“Nichols’ heavily fictionalized adaptation plays up the romantic grandeur of Lyon’s photographs, his camera caressing the brooding visage of Austin Butler as a reckless ne’er-do-well so stupid he instigates a police chase and then runs out of gas. It’s a pretty good metaphor for the movie itself, which is full of striking images that never really go anywhere.” – North Shore Movies, 06/21/2024
“Boomer rock docs have calcified into such a boilerplate, bullet-proof formula that as a critic I often have trouble finding anything to say about them. If you like the artist, you’ll enjoy the movie. But even die-hard fans might find Disciple a bit excessive. Do we really need a 147-minute documentary about the third-best guitarist in the E Street Band?” – North Shore Movies, 06/21/2024
Friends Blake Howard, Scout Tafoya and I all contributed essays to the upcoming Imprint Collection Film Focus: Harvey Keitel box set, so Blake got us on the mic to talk about the actor’s singular career and his honorary Catholic status, as well as the stubborn integrity and artistic fearlessness Keitel came to epitomize during the 1990s indie film revolution. – One Heat Minute, 06/20/2024
For this episode of Watch With Jen, novelist S.A. Cosby selected four of his favorite underdiscussed crime films, Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral, Ted Demme’s Blow, James Gray’s We Own The Night and the Hughes Brothers’ Menace II Society. He and host Jen Johans discuss the cycles of tragic masculinity that figure so powerfully in his work while I make stupid jokes. – Watch With Jen, 06/19/2024
“’Festivals offer the opportunity to use film as a catalyst so that we can all be in one place, in person, to have a conversation and feel that energy in the room,’ said Simmons. ‘It’s important for filmmakers to screen their films in front of an audience that gets to ask them questions, to see the reactions, to get that feedback. That’s an important part of being an artist.’” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 06/19/2024
”The inchoate animosity against the Brat Pack that I feel like McCarthy is trying to pin down here was a resentment that the surplus of teen-focused entertainments in the 1980s signified Hollywood’s shift away from adult-oriented material. It goes without saying that nobody in the documentary dares to bring up the fact that most of these movies just weren’t very good.” – North Shore Movies, 06/14/2024
”Sennott is sensational, mapping out the fractured defense mechanisms of a person who’s only comfortable expressing herself through comedy and dark jokes, suddenly stuck in a situation that really isn’t funny anymore. In fact, she’s so good you’ll find herself getting angry at the movie for undercutting her work with the pointless jigsaw puzzle structure.” – North Shore Movies, 06/14/2024
“Ashby’s melancholy sex farce about a habitually horny hairdresser and the comings and goings of California girls is a Restoration comedy transplanted to Beverly Hills. This bawdy tale of musical beds has a gossamer touch hiding a heavy heart. It’s a lot of silly screwing and running around until the last shot of the film sneaks up on you, packing an unexpected wallop.” – Crooked Marquee, 06/14/2024
”While it feels gross to discuss a young woman’s directorial debut with comparisons to her famous father, it appears that as far as handsomely shot hooey with a side of treacly humanism goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I kept wishing The Watchers had been more stylistically distinctive from her dad’s work, so I could feel like a better ally.” – North Shore Movies, 06/07/2024
”Scrappy, confrontational and blessedly unconcerned with respectability politics, these pictures came from a community in crisis. They’re often furious documents, raging against societal and government indifference to a plague that’s powerfully felt even in the films where AIDS is never explicitly mentioned. Celebrate Pride month with six of these trailblazing titles.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 06/03/2024
SPLICED PERSONALITY 