“It’s a thrillingly visceral experience, but also one with a questioning, philosophical soul. The Train was the last studio action extravaganza to be shot in black-and-white, and the shades of gray suit the murky moral inquiries. It’s a movie about foolhardy heroes and grand, symbolic gestures, wondering aloud if art and culture are really worth dying for. And if not, what is? ” – Crooked Marquee, 04/08/2022

“Rock’s fury was focused on performative outrage and empty, politically correct gestures, spitting fire at corporations like Lululemon, which put up signs in their stores congratulating themselves for standing against racism while selling $100 yoga pants. Most folks, the comedian countered, would be fine with $20 yoga pants that said the n-word once in a while.” – Rolling Stone, 03/31/2022

“The prevailing wisdom within the Academy seems to be that regular folks don’t care about these categories, because I guess boring stuff like editing, production design, original score and sound aren’t important aspects of the cinematic experience. Audiences will instead be indulged this year with new awards sourced on Twitter, of all godforsaken places.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/24/2022

“The calendar kicks off welcoming writer-director Flora Gomes. The 72-year-old, Bissau-Guinean filmmaker studied in Cuba under the legendary Santiago Álvarez and worked as an assistant to French New Wave master Chris Marker, before returning to his homeland to make a series of powerful pictures confronting the legacy of Portuguese colonial rule.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/22/2022

“It’s a war movie for people disgusted by war, fed up with battlefield myths about valor and noble sacrifice. It’s about cheating and breaking bullshit rules and killing the enemy in cold blood because you can and because you have to. It’s a movie where death is ugly and everywhere and only the meanest, most irredeemable sons of bitches survive, if they’re lucky.” – Crooked Marquee, 03/18/2022

“Travolta and Cage have made more bad films than most stars of their stature, but the lineup Judge put together contains one cultural phenomenon after another. Saturday Night Fever, Moonstruck, Grease, Valley Girl, Raising Arizona and Pulp Fiction have become part of our shared pop consciousness. They’re movies you feel like you’ve seen even if you haven’t.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/14/2022

“In a genre where women were subject to all sorts of abuse, she was a fox who fought back. But what made her even more fun to watch is how much she looked like she was enjoying it. With that crooked curl of her naughty smile, Pam Grier always seemed to be having an even better time than you were watching her. It’s why crushes on her are still so contagious.” – Crooked Marquee, 03/04/2022

“Often called the Thinking Man’s Sex Symbol, Vitti was less ‘va-va-voom’ in her appeal than Italian starlets of the era like Loren or Magnani. High cheekbones and a patrician air made her the perfect frontwoman for Antonioni’s adrift elite: absurdly wealthy, spiritually bankrupt wanderers who have everything and are slow to realize how little that really is.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/01/2022

“Paying little lip service to genre conventions, Mann’s electrifying, experimental cyber-thriller is an almost abstract symphony of sound and color smeared across the screen in crackling, corrupted digital cinematography meant to mirror the twitchy surveillance state in which its stealthy characters operate. Blackhat is like a Stan Brakhage movie with gunfights.” – Crooked Marquee, 03/01/2022

“There’s a touchingly autumnal sense of diminishment in El Dorado, explicitly addressing infirmity and old age in ways unthinkable for these stars just a few years prior. These characters are constantly coming up short. The movie ends not with our heroes riding off into the sunset, but hobbling on crutches, laughing and limping their way into legend.” – Crooked Marquee, 02/18/2022