“Christian Petzold’s dryly funny comedy of (bad) manners changes tones abruptly, like those suddenly shifting winds. This sneakily profound picture throws into stark perspective just how fleeting are the opportunities for simple pleasures that our work won’t allow. Take a swim. Talk to the pretty girl selling ice cream. Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.” – North Shore Movies, 08/04/2023

“There’s not a lot of overt drama in the picture, which is better acted than directed and better directed than written. These are hearty, Northwestern folk who tend to internalize their emotions. But Goggins’ wide, friendly smile can’t hide the sadness behind his eyes, and things weigh heavily very well on Casey Affleck. No actor these days aches quite so eloquently.” – North Shore Movies, 08/04/2023

“Glum and lumbering. There’s no energy to the picture. It’s abysmally directed, relying on clumsy handheld camerawork that’s presumably intended to goose along the action but mostly just obscures it. Cinematographer Nick Matthews seems especially averse to lighting people’s faces. When Travolta and Dorff finally square off in a barn, we can barely see them.” – North Shore Movies, 08/04/2023

“Is representation alone enough to merit recommendation? In the summer of 2018, while trying to stay out of the Crazy Rich Asians debate that animates the first and best part of Park’s film, I meekly noted that in a perfect world, people of all races and backgrounds would have their own mediocre romantic comedies. Shortcomings suggests we’re well on our way.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 08/03/2023

“It makes perfect sense that the gateway to perdition would end up being opened by a bunch of little assholes on TikTok. This nifty, nasty Australian thriller posits demonic possession as the latest stupidly dangerous social media challenge to go viral. It’s an auspicious debut. There’s a bracing meanness to the movie that keeps you guessing where it’s gonna go.” – North Shore Movies, 07/30/2023

“A cautionary fable in which nature is dangerously out of balance. In synopsis it probably sounds pretty strident. But the movie never feels like a lecture because Alegría is a filmmaker far more interested in images than dialogue. There’s a mesmerizing rhythm to the picture, juxtaposing magic realist flights of fancy with an almost abstract, poetic sensibility.” – North Shore Movies, 07/28/2023

“I like to say that I would watch Nicolas Cage in anything, and it often feels as if I do. Sympathy For The Devil is barely a movie. It’s a nothing-budget quickie Cage appears to have taken as a personal challenge, going bugfuck bonkers amid the somnambulistic surroundings to try and make something memorable by sheer force of will. He very nearly pulls it off.” – North Shore Movies, 07/28/2023

“The improbable billion-dollar boom surrounding those small stuffed animals is a fascinating, totally ‘90s tale of irrational exuberance and the rise of the internet. Unfortunately, this perfect storm of sociological circumstances scarcely interests the makers of The Beanie Bubble, a flaccid, grindingly one-note portrait of a craven CEO and the women he wronged.” – North Shore Movies, 07/28/2023

“The irony should not be lost on anyone that the freshest movie in multiplexes right now is the seventh installment of a decades-old franchise based on a 1960s television program. But as its star reminded us last summer, ‘It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot.’ The tireless Tom Cruise and company have outdone themselves again. This is a preposterously entertaining picture.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 07/14/2023