“Even if I was amused by how Serkis’ besotted sea captain consumes whiskey the way Popeye consumes spinach—it’s a fallacy that you can remember what you knew when you were blackout drunk just by getting wasted again. I’ve been disproving this theory on an almost weekly basis since my senior prom.” – The Improper Bostonian, 12/28/2011

“Young Adult is remarkable for the way that it espouses two seemingly contradictory toxic worldviews. On one hand, the film is a mean-spirited revenge fantasy, in which the girl who was prettier and more popular than you in high school returns home as a shrew. At the same time, we must suffer the movie’s septic condescension toward small-town life.” – The Improper Bostonian, 12/14/2011

“In many ways J. Edgar Hoover is a classic Clint character. He’s a principled fellow who lets his unwavering workaholic tendencies and private codes destroy his personal life, until moral gray areas blur into darkness. This is the same movie Eastwood has made 40-odd times over the past several decades. Except this one is terrible.” – The Improper Bostonian, 11/09/2011

“So why is this finely crafted, well-acted movie almost impossible to get excited about? Clooney’s directing style matches his acting, lean and no-nonsense. It’s solid all around, and a little stuffy. Much like his Good Night and Good Luck, this a sleek, striking adult entertainment that, ultimately, feels smaller than it probably should.” – The Improper Bostonian, 10/05/2011

“Pitt finally surrenders and turns in the kind of megawatt, charismatic and old-fashioned movie star performance we’ve all secretly been waiting for. He’s playing the role exactly the way Robert Redford would’ve in the 1970’s. A movie about baseball that contains surprisingly little actual baseball, it’s more like The Bad News Bears with an economics degree.” – The Improper Bostonian, 09/21/2011

“It’s a very pleasant lie, sending you out of the cinema on a high note. But what vexes me is why the lie even needed to be told in the first place. Aren’t there enough true stories of heroism during the Civil Rights era? Is it really appropriate for us to all stand up and applaud this courageous, fictional white girl?” – The Improper Bostonian, 08/24/2011

“30 Minutes or Less steals a couple of broad strokes from the Collar Bomber case, but borrows more from ’80s action-comedies. More often than not, it feels like one of those half-assed flicks you discover on late-night cable and don’t bother surfing away from because it’s amusing enough when you’re stoned.” – The Improper Bostonian, 08/10/2011

“Friends with Benefits is a surprisingly dirty movie, but it embraces human sexuality as something so common, happy and fun that I’d prefer to just call it ‘naughty.’ There are more giggles than grunts, which is somehow way sexier than most modern pictures that make a big show out of trying to be erotic.” – The Improper Bostonian, 07/27/2011

“To say Dark of the Moon is the best Transformers movie is hardly saying anything at all. The picture surpasses its notorious forebears by being visually accomplished, occasionally coherent and nowhere near as jaw-droppingly racist as the two films that came before. Am I damning with faint praise?” – The Improper Bostonian, 07/13/2011

“A feature-length ‘It Gets Better’ video for broke, middle-aged white dudes, Tom Hanks’ second directorial effort Larry Crowne is a stridently square little duck. It’s a deeply doofy movie, prone to sitcom staging and broadly comic groaners. Bereft of conflict, the film coasts along in second gear on breezy charm, gentle humanism and star wattage.” – Philadelphia Weekly, 07/06/2011