THE INSTIGATORS

The Inistigators has some of my favorite actors brandishing brusquely funny Boston attitudes while running around making mischief in the city I love. So how come it falls so flat? Sometimes a movie can have all the right components and none of them wind up working together. I found myself leaning forward in my seat, wondering why I wasn’t enjoying it more.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 08/01/2024

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DIDI

”The best moments in Dìdi feel lived-in and true. It’s a very savvy movie about growing up online, and will cause Proustian reveries in some viewers with its pointed use of AIM instant messaging sound effects and the emotional devastation of discovering you’re no longer displayed in someone’s MySpace Top 8 friends. (We’ve all been there, Chris.)” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 07/31/2024

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DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

“Barely a movie, Deadpool & Wolverine is a filmed attempt to realign corporate assets under a new umbrella. Yet the packed theater I was in ate it up, arf-arf-arfing like circus seals at every reference and illustrating just how little people are willing to accept from an entertainment if it makes them feel like part of a community. It will probably make a billion dollars.” – North Shore Movies, 07/26/2024

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GREEN BORDER

”It’s a bruiser of a picture, the kind that can be daunting for a lot of audiences. I mean, try being at a barbecue where people are asking you for movie recommendations, then suggest a two-and-a-half-hour, black-and-white drama about the European refugee crisis and see how quickly everyone goes back to talking about the potato salad.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 07/25/2024

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TWISTERS

”One can lament the circumstances that have led to the existence of Twisters while also acknowledging that the film itself is — for what it is — actually pretty good. Certainly an improvement on the original and a fun Friday night at the movies, it’s enough to leave you wishing these talented people had been hired to make something more than a sequel to Twister.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 07/18/2024

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LONGLEGS

”One of the most formally confident movies I’ve seen this year. I could go on all day about Perkins’ smart stylistic flourishes and his command of cinematic grammar. What I can’t tell you is what the film is supposed to be about, or why we should be invested beyond the bravura technique. Longlegs is an extremely unsettling experience. It’s also rather an empty one.” – North Shore Movies, 07/12/2024

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BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F

”Better than it probably should be but still not very good. There’s a comfort food quality to this stroll down memory lane. It feels like one of those sitcom reunion movies that networks used to produce back in the ‘80s, coasting on familiar faces and a catchy theme song. It’ll play best on Netflix, where most people will be watching it while doing something else.” – North Shore Movies, 07/02/2024

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MAXXXINE

”Rushed and overwritten, with West constantly putting the cart before the horse to shoehorn as many homages and semiotic asides as he can cram into a given scene. But such self-reflexive wankery only goes so far unless you’ve got something to say, and MaXXXine is one of those movies that confuses talking about big ideas with actually having them.” – North Shore Movies, 07/01/2024

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DADDIO

”What’s refreshing is that there aren’t any overt lessons being learned here. This trip isn’t going to change either of their lives, no matter how bad the traffic. What Hall’s film captures is something far more important and elusive. It’s about how an unexpected human connection, even one as fleeting as a cab ride, can deepen the way we see the world around us.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 06/27/2024

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JANET PLANET

“As with Baker’s plays, the silences are long and the dialogue oblique. Janet Planet can occasionally be a frustrating picture. The playwright’s penchant for real-time longueurs doesn’t always translate as well to the screen as it plays onstage, where being boring on purpose carries with it an entirely different electricity. But the movie has a canny, cumulative effect.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 06/27/2024

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