”Full of oddball digressions and magic realist flights of fancy, the film has the loose, expansive nature of a neighborhood legend, like a rambling tall tale passed down and embellished from one generation to the next. Household Saints is a jewel from an era that was a treasure trove for American independent cinema, yet for the longest time you couldn’t see it anywhere.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 01/03/2024
Had a wonderful time with my dear friend Jen Johans talking about some underdisscused B-sides in the great Robert Altman’s career. Selections include the avian anarchy of Brewster McCloud, his CBS adaptation of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, the delightful Cookie’s Fortune and The Company, a stealth artisitic manifesto that’s a favorite of both mine and Jen’s. – Watch With Jen, 12/22/2023
”Moviegoing bounced back during 2023, dominating the cultural conversation in a way we haven’t seen since before streaming and the pandemic ruined everything. The fact that a film as sophisticated and ambivalent as Oppenheimer could gross more than $950 million says great things about the future of movies and the people going to see them.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/20/2023
Jen Johans’ latest physical media special edition gets Walter Chaw going about Walter Hill’s The Warriors, Bilge Ebiri on Terrence Malick’s Days Of Heaven, Nikki Dolson on William Wyler’s The Desperate Hours and somehow I wound up talking about Carlito’s Way with two of the world’s greatest living crime writers, William Boyle and S.A. Cosby. – Watch With Jen, 12/04/2023
“Both a dramatization of Orlando and a deconstruction of the text, the movie is a manifesto obsessed with tearing down boundaries in form and content. To Preciado, gender roles are ‘political fictions enforced by repetition and violence,’ which is why the film itself so flagrantly defies any genre categorizations. He’s trying to make a nonbinary movie.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/04/2023
“The movie takes place in 1946 and could have been made then as well, were it not for the astounding special effects that somehow manage to render the most detailed, photorealistic Godzilla I’ve ever seen in a movie… yet he still kind of lumbers around like a man in a suit with a load in his pants. This is a tricky needle to thread, and Yamazaki does so brilliantly.” – North Shore Movies, 12/01/2023
”Not every first-time filmmaker comes out of the gate with a stone cold masterpiece, but a surprising number have come pretty close. Debut features arrive in all shapes and sizes, as we can see from a wonderfully extensive retrospective running at the Coolidge Corner Theatre over the next few months in celebration of the venue’s upcoming expansion.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 12/01/2023
”I know I’m in the minority on this, but I find Carey Mulligan to be one of the biggest buzzkills in cinema, always scowling and bringing scenes down. The second hour of Maestro is a drag even before it becomes a cancer movie. This is one of those biopics where the storylines are all resolved with a half-hour to go, and then you sit there waiting for everyone to die.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 11/21/2023
”Phoenix’s pouty performance is going to be controversial, with lines like ‘Destiny brought me to this lamb chop’ already breaking the internet. I think he’s a hoot, and Vanessa Kirby’s magnetically imperious Joesphine is every bit as delightful, constantly calling her husband’s bluffs in a randy, dom-sub relationship that’s practically a dirty comedy act.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 11/21/2023
SPLICED PERSONALITY 