“The entire film is shot from the perspectives of our protagonists, two Black teenagers sent to a brutal, segregated reform school in the Jim Crow-era South. But Nickel Boys doesn’t aspire to be a work of muckraking outrage, instead opting for something more lyrical and experiential. You’re not just in there with the kids, you’re seeing everything through their eyes.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/27/2024
Joined my dear friend Jen Johans to discuss the new Criterion Collection disc of Howard Hawks’ Scarface on the season finale of Watch With Jen. This episode also includes the time S.A. Cosby took a date to see No Country For Old Men, William Boyle talking Paris, Texas and a slightly intoxicated Jed Ayres on Galaxy Quest and The Long Good Friday. – Watch With Jen, 12/27/2024
“By my rough estimate, it is the eleven-billionth adaptation of this material. We’ve seen it all before, but you’ve never seen it looking quite like this. The movie is a triumph of period-accurate production design and silvery, moonlight cinematography. I saw Nosferatu about a month ago and had a blast, though I haven’t thought about it once since leaving the theater.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/24/2024
”So much of the post #MeToo discourse has addressed the inevitable power imbalances inherent in relationships and writer-director Reijn wants you to know she’s read it all. But desire is something messier and more mysterious than can be sorted out by a human resources department. You could even classify Babygirl as a romantic comedy. Sort of.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/24/2024
”He’s got all the tics and mannerisms, the smoked eyelids and punched cigarettes, but what’s missing is Dylan’s mischief. The role needed the rascally charisma of a young Jack Nicholson or Leonardo DiCaprio’s ability to coax the audience into a conspiratorial relationship. Chalamet nails Dylan’s smirk but not the sly twinkle behind it. It ain’t him, babe.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/23/2024
”White Christmas really isn’t much of a Christmas movie. It’s more of a backstage musical with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as Broadway superstars putting together a benefit show while romancing a singing sister act played by Rosemary Clooney and the dazzling Vera-Ellen. They’re all awfully cute and it’s written in such a way that nobody has to try very hard.” – Crooked Marquee, 12/20/2024
“As in the ghastly 2019 remake, thousands of digital artists have been employed to render almost-but-not-quite photorealistic animals who sing Elton John songs. Except this time they’re Lin-Manuel Miranda songs. Disney honcho Bob Iger insists on calling Mufasa ‘live-action’, even though nothing in the film was live or acted. It’s just an uglier kind of animation.” – North Shore Movies, 12/17/2024
“The ringmaster is a sweaty, corpulent wreck having paint-peeling, Strindbergian arguments with the voluptuous bareback rider Anne (Harriet Andersson) with whom he fled from his wife and children. Bergman was in the midst of an affair with Andersson at the time and his camera is positively in thrall to her fleshy sensuality and Bettie Page bangs.” – Crooked Marquee, 12/13/2024
“These are the unreliable memories of a man who knows he’s damned but is no longer sure for exactly what; an inchoate self-loathing that’s a sure sign we’re in Schrader Country. The film is haunting and elegantly made, if perhaps a bit chilly. It’s a simmering, satisfying cerebral exercise. But the best Schrader movies feel like they’re going to explode.” – North Shore Movies, 12/12/2024
”It’s impossible not to be moved by Pitt playing off the avuncular likes of Buscemi and Perlman, or by watching Joe Pesci level his whole screen presence and legacy into a shattering, wordless cameo in a nursing home. Pitt heartbreakingly holds his own with all of them, reminding us once more that this young actor could have been a contender.” – North Shore Movies, 12/12/2024
SPLICED PERSONALITY 