“A monstrously funny middle finger of a movie that serves as a splenetic lean-in to pretty much every personal and professional criticism Allen has faced throughout his career. It’s a nasty picture, but feels liberating and fresh. Shaking off any semblance of decorum or need to be liked by the audience, the movie is unapologetic, even exhilarating in its rottenness.“ – Crooked Marquee, 11/14/2024
”The story takes place almost entirely on Murphy’s face, swimming in the infinite sadness of those ice blue eyes. The movie is hushed and has the damp chill of Irish winters. Delicate in its observations and devoid of histrionics, Small Things Like These is pretty much exactly the opposite of the kind of project you’d expect an actor to produce after winning an Oscar.” – North Shore Movies, 11/08/2024
”The notorious and oft-banned 1976 debut of writer-director Catherine Breillat is gross, shocking and undeniably the work of a major artist, even when it feels like a work in progress. This fragmented, expressionistic coming-of-age tale depicts a young woman’s pubescence as a sticky, horned-up horrorshow of errant desires and bodily betrayals.” – Crooked Marquee, 11/08/2024
“You don’t have to be an armchair psychologist to see how such stories spoke to the fears of traumatized men returning from WWII to find women had become more independent in their absence. Much in the way that the superhero movie craze started shortly after 9/11, it’s an American coping mechanism to process our anxieties through pulp.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 11/07/2024
“It’s a classy crowd-pleaser, deftly executed with the no-frills finesse that’s been the Eastwood brand for as long as I’ve been going to the movies. Juror #2 was obviously shot on a budget, with sets that look like they went up yesterday, but it’s got the kind of clean, clear storytelling beats that have become a lost art in contemporary Hollywood.” – North Shore Movies, 11/01/2024
”You might be wondering how all these disparate elements and clashing tones could possibly work together. The answer is about as well as you think. One watches Emilia Pérez the way you’d stare at a duck-billed platypus or one of those exotic animals made up of mismatched parts that Robin Williams cited as proof that God gets stoned.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 10/31/2024
”IFFBoston program director Nancy Campbell and executive director Brian Tamm knew they wanted to do something big for the tenth annual Fall Focus. So, how big did they go? They’ve managed to fit 14 films into the festival’s five days, closing with a special 70mm screening of all 26 reels and 300 lbs. of The Brutalist, literally the most massive movie of the year.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 10/29/2024
”That is one nutty Vatican. But in retrospect, the rave reviews for Conclave are hardly a surprise. Being sequestered with a bunch of cantankerous celibates who dislike each other while trying to settle on the least objectionable option for everybody will be an extremely relatable experience for anyone who has ever voted in a film critics society meeting.” – North Shore Movies, 10/25/2024
”Hagiographic in a way that starts to feel unseemly, full of self-consciously mythic shots of Bruce backlit and slowly ascending stairwells and such while friends and colleagues tell us how great he is. More than once it reminded me of those old ‘Legends of Springsteen’ sketches on The Ben Stiller Show. Surely they could have done better than this.” – North Shore Movies, 10/25/2024
”Sean Baker’s Anora is the best American film of the year so far. It’s also the funniest — a soaring, generous comedy about transactional relationships and the class divide. What starts as a Cinderella story in stiletto heels becomes a bawdy, up-all-night farce. With her crack comic timing and air raid siren of a voice, Madison is like Jean Arthur in a thong.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 10/24/2024
SPLICED PERSONALITY 