“It’s really a whole mood, this picture. Men sit quietly and brood in the chiaroscuro cinematography, with an omnipresent cello score by Christopher Benstead that sounds like he’s scraping the bottom of the instrument. I’m an easy lay for this kind of thing, when a filmmaker marries a visual idea to a storytelling conceit. They used to call it directing.” – North Shore Movies, 05/06/2021

“Well-researched and even more well-meaning, Crisis provides plenty of sobering statistics but the drama is stilted and schematic. Traffic suffered from some similar screenwriting woes that were transcended by its killer cast and Soderbergh’s alchemical camera savvy. The characters here feel as muted and colorless as the gunmetal grey cinematography.” – North Shore Movies, 05/04/2021

“The gnarly centerpiece of Clancy’s novel found our protagonist interrogating an operative by imploding him with a deep-sea diver’s decompression chamber. The movie goes one better by having Jordan set a Russian official’s limo on fire, then jump into the backseat and torture information out of the guy while the car is slowly engulfed by flames. Awesome.” – North Shore Movies, 04/30/2021

“What’s welcome is a worthwhile role for Mila Kunis, a fine actress we see too little of these days outside of whiskey commercials. She emphasizes an addict’s animal cunning, eyes always alert for a fresh angle. Looking at her ravaged visage it’s a miracle Molly’s made it to 31, but thanks to Kunis’ abrasive energy you get a sense of how she’s survived.” – North Shore Movies, 04/29/2021

“Most movies concerning refugees depict them as faceless, huddled masses defined by their suffering, whereas in Limbo these are idiosyncratic, sometimes extremely annoying individuals. Sharrock’s trying to make a comedy about a serious subject usually only addressed in documentaries. He doesn’t always succeed, but when his jokes land they leave a mark.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 04/29/2021

“The movie provides gratuitous violence in abundance if not ebullience –mostly in constricted closeups, cut together only semi-coherently– dutifully disposing of guts and limbs. The famous video game catch-phrases are trotted out for moments people probably would have applauded in a crowded theater, but at home on HBO Max elicit far more subdued reactions.” – North Shore Movies, 04/23/2021

“Mosese’s debut is the sort that gets us critics reaching for our lofty rhetoric in part because it’s so thrilling to watch. This is one of those movies that seems to be inventing a new cinematic language as it goes along. By turns alienating and enthralling, it’s an experience richer, deeper and much stranger than I’ve had with a film in some time.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 04/09/2021

“Director Oliver Hermanus has a dryly witty way of observing how the exaggerated swagger of performative masculinity can so easily become charged with homoeroticism. (I already mentioned the moustache.) It can get a little precious, but Moffie keeps us on edge with constant reminders of the grave dangers accompanying these desires.” – North Shore Movies, 04/09/2021

“It was that same feeling I got while watching Wonder Woman 1984 and realizing none of the scenes correspond with each other because they were all from different drafts and different writers and different meetings and nobody had a vision of how the movie was supposed to fit together. But that doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Nobody cares.” – North Shore Movies, 04/01/2021

“Shatner and Smart are old pros who know how to bat it back and forth, but as soon as their relationship threatens to become interesting the screenplay starts piling on idiotic misunderstandings. Most of the unnecessary antics in this film could have been resolved with a simple conversation, but modern movies don’t like treating the elderly as adults.” – North Shore Movies, 03/26/2021