“I’ll confess that it took me a second viewing to figure out what I think Baumbach was trying to do here, which is basically making an anti-’80s movie, turning all those cliched, nostalgic Spielbergian signifiers sickly and gross. This is one of those ideas that sounds awesome in theory, until you realize that you’re going to have to look at it for 135 minutes.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/28/2022
”And yet, I Wanna Dance With Somebody keeps sheepishly backing away from the story’s thornier, more complicated implications, especially when it comes to matters of race. It’s indicative of the movie’s overcautious approach that we keep seeing the singer around drugs, and sometimes even holding them, but never actually using them.” – North Shore Movies, 12/22/2022
“This manic mix of earnest immigrant family drama, science-fiction silliness, middle-aged romance and interdimensional kung fu cites so many influences and is so full of allusions the movie might as well come with an index, which is why the series is something Hinkle has had in mind since he first saw Everything Everywhere during its initial run back in April.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/21/2022
Always a delight talking to my friend Jen Johans, this time discussing Paramount’s new Top Gun: Maverick Blu-ray, about which our buddy Blake Howard also has plenty to say. (Because you haven’t heard Blake and I blather on enough about how much we love Tom Cruise.) Plus: our pal S.A. Cosby talking Nope and dear Nikki Dolson trying mightily to explain Moonfall. – Watch With Jen, 12/20/2022
“I saw a lot of terrific films in 2022, but they’re becoming increasingly more difficult for audiences to find, siloed off onto separate subscription services or buried in brief, barely-advertised engagements and feast-or-famine scheduling. Studio malpractice and streamer sabotage have me less optimistic about the future of the theatrical experience than I’ve ever been.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/20/2022
“An Aronofsky movie without any of the showmanship that makes Aronofsky movies watchable. Instead of bringing the old razzle-dazzle, he shoots it as drably and perfunctorily as he possibly can, boxing everything up into a cramped 1.33 aspect ratio in a dingy, cluttered apartment that looks like it smells bad. There’s not an interesting image in the entire picture.” – North Shore Movies, 12/18/2022
“It’s tempting to read the bishop’s cold quarters and the Ekdahls’ happy home as two sides of Bergman’s soul vying for custody of his alter-ego, Alexander. The final reels upend Strindberg’s ‘flimsy framework of reality,’ slipping into surreal sleight of hand as this battle of love and libertinism versus religious self-abnegation wakes the ghosts. They’ve been waiting.” – Crooked Marquee, 12/16/2022
“Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ and Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz are two of the greatest movies ever made, and Bardo borrows from them egregiously. But Fellini and Fosse were wise enough to make their narcissistic stand-ins figures of fun. Iñárritu is not a filmmaker who has much of a sense of humor about himself. Or about anything else, for that matter.” – North Shore Movies, 12/16/2022
“Abbasi’s blunt-force, big-screen translation is not for the faint of heart. It’s in your face and unsparing of the horrors endured by these sad, dopesick sex workers. Hanaei liked to strangle his victims with the headscarves women are required to wear in public, a symbolic gesture that would feel hackneyed in a fictional story, but happens to be horrifyingly true.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/16/2022
SPLICED PERSONALITY 