“Like so many movies siloed off to subscribers in our streaming service dystopia, this nifty alien-invasion thriller is only available on Hulu, where most people’s miscalibrated televisions and tinny laptop speakers will mangle the cool colors and excellent sound design. I wish I’d been able to see it in a theater packed with teens in the mood for a good scream.” – North Shore Movies, 09/21/2023

“Director Craig Gillespie specializes in smarmy takes on true-life tales, and he tries to turn the GameStop saga into a slobs-versus-snobs comedy, albeit one suspiciously short on jokes. Dumb Money is mostly montages of news footage and memes interspersed with a few scenes in which famous actors look at their phones and say swears.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 09/21/2023

“Branagh has become such a puzzling filmmaker, always putting the camera in the oddest places. A Haunting In Venice isn’t slathered with as much tacky CGI as his previous Poirot movies, probably because nobody has to pretend to be on a train or a boat. But it’s full of ostentatious shots tilted up through the floorboards or from inside the fireplace.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 09/14/2023

“As befitting this aesthetic, director D.B. Stockfleth’s film is a good deal more visually interesting than your usual rockumentary. Talking head interviews are intertwined with groovy animations and lovingly degraded home videos, all layered on top of each other with the same harmonic sensibility these musicians used for their four-track recordings.” – North Shore Movies 09/14/2023

“Not a lot of a surprises here, save for the quality of the performances from Campbell and Dickinson, who invest their slowly thawing relationship with genuine feeling. She’s a dynamo in the Tatum O’Neal tough cookie mode. There’s scarcely a scene you won’t see coming a mile away, but it’s comforting when formulas are handled with this kind of care.” – North Shore Movies, 09/14/2023

“Compelling, if confoundingly structured, director Danny Wu’s documentary borrows its title from an early draft of Kane and profiles three citizens epitomizing their country’s cruelly unfulfilled promises. The movie makes a convincing case that the American experiment requires constant care, because we’ve always been perilously close to the abyss.” – North Shore Movies, 09/10/2023

“These Skinemax After Dark specials all seemed to feature the same Pacific Coast Highway vistas, blue moonlit mansions and cherry red sportscars. Then come the gruntless, un-sweaty sex scenes in front of a fireplace or in the bathtub, typically surrounded by billowing drapes and candles. Lord, so many candles. Cue the cheesy synthesizers and sax solos.” – North Shore Movies, 09/01/2023

“An impressively acted, downbeat mystery with a strong sense of place, The Good Mother is initially more observant than one might expect from a potboiler at this budget level, grounded in reality with well-researched details about safe-injection sites and the depressing state of the newspaper industry. Then the story decides to become breathtakingly stupid.” – North Shore Movies, 09/01/2023

“Co-scripted with star Sennott while they were working on Shiva Baby, Seligman’s shockingly violent, wildly raunchy follow-up overflows with insane comic conceits and random, fourth-wall-breaking asides. At once a horny high school sex comedy and a self-aware deconstruction of the same, Bottoms feels unhinged, in ways both productive and puzzling.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 08/31/2023

“Fran Rubel Kuzui’s newly restored 1988 debut is short on story and long on charm, genial in that hangout-movie manner that rewards repeat viewings. Tokyo Pop captures the city’s dreamy, discombobulating energy in ways that clearly made an impression on a young Sofia Coppola. It’s an awfully sweet picture, welcoming and easy to watch.” – North Shore Movies, 08/26/2023