“For this Kelly Reichardt super-fan, finally seeing River Of Grass twenty-two years after the fact feels a bit like happening upon a yearbook picture of an old friend dressed in adorably dated fashions. It’s a wicked ’90s indie movie, serving as a nifty time capsule of certain cinematic trends that were on their way out plus some others that we’re still putting up with.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/18/2016
THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY * * 1 / 2
Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson, Isla Fisher and Penelope Cruz. Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston and Peter Baynham. Directed by Louis Leterrier.
KNIGHT OF CUPS * *
Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Imogen Poots and Brian Dennehy. Written and directed by Terrence Malick.
TRIPLE 9 * * *
Starring Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Woody Harrelson and Kate Winslet. Screenplay by Matt Cook. Directed by John Hillcoat.
“Another epistemological prank from cinema’s snarkiest philosophers, Hail, Caesar! is a Passion Play played for giggles, with the Golden Age of Hollywood serving as the garden of Gethsemane for yet another in the Coens’ long line of put-upon, serious men. Like most of their films, it’s about the folly of searching for meaning in a cruel and indifferent universe.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 02/08/2016
“An elliptical and at times preposterously entertaining load of hooey that both sends up and embraces every chest-beating trope in that old alpha ‘He-Man Of Letters’ tradition. Mojave is probably what Mailer’s Tough Guys Don’t Dance might’ve been like, if only Tough Guys Don’t Dance hadn’t been one of the worst movies ever made.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/28/2016
“The Star Wars movie you think you’ve been waiting for. Abrams gets the tricky tone and jokey exhilaration down pat, the feeling of (re)visiting a rusted-out, slightly sarcastic fairy tale. Still, a few hours after the credits rolled it’s all evaporating and I’m struggling to recall a remotely original or inventive moment in the entire goddamn thing.” – North Shore Movies, 12/18/2015
“Youth feels very much like one of those movies a director makes right after a huge success when everybody’s calling him a genius and nobody dares say no. There’s a reckless energy with which it lunges from one ga-ga visual flourish to another, consistency and coherence be damned. I found it terribly endearing.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/11/2015
“So full of unconvincing green-screen work I wouldn’t be surprised if the actors shot their scenes on a soundstage in Burbank. In The Heart Of The Sea keeps obnoxiously insisting this story inspired Melville, but nowhere here will you find the insights into obsession and humanity that made his book a classic. The movie doesn’t know Dick.” – Movie Mezzanine, 12/11/2015
“At once deeply sorrowful and exuberantly silly, Chi-Raq is a scabrous, sexy musical comedy shot through with an almost unbearable sadness. The majority of the (filthy) dialogue is delivered in rhyming verse, with broad buffoonery bumping up against hectoring sermons and stunning moments of contemplation and grace.” – Movie Mezzanine, 12/04/2015
SPLICED PERSONALITY 