“A feature-length ‘It Gets Better’ video for broke, middle-aged white dudes, Tom Hanks’ second directorial effort Larry Crowne is a stridently square little duck. It’s a deeply doofy movie, prone to sitcom staging and broadly comic groaners. Bereft of conflict, the film coasts along in second gear on breezy charm, gentle humanism and star wattage.” – Philadelphia Weekly, 07/06/2011
“Eventually, the emotional history and fascinating cross-cultural minutiae boils down to the handsome Jedi wondering if the hot French chick wants to have sex with him. Mills needs to look up from the lint that’s collected in his navel. He’s a clear talent behind the camera, but there’s not a lot of story here.” – The Improper Bostonian, 06/29/2011
“The AMC Boston Common ran our press screening with a busted center sound channel. They also carelessly left the 3-D filter over the lens, blurring and distorting the image. I gave up, pulled my hat down over my face and took a nap long before the pre-show trivia and word-scramble slides wound up projected over Malick’s magnum opus.” – The Improper Bostonian, 06/15/2011
“Minor Herzog. Not until its final reel does it take flight the way his best pictures do. Here we see that toxic backwash from a neighboring nuclear power plant has spawned a breed of mutant, albino alligators. Their connection to the Chauvet cave is tenuous, but these pale, sickly creatures send our narrator into pontification overdrive.” – The Improper Bostonian, 06/01/2011
“Sorry gals, we understand that it’s supposed to be your special day and all, but weddings are absurdly expensive. Sometimes they’re also huge pain in the ass. Wiig proves she can carry a movie, and Feig has finally gotten around to directing one. Hopefully next time they’ll ditch the crass interludes and shoot one from the heart.” – The Improper Bostonian, 05/18/2011
“A low-budget labor of love for Jodie Foster, the film grapples sincerely with mental illness within a patently absurd context. It doesn’t quite work, but it provides something of a cinematic exorcism for the public’s increasingly conflicted relationship with Gibson. It also gives a platform for one of his most indelible performances.” – The Improper Bostonian, 05/04/2011
“The pauses and the business happening just outside the frame suggest a larger world, where everything is unsteady and open to hours of interpretation. Every time you think you have a handle on the damn thing, it just keeps wriggling away. Certified Copy reminded me why I love movies.” – The Improper Bostonian, 04/13/2011
“A classy flop: All its sins are of ambition. The film is at least attempting something unconventional without talking down to the audience. True to form, there’s a deeply committed Damon performance, which happens to be the best thing about it. But even I have to admit that the film stinks.” – The Improper Bostonian, 03/02/2011
“The connection between Dean and Cindy is first electric, then deadening. Cianfrance’s cruelest cuts are between the beginning and the end of their relationship. Though sometimes too schematic in its construction, the movie is brutal and unwavering in its depiction of a love affair running out of steam until there’s nothing left but hurt.” – The Improper Bostonian, 01/05/2011
