“This somewhat schematic, a tad too crowd-pleasing take on the early days of the AIDS crisis follows the template of every Bill Murray slobs-vs.-snobs comedy from the ’80s, except this time people are dying. Dallas Buyers Club is sometimes terribly overwritten, yet always admirably underplayed. And McConaughey is just heroic.” – Philadelphia City Paper, 11/14/2013

“The Broken Circle Breakdown becomes a bit much in the final reel. Yet the power of these songs holds it together, along with the film’s bone-deep understanding of music as the means by which these flawed, saddened people can reach for transcendence and attain a measure of grace. However temporary it may be.” – EntertainmentTell, 11/14/2013

“At least sixty percent of Thor: The Dark World consists of characters frantically running around trying to explain the plot to one another, hurling monster-sized gobs of exposition regarding the increasingly arbitrary rules of this fantasy universe. It’s like hearing a story told by an over-excited five-year-old who’s making it up as he goes along.” – EntertainmentTell, 11/07/2013

“Great Expectations is fine, I guess. The movie proceeds professionally and unspectacularly through a story that’s pretty much impossible to screw up. What’s missing is any spark of urgency or inspiration. This business-like adaptation hums along about as well as a movie can when it has no real reason to exist.” – EntertainmentTell, 11/07/2013

“12 Years A Slave is not the story of one man’s struggle. This is not a triumph of the human spirit over adversity. It is an autopsy of a systemic pathology that poisoned a nation, laid bare once and for all by a filmmaker without a sentimental bone in his body. We have seen movies about the horrors of slavery before. This one is about the mechanics.” – The Improper Bostonian, 11/06/2013

“It’s almost fun for a little while, with all the skulking around in disguises and thinking they’ve fooled the palace guards. Watts and Andrews mount a heroic battle against playwright Stephen Jeffreys’ script. But soon the tabloids take their toll and it’s clear Hirschbiegel is hell-bent on turning this into an incredibly depressing remake of Notting Hill.” – Metro, 11/01/2013

“What follows is a rapturous exploration, rendered in giddy, almost impossibly shallow-focus close-ups that make the rest of the world go away, plus a few super-heroic sex scenes. Exarchopoulos’ performance is something of a miracle, with every raw emotion rippling across her yearning, endlessly expressive face.” – Philadelphia City Paper, 10/31/2013

“These not-so-bad grandpas stroll through some family-friendly, mildly amusing comic interludes largely predicated upon product placement and the gang’s antiquated notions of Rat Pack cool. It’s a cast of relaxed old pros with easy chemistry, all of whom seem to be having a great deal of fun. The feeling is almost mutual.” – Philadelphia City Paper, 10/31/2013

“The final scenes are overpowering. Greengrass mercilessly tightens the suspense screws as Hanks fearlessly goes to emotional places we’ve never seen in his career. It’s a brutal knockout of an ending, bold enough to leave you with the nagging impression that good hasn’t conquered evil so much as a few mosquitoes have been swatted.”  – The Improper Bostonian, 10/23/2013

“The Italian Stallion is stuck carrying the burden of exposition, mumbling semi-intelligibly about structural engineering while The Governator goes hog-wild, stealing scenes with reckless abandon. Whether barking a crazy, phony religious tirade in German or announcing, ‘You hit like a vegetarian,’ Ah-nald hasn’t been this much fun in decades.” – Metro, 10/18/2013