BRIGHT LIGHTS: STARRING CARRIE FISHER AND DEBBIE REYNOLDS * * * 1 / 2
A documentary directed by Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens. Featuring Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Todd Fisher, Eddie Fisher and Griffin Dunne.
NASHVILLE SCENE FILM POLL 2016
“I left a press screening of Hacksaw Ridge four times to complain about the masking. AMC’s reps told me they were ‘working on it and it will be fixed soon.’ They also told another one of my colleagues, ‘Sorry, it’s broken and can’t be fixed.’ This is just how things are now. Chains project movies improperly and straight-up lie to customers. Nobody gives a shit.” – Nashville Scene, 01/05/2017
SILENCE
“Stubbornly unlike anything you’ll find in arthouses today, this severe and intensely challenging picture owes more to Ingmar Bergman’s haunted spiritual crises or Robert Bresson’s austere allegories than any contemporary models. The fact that it exists at all is astonishing, the fact that it’s a big-budget release from a major studio is a miracle.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/04/2017
SPOILERPIECE THEATRE #129: PATRIOTS DAY AND THE (OTHER) WORST MOVIES OF 2016
Had a blast sitting in with fellow Boston Online Film Critics Association members Evan Crean and Charlie Nash to discuss Marky Mark’s exploitative Boston Marathon fantasy, along with some other 2016 what-were-they-thinking lowlights, including Batman V Superman, Suicide Squad, 13 Hours, Arrival, Captain Fantastic and Dirty Grandpa. – Spoilerpiece Theatre, 12/30/2016
THE FIVE BEST FILMS OF 2016
“The funniest movie ever made about grieving and the saddest movie ever made about the North Shore. Casey Affleck delivers a performance of such private, inarticulate heartbreak it rivals Heath Ledger’s iconic turn in Brokeback Mountain, throwing up emotional walls that keep getting knocked down by a world that stubbornly refuses to stop spinning.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/26/2016
BOFCA AWARDS PODCAST: THE BEST OF 2016
Talking 2016 with fellow Boston Online Film Critics Association members Bob Chipman, Steve Head, Megan Kearns, Charlie Nash, Evan Crean, Andrew Crump and sleepy Brett Michel. Films discussed: Elle, The Handmaiden, Certain Women, Silence, Green Room, Hell Or High Water, Paterson, La La Land, Manchester By The Sea, Moonlight. – BOFCA, 12/26/2016
PASSENGERS
PASSENGERS * 1 / 2
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne and Andy Garcia. Screenplay by Jon Spaihts. Directed by Morten Tyldum.
WHISKEY, CIGARETTES AND MISTLETOE: SHANE BLACK’S CHRISTMAS AT THE BRATTLE
“Ensuring I won’t get my shopping done until the last possible moment, this week The Brattle Theatre has three days of double features reeking of whiskey, cigarettes and mistletoe. If you prefer your holiday tidings laced with arias of profanity, inventive torture sequences and comically brutal gunfights, Santa’s got a lot of presents under the tree this year.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/20/2016
PATRIOTS DAY
“The movie spends so much time fellating its bogus hero, were it about an actual person Patriots Day would seem like a North Korean propaganda film. But instead it’s just the tasteless delusions of a vain movie star recreating his hometown’s most horrifying moments so he can dress up and play policeman. Everyone involved should be ashamed.” – North Shore Movies, 12/20/2016
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY * * 1 / 2
Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Alan Tudyk and Forest Whitaker. Screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. Directed by Gareth Edwards.
