“I’m finding it hard to shake all the studiously polite interactions conducted through downturned, unsmiling faces. A tone of stagnancy pervades throughout the picture, which feels exhausted. It’s not Wiseman’s style to overtly editorialize, but the film’s frequent visits to a local cemetery draw a line under what’s already obvious: This place is dying.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 11/02/2018
“Cheerfully disregarding a lot of the true-crime particulars, Ruizpalacios has fashioned a slippery meditation on questions of ownership, heritage and history as plunder. He’s got a gift for writing a certain breed of over-educated and under-motivated young male suffering from a surly disaffection that’ll feel awfully familiar to fellow Gen Xers.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 11/01/2018
“The movie is logy and feels interminable. Guadagnino and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom avoid Argento’s vivid palette in favor of a dreary beige blur. This Suspiria is awfully ugly to look at, and replacing Goblin’s manic prog rock score with Thom Yorke’s droning and moaning is another energy sap that makes these two-and-half hours drag like five.” – North Shore Movies, 11/01/2018
“Of course she is an exasperating woman who makes terrible choices. Loden isn’t asking that you admire the character or applaud her decisions. Wanda just wants you to acknowledge that she exists. Spend a little time in this person’s company and maybe even leave the theater with a feeling for what she’s going through. That’s what art’s for.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/25/2018
“Wispy and underwhelming, there’s a lackadaisical, conflict-averse quality to Jonah Hill’s directorial debut that leaves a galling aftertaste. It is a film short on incident but long on carefully curated period details. There isn’t much here in the way of compelling drama, but if you like to gawk at Air Jordans and old CDs this is will be 84 minutes of heaven.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/24/2018
Had a grand old time sitting in with pals Kris Jenson and Evan Crean to talk about Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and John Carpenter’s original 1978 Halloween before discussing my recent journey through some of its shoddy sequels and how much we all improbably enjoyed director David Gordon Green’s nifty new installment. – Spoilerpiece Theatre, 10/19/2018
“A raucous roller-coaster ride full of bravura set-pieces and applause breaks. It’s a wild Friday night at the movies, celebrating hoary old slasher tropes with a degree of artistry seldom seen in the genre. Green stages the scare sequences with the verve of a movie-mad kid who can’t believe he gets to play with Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. It’s infectious.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/19/2018
“A gentle caper comedy full of wistful, wrinkly smiles and a sweetly elegiac tone. Putting these two at odds is an inspired pairing, with Affleck’s rumpled deadpan and miserable mustache consistently outshone by Redford’s mega-watt charisma. The younger actor seems to have prematurely Matthau-ed, displaying withered grimaces that are comedy gold.” – North Shore Movies, 10/18/2018
“Audiard’s oddball cutting patterns mean scenes and entrire storylines tend to self-destruct in eruptions of left-field violence, the film constantly interrupting itself on the way to wherever you might think it’s going. That is, until a gorgeously unexpected ending, which sneaks up on you with a warmth one never imagined from a bloody picture like this.” – North Shore Movies, 10/18/2018
“Featuring nine new features packed into three days at the Brattle, the autumn event is a straight-up binge for movie buffs. But while previous installments may have provided area audiences with our first looks at Moonlight, Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, there’s more to the series than just early peeks at Oscar contenders.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/16/2018
SPLICED PERSONALITY 