“A low-budget labor of love for Jodie Foster, the film grapples sincerely with mental illness within a patently absurd context. It doesn’t quite work, but it provides something of a cinematic exorcism for the public’s increasingly conflicted relationship with Gibson. It also gives a platform for one of his most indelible performances.” – The Improper Bostonian, 05/04/2011

“The pauses and the business happening just outside the frame suggest a larger world, where everything is unsteady and open to hours of interpretation. Every time you think you have a handle on the damn thing, it just keeps wriggling away. Certified Copy reminded me why I love movies.” – The Improper Bostonian, 04/13/2011

“A classy flop: All its sins are of ambition. The film is at least attempting something unconventional without talking down to the audience. True to form, there’s a deeply committed Damon performance, which happens to be the best thing about it. But even I have to admit that the film stinks.” – The Improper Bostonian, 03/02/2011

“The connection between Dean and Cindy is first electric, then deadening. Cianfrance’s cruelest cuts are between the beginning and the end of their relationship. Though sometimes too schematic in its construction, the movie is brutal and unwavering in its depiction of a love affair running out of steam until there’s nothing left but hurt.” – The Improper Bostonian, 01/05/2011

“A low-budget labor of love for producer/star Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter follows The Town and Conviction in this year’s Massachusetts Lampoon Show, in which glamorous movie stars drop their R’s and wear tacky clothes to convey ‘authenticity.’ Blue-collar Bostonian has replaced redneck as Hollywood’s white-trash signifier of choice.” – The Improper Bostonian, 12/15/2010

“You can’t eat filet mignon for dinner every night, and sometimes you just feel like digging into a greasy cheeseburger. The critic’s job, I’ve always hoped, is to be able to differentiate between Mr. Bartley’s and McDonald’s. Tony Scott’s Unstoppable is an excellent cheeseburger, with particular emphasis on the cheese.” – The Improper Bostonian, 11/17/2010

“Growing less interested in the title subject as the film progresses, Hereafter seems more concerned with loneliness in this life than anything that happens after death. Time and again we return to Damon eating meals alone in his kitchen, just as isolated and aching as those who’ve lost a loved one.” – The Improper Bostonian, 11/03/2010

“She’s a potty-mouthed, hard-partying girl who isn’t afraid to admit that she enjoys sex. It’s impossible to imagine uptight Us Weekly drones like Aniston or Heigl indulging in the kind of giddy, stoned lasciviousness that Barrymore gets away with here. She carries the movie on lusty giggles and F-bombs.” – The Improper Bostonian, 09/08/2010

“Some kind of meathead masterpiece, Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables is cinematic junk food of the highest order. It’s an unapologetically old-school, men-on-a-mission movie that’s so retro you’ll feel like you should be watching it on a beat-up VHS tape. Not going gently into that good night, Sly wants to party like it’s 1986.” – The Improper Bostonian, 08/25/2010

“It’s Juno for adolescent boys, reminding a teenage audience at each turn that they’re better than everybody else. The whole moral of the movie being that it’s OK to be a socially awkward, couch-surfing loser who has nothing to offer the world. There’s no coming-of-age here, just an endorsement of something sad.” – The Improper Bostonian, 08/11/2010