweden’s other chief export ABBA, before ultimately finding a little serenity in the silence.” – North Shore Movies, 10/15/2021
“There’s an agreeably rambling, ragtag energy that when it’s cooking has the sidewinding appeal of an old country tune, packed with colorful characters and a lot of stuff happening that stubbornly refuses to rise to the level of story. It only gets into trouble when Corsbie runs out of verses to Snider’s song and attempts to impose a plot on the proceedings.” – North Shore Movies, 10/14/2021
My third dispatch from the 59th New York Film Festival includes capsule reviews of Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog, Gaspar Noé’s Vortex and Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers.
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My second dispatch from the 59th New York Film Festival includes capsule reviews of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Sean Baker’s Red Rocket.
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My first dispatch from the 59th New York Film Festival includes capsule reviews of Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, Julia Ducournau’s Titane and Ed Lachman’s Songs For Drella.
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SPLICED PERSONALITY 