“That was just where we were. This was just what was around me. Making work like this and exposing it to an audience, you learn a lot about yourself. In some ways, it’s like having a terrible therapist. People are gonna give you a whole lot of feedback and they’re gonna tell you all about yourself. Some of it makes no sense at all, and some of it’s pretty painful.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 04/27/2022
“There are bits that you could do a couple years ago that you can’t do now. When has that not been true? Culture evolves and mores change. You can’t go back. And the flipside of it is, you have to let people adapt. If you said something that was untoward eight years ago, well it was eight years ago. Good for you, if you’re willing to learn and grow.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/28/2021
Had a great time talking to Strawberry Mansion directors Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley in this virtual Q&A for the Independent Film Festival Boston. We discussed their movie’s nightmare scenario in which advertisers insert product placement into your dreams, the duo’s love of analog aesthetics and why sometimes it’s not such a bad thing to fall asleep during a movie. – IFFBoston, 05/14/2021
Honored I was asked to moderate this IFFBoston panel discussion about the state of local arthouse cinemas featuring friends Ian Judge from the Somerville Theatre, Ned Hinkle from the Brattle and Katherine Tallman from the Coolidge Corner Theatre. We discussed Covid-19 closures and coping methods, as well as what audiences can expect from the New Normal. – IFFBoston, 05/08/2021
“If you have an historical imagination, and that’s what the book demands — in fact, it’s what every work of art demands, in fact, it’s what life demands — if you have an historical imagination then (a) you won’t rename Abraham Lincoln high school, right? And (b) you’ll be open to this book and other books that try to deal honestly with the times that they’re writing about.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 02/26/2021
“You transform pain into other things as you go through life. That was all him working through it. I like stories about storytellers and I like stories within stories. Obviously, I wrote and directed a movie that starts with a twelve-minute bedtime story. I love that. I know that other people don’t love it as much as I do, so I have to be careful about it.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 02/17/2021
My November conversation with the legendary Frederick Wiseman is part of the Coolidge Corner Theatre’s satellite programming for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Discussing his latest masterpiece City Hall, the filmmaker reflects on the heroism of local government and the madness of Donald Trump. Also, I got to tell Fred about Four Seasons Total Landscaping. – Coolidge Corner Theatre, 01/29/2021
On The ARTery Living Room Livestream I sat down for a virtual chat with my old friend Ed Siegel to discuss Joan Micklin Silver’s great 1977 Boston newspaper comedy Between The Lines, our experiences starting out at alt-weeklies much like the one depicted in the movie and why this film still feels relevant more than forty years later. – WBUR’s The ARTery, 05/22/2020
“There are all kinds of ways a ‘bad’ cultural object can be redeemed. What’s amazing about Showgirls is that it ticks nearly every box: it’s been reclaimed as camp, as kitsch, a grist for the academic mill, as auteurism, as ideology, as a fun night out with friends, as everything. Maybe this resurgence is simply a case of an idea whose time has come.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 08/15/2018
Last night living legend Paul Schrader brought his stunning First Reformed to the Independent Film Festival Boston. Starring Ethan Hawke as a pastor struggling with his faith, the movie feels like a culmination of the obsessions with which this filmmaker has been wrestling onscreen for more than four decades. Some edited highlights from his Q&A moderated by critic Jason Gorber:
SPLICED PERSONALITY 