“First-time screenwriter Ben Shattuck adapted his short story himself, and the rookie mistake with The History Of Sound is that it’s entirely internalized. There’s nothing for Lionel to do. Such a passive protagonist is okay when we’re reading and are privy to the character’s inner thoughts, but onscreen we’re just watching a handsome man look sullen.” – North Shore Movies, 09/19/2025
“Stuff like McCartney praising them as musical geniuses undoes the verisimilitude that made the first film so special. It’s just being silly with celebrity guest stars. What made Spinal Tap achingly hilarious was the gap between the band’s grandiose posturing and their increasingly low-rent circumstances. You can’t pull off that joke when Sir Elton is fawning over you.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 09/12/2025
“The story of an entitled sociopath who puts a woman that loves him through hell while ruining her family’s holiday, except disguised as a twinkly-eyed romantic comedy about an adorable scamp who charms an uptight older lady into falling for his antics. It’s a pity party for a character that braver filmmakers would have had the nerve to tackle head on.” – North Shore Movies, 09/11/2025
“Jonsson is such a marvelous actor that his camaraderie with Hoffman elevates everything around them. These boys bantering and bonding on their journey can’t help but recall another King adaptation, Rob Reiner’s beloved Stand By Me. Except imagine a version of Stand By Me in which the kid from Jojo Rabbit gets his jaw blown off for walking too slow.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 09/09/2025
“A breakthrough for Wenders, codifying the dreamy, sentimental existentialism that became his signature. The director can be glimpsed at a diner jukebox early in the film, playing the Count Five’s ‘Psychotic Reaction.’ Indeed, it’s impossible to count all the jukeboxes, diners, highways, old muscle cars and rock n’ roll songs in Wim Wenders films.” – Crooked Marquee, 09/05/2025
“The flatness of the onscreen spaces matches the characters’ deadpan lack of affect, conjuring a torpid sort of vacation-mode miasma that becomes beguiling. By the end, you can’t imagine the movie looking any other way. A melancholy undercurrent runs beneath all this poker-faced silliness, almost like Glander has made a Jim Jarmusch movie for little kids.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 09/04/2025
“An expert use of Stamp’s ethereal presence. The more serene he is, the more it throws Braddock off his game. The elder assassin starts making stupid mistakes. Parker’s gotten inside his head, planting sly insinuations and pointed asides. Here’s where Stamp’s playfulness comes in especially handy; he’s able to make being beatific into a way of fucking with you.” – Crooked Marquee, 08/29/2025
“A deliberate throwback to the kind of glib, trash-talking crime pictures that proliferated in the immediate post-Pulp Fiction era when Caught Stealing takes place. I lived in this same Alphabet City neighborhood back then, and the film feels very much like something I would have snuck into at the Village East after a matinee of Feeling Minnesota.” – North Shore Movies, 08/29/2025
“I’m not sure I’ve seen a project that more overtly typifies the corporate fanboy Alamo Drafthouse sensibility I find so off-putting, a celebration of genre in air quotes where everyone’s trying too hard to show what an awesome time they’re having. I say this all the time, but Alamo theaters are for people who wish going to the movies was more like Dave & Busters.” – North Shore Movies, 08/29/2025
“‘I think it’s an instinctual thing,’ Covino explained. ‘There’s something about when emotions get heightened, moving to a more objective perspective can allow us to see that in its totality, and it can be mined for comedy. You have this opportunity to juxtapose a wide shot that allows you to take in the absurdity and laugh at what someone’s going through.’” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 08/28/2025
SPLICED PERSONALITY 