“Moms aren’t supposed to have lives of their own. What makes Gyllenhall’s debut such a fascinating film is that it doesn’t try to explain away the central character or justify her petty resentments. She instead makes visceral the fears and shame of mothers who feel themselves unfit, and the guilt that comes with wanting to keep a little piece of your life to yourself.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/29/2021
“Due to the pandemic, the retrospective ran last December at the Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Virtual Screening Room before being released as a Criterion Collection box set. But the good folks at the Brattle have brought it back to the big screen where it belongs, kicking off on Christmas Day with a 35mm print of Wong’s masterpiece, In The Mood For Love.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/23/2021
“In what will no doubt cause cardiac arrests for the social media hall monitors currently having conniptions over the age gap between the platonic lovers of Licorice Pizza, Baker’s film doesn’t just tell the story of a skeezy, fortysomething guy grooming and trying to turn out a teenage girl, it also dares to be amusing about it. Sometimes appallingly so.” – North Shore Movies, 12/23/2021
“No life lessons are learned and there’s no moral to the story that I can surmise, at least not beyond the deep appreciation of faded fads, forgotten pop songs and evenings that stretch out into the night with endless possibilities for adventure. It’s a thrilling movie to watch, hurtling forward with the headlong rush of two young people who can’t wait for their lives to begin.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/22/2021
“The most lovingly photographed of the Massachusetts locations is the Wakefield Bowladrome, where it has never stopped being 1978 and all the filmmakers had to do to make it period-specific was take down the ‘No Smoking’ signs. It’s also symptomatic of a certain carelessness on Clooney’s part. I mean, who ever heard of candlepin bowling on Long Island?” – North Shore Movies 12/20/2021
“You have to get dinged around a bit by life before you can make a movie like Fat City, a film that dwells in disappointment without making a big deal about it. The picture drifts in and out of the characters’ days with little in the way of momentum and would probably feel as purposeless as these people’s lives, were it not for Huston’s amiable eye.” – Crooked Marquee, 12/17/2021
“Some people like to claim Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie, even though it takes place at a Christmas party on Christmas Eve and prominently features sleigh bells and Christmas carols on the soundtrack. But even if you don’t want to call Die Hard a Christmas movie, I consider it a holiday gift. After umpteen viewings, the movie still makes me a jolly, happy soul.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/16/2021
“Paul Thomas Anderson’s loose, loopy tale of teenage adulation in 1973 is the director’s most endearing picture, an episodic ramble through fading fashions, ephemeral fads and memories that endure. There’s magic in their misfit, Hollywood-adjacent misadventures, and a wistful evocation of just how fleeting such connections can be. I didn’t want it to end.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/15/2021
“But before the surprisingly rousing third act – for my money the first time since The Avengers assembled that a Marvel movie has achieved the giddy liftoff of all your action figures landing in the same sandbox – No Way Home is some seriously rough sledding, reflecting what a non-starter Tom Holland’s MCU incarnation of Peter Parker turned out to be.” – North Shore Movies, 12/15/2021
SPLICED PERSONALITY 