“I understand it must be difficult to photograph Megan Fox in such a way that does not make her look like a sex doll come to life, but nonetheless, the amount of screen time Emmett devotes to her being choked makes it start to feel like a fetish film. I found myself envying Bruce Willis, who didn’t have to be around for any of this. Not even the scenes that he’s in.” – North Shore Movies, 07/21/2021

“The extreme strangeness of Nicolas Cage’s physical presence can sometimes be a problem in movies. He can’t play regular people anymore, but then regular people can’t play the kinds of roles Nic Cage likes to play these days. His otherworldliness is part of the text, used to brilliant effect here by Sarnoski as a sort of wandering, samurai philosopher.” – North Shore Movies, 07/16/2021

“Increasingly petty and distasteful as it wears on, Roadrunner becomes less a portrait of a troubled genius and more a snippy tell-all about a television crew getting fed up with their mercurial star. I was worried I might be being oversensitive because of my enormous admiration for Bourdain’s work, so I watched the movie a second time and liked it even less.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 07/15/2021

“Shot last year under COVID-19 restrictions, the film conjures the eerily barren cityscape and hours of idle anxiety with unsettling acuity. These two priests and their heretic pal kick around questions of theology and philosophy. Tukel’s film is perhaps most valuable as a snapshot of what it felt like to be both scared to death and bored out of your mind.” – North Shore Movies, 07/03/2021

“She gently sexually harasses bassist Tim Dahl like somebody’s naughty auntie, and when Lunch starts riffing on all the empty luxury condos littering the formerly rat-infested Lower East Side it’s impossible not to imagine her as a No Wave Fran Lebowitz. There were a few scenes when I half-expected to see Scorsese sitting next to her and giggling.” – North Shore Movies, 07/03/2021

“The best parts of Zola feel charged with a genuinely dangerous energy. There’s probably a manic, madcap version of this movie that’s more entertaining but not nearly as good. Bravo allows us to stew for a bit in the sticky evening air of tacky Tampa with its Confederate flags and bedbug motels, where anything can happen. Florida, man.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 06/28/2021

“Like the recent, risible Gotti, the film is infused with a dumbshit nostalgia for a time when tough guys took care of things on their own. It’s practically an act of advocacy on behalf of mobsters, equivocating Lansky’s role in countless murders as the same business as your local state lottery. If the movie weren’t so incompetent, it would be infuriating.” – North Shore Movies, 06/25/2021

“If this isn’t your kind of thing, get ready for the longest 92 minutes of your life. But for some of us the word ‘pretentious’ isn’t necessarily a pejorative, and it can be downright thrilling to watch two artists follow each other all the way out on a limb like this and start sawing it off. Ferrara and Dafoe are making cinema in a world that wants to watch television.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 06/22/2021

“It’s a film about listlessness and inertia, and being bored in unfamiliar places. Take Me Somewhere Nice unfurls in a hazy torpor, like a record playing at the wrong speed. So many scenes begin with Alma waking up and wondering where she is, a groggy sensation that the movie makes mutual. But when it’s over you feel like you’ve been someplace.” – North Shore Movies, 06/17/2021

“Shot in stunning, super-high-contrast 16mm black-and-white, the picture presents a child’s-eye perspective of endless possibility and wonder, in which every landscape looks like a cross between a junkyard and a playground. This is the kind of movie that you want to hold dear, even when it’s being as messy and mood-swingy as one of the kids it chronicles.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 06/17/2021