“In this increasingly digitized culture it can be difficult for our over-mediated eyes to determine what’s ones and zeroes, until you see a film like Fitzcarraldo and experience once again the shock of the real. It’s granular detail on a massive scale, with images full of intricacies not even the most sophisticated F/X effects department could conjure.” – Metro, 03/24/2017

“A job for hire, The Departed is one of Scorsese’s least soulful movies yet perhaps his most conventionally entertaining. He jokes it’s the only one with a plot. Editor Thelma Schoonmaker paces the film like it’s strapped to a rocket. We’re already nineteen minutes in and have covered twenty years’ worth of backstory before the title card even drops.” – Metro, 03/17/2017

“But what makes the movie a masterpiece is the intensely visceral way in which Spielberg conveys these children feeling adult emotions for the first time. The film’s final image is notably not of E.T.’s departing spaceship, but rather a medium shot of Henry Thomas’ Elliott; the Lost Boy growing up and waving goodbye to Peter Pan.” – Metro, 03/09/2017

“The problem with our accelerated media culture is that we quickly run out of angles with which to feed the content maw, and attention spans aren’t what they used to be. These films get picked to the bone during the Bataan Death March to Oscar Night, and contrary takes are what get clicks, which is why you see bizarre headlines calling La La Land fascist.” – The Muriel Awards, 03/05/2017

“Kimmel goofing on foreign-sounding names was a weird, ad-lib quirk that kept coming up, almost Tourette’s-like regarding Mahershala Ali. A good part of his appeal has always been a sort of smarmy, Playboy Club entitlement, which was probably a bad call for this batch of nominees. His beef with Matt Damon will never not be funny, though.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 02/27/2017

“Yet despite nearly the entire supporting cast throwing themselves at the hunky M.D., cloddish Cruise bungles every opportunity and somehow even manages to strike out at an orgy. There are few sight gags in Kubrick’s filmography funnier than Maverick from Top Gun being so fussily well-mannered he shows up at a hooker’s apartment with a box of pastry.” – Metro, 02/24/2017

“The Crow was one of the first American movies to incorporate the balletic, martial arts-inspired gunplay that was all the rage in Hong Kong cinema. This intricately choreographed, trigger-happy style has recently been revived in the John Wick films — whose director, Chad Stahelski, just so happened to work as Brandon Lee’s stunt double on The Crow.” – Metro, 02/17/2017

“Seeing Casablanca with a big crowd is a reminder of just how *funny* the movie is, stuffed with sardonic one-liners and some of the best put-downs in cinema history. Sure, Ingrid Bergman is stunning, but we’ve always thought Bogie has even better chemistry with Claude Rains’ cheerfully corrupt prefect of police. Theirs is indeed a beautiful friendship.” – Metro, 02/10/2017

“Postcards makes room for scene-stealing supporting turns by a randy Dennis Quaid and Gene Hackman as the voice of Fisher’s hard-won wisdom. Hackman’s stirring, late-movie monologue sums up a career in Tinseltown’s trenches and gutters. It’s the moment when this sometimes-too-slick commercial entertainment gets refreshingly real.” – The Village Voice, 02/07/2017

“Ferrara’s movies have a way of being morally serious despite their sometimes silly genre trappings, and Ms. 45 provides a feast for feminist studies. The intensely Catholic filmmaker outfits her in a nun’s habit and garter belts for the final massacre, and it’s no coincidence that she’s betrayed by a female friend holding a phallic-looking knife at crotch level.” – Metro, 02/03/2017