”He’s got all the tics and mannerisms, the smoked eyelids and punched cigarettes, but what’s missing is Dylan’s mischief. The role needed the rascally charisma of a young Jack Nicholson or Leonardo DiCaprio’s ability to coax the audience into a conspiratorial relationship. Chalamet nails Dylan’s smirk but not the sly twinkle behind it. It ain’t him, babe.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/23/2024
”White Christmas really isn’t much of a Christmas movie. It’s more of a backstage musical with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as Broadway superstars putting together a benefit show while romancing a singing sister act played by Rosemary Clooney and the dazzling Vera-Ellen. They’re all awfully cute and it’s written in such a way that nobody has to try very hard.” – Crooked Marquee, 12/20/2024
“As in the ghastly 2019 remake, thousands of digital artists have been employed to render almost-but-not-quite photorealistic animals who sing Elton John songs. Except this time they’re Lin-Manuel Miranda songs. Disney honcho Bob Iger insists on calling Mufasa ‘live-action’, even though nothing in the film was live or acted. It’s just an uglier kind of animation.” – North Shore Movies, 12/17/2024
“The ringmaster is a sweaty, corpulent wreck having paint-peeling, Strindbergian arguments with the voluptuous bareback rider Anne (Harriet Andersson) with whom he fled from his wife and children. Bergman was in the midst of an affair with Andersson at the time and his camera is positively in thrall to her fleshy sensuality and Bettie Page bangs.” – Crooked Marquee, 12/13/2024
“These are the unreliable memories of a man who knows he’s damned but is no longer sure for exactly what; an inchoate self-loathing that’s a sure sign we’re in Schrader Country. The film is haunting and elegantly made, if perhaps a bit chilly. It’s a simmering, satisfying cerebral exercise. But the best Schrader movies feel like they’re going to explode.” – North Shore Movies, 12/12/2024
”It’s impossible not to be moved by Pitt playing off the avuncular likes of Buscemi and Perlman, or by watching Joe Pesci level his whole screen presence and legacy into a shattering, wordless cameo in a nursing home. Pitt heartbreakingly holds his own with all of them, reminding us once more that this young actor could have been a contender.” – North Shore Movies, 12/12/2024
”No movie experience this year thrilled me the way Megalopolis did, taking so many big swings and throwing so many wild pitches, half the time I couldn’t believe what I was watching. It’s a cockamamie leap into the unknown unencumbered by conventional rules of screenwriting or parameters of good taste, full of philosophical discussions and boner jokes.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/10/2024
”We both had pretty different ideas of what we wanted from cinema, but he taught me a way to engage with the world. Brudnoy actively sought out people with different perspectives and life experiences. I think that was part of why he loved going to the movies every day — meeting new characters, hearing new stories, always more opportunities to learn.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/09/2024
”It’s all kind of overwhelming in the way that a child remembers such celebrations — full of family members you’re supposed to know, even if you’re not entirely sure how they fit into the picture. Everything’s a bit larger-than-life, but also a little smaller. The morning after I watched the movie, it already felt like something I’d seen years ago.” – North Shore Movies, 12/06/2024
SPLICED PERSONALITY 