“Gosling once again proves he’s the most captivatingly mannered actor around, half-smirking his way through a baby-faced Steve McQueen riff and toying with props as if they’re strange, foreign objects he just discovered. Derek Cianfrance could probably be a great filmmaker, if he wasn’t trying so hard to be a Great Filmmaker.” – The Improper Bostonian, 03/27/2013

“No isn’t a picture about believing in a leader or a platform. It’s about believing in a brand. As with Lincoln, this is a movie about pragmatism, where the ends justify the means, and sometimes you have to sacrifice your ideals and fudge the rules a bit for the greater good — especially because the people casting votes are generally stupid.” – The Improper Bostonian, 03/13/2013

“Long gone is our hero’s then-unprecedented vulnerability. Willis now has more superpowers than all of The Avengers put together. He’s an arrogant, swaggering bulletproof tool barging into situations with guns blazing, never breaking a sweat. When did John McClane become such a dick?” – The Improper Bostonian, 02/27/2013

“It’s easy to read Levine’s adaptation as a devastatingly funny send-up of the Twilight phenomenon. I was at a Barnes & Noble recently and saw an entire section devoted to ‘teen paranormal romance.’ Warm Bodies is at its funniest when the film is digging into the messy details of just how such romances might work.” – The Improper Bostonian, 01/30/2013

“The filmmaking is always so fussy and exacting, determinedly marching through the director’s chosen thesis statement with no deviations or surprises. Once you know where Amour is going, there’s nothing left but to run out the clock, which I believe might be the point, but it doesn’t make it any easier to watch.” – The Improper Bostonian, 01/16/2013

“If there’s a more poorly directed film this year, I haven’t seen it. Hooper keeps the camera locked into a fisheye view of everybody’s nostrils just to prove they’re really singing, goddamnit. But maybe he should have realized that uncut tracks of Russell Crowe hoarsely flubbing notes are ‘authentic’ in the worst way possible. This is an aesthetic crime.” – The Improper Bostonian, 01/02/2013

“A tedious affair about a tedious affair. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as watching history through the eyes of the least interesting person in the room. I think even Daisy Suckley herself might wonder why anybody would want to make a movie about her.” – The Improper Bostonian, 12/12/2012