”What’s exasperating is how cynically Garland contorts his storytelling in order to avoid implicating any potential audience members, indulging popular rightwing fantasies about armed insurrection and lefty fears of imperial presidencies while remaining vague and noncommittal about the reasons for the war. He wants to play with firecrackers without setting them off.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 04/11/2024

”I wish the film had been allowed to explore some of these ideas in full, instead of laying pipe for past and future installments. Like most prequels, it only makes the story feel smaller. It’s dispiriting seeing such talent in the service of a spreadsheet. The First Omen proves that Arkasha Stevenson is a real filmmaker. Now someone should let her make a real movie.” – North Shore Movies, 04/05/2024

”As with every Allen film since Café Society, the real star is cinematographer Storaro, pushing digital color into eye-popping new contortions. Sometimes I forgot to read the subtitles because I was so captivated by the delicate play of sunlight in de Laâge’s hair. I didn’t miss much, since we’ve all seen this movie before. How do you say ‘déjà vu’ in French?” – North Shore Movies, 04/04/2024

”One should never underestimate the entertainment value of old biddies saying swears. A pleasantly amusing trifle, Wicked Little Letters is one of those quirky English village comedies that used to play for months on end at the Coolidge or West Newton back before the audience for this sort of thing started staying home and streaming television shows instead.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 04/04/2024

”An innocuous, family adventure film with too many characters and a severe shortage of jokes. Nobody is given anything especially funny to say, but these are skilled performers who can recite placeholder dialogue with comic intonations that occasionally trick your ear into thinking you’ve heard something clever. This is kind of Rudd’s whole deal as an actor.” – North Shore Movies, 03/20/2024

”Rowdy Herrington’s original Road House remains one of the finest of aged ‘80s cheeses. The greatest movie ever directed by someone named Rowdy, it is a film completely comfortable in its own absurdity. By contrast, the remake is uneasy, skittish even. Liman can’t settle on a consistent tone. It’s always either trying too hard or undercutting itself.” – North Shore Movies, 03/19/2024

”A freaky-deaky film noir steeped in body horror and bodily fluids, it’s a sicko comic cross between the Coen brothers and David Cronenberg. Love Lies Bleeding starts out like one of those rural neo-noirs from the era in which it is set, lifting elements from Blood Simple and At Close Range before blossoming into something much stranger and all its own.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 03/14/2024

“There are six credited screenwriters on Peter Farrelly’s latest picture, as well at two more writers credited with the story. That’s a lot of paychecks for a script that feels like it was knocked out in an afternoon. As a critic who has expressed a preference for the filmmaker’s earlier, funnier movies, Ricky Stanicky serves as a reminder to be careful what you wish for.” – North Shore Movies, 03/08/2024

”And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time before I see another film as stubbornly soporific as Netflix’s dreary sci-fi drama Spaceman. There’s about 20 minutes of story here stretched out to nearly two hours, the movie idling alongside the spacecraft. This is the gloomiest, most humorless Sandler picture yet, and I’m including the one about 9/11.” – North Shore Movies, 02/29/2024

”A cavalcade of gags and stunts with the zany cartoon logic of Bugs and company at their best, flinging the characters around in antic set pieces that first defy the laws of physics then play them for unexpected payoffs. Shot in high contrast black-and-white, the movie has the undercranked aesthetic of an old-timey silent short revved up for TikTok attention spans.” – North Shore Movies, 02/29/2024