“A giddy, sensory-overloaded roller-coaster revved up on its own absurdity. It’s outrageously stupid and enormously entertaining, with Bay keeping multiple cameras whizzing and whirling around from every conceivable angle, fully understanding if that we stop to think about anything for more than five seconds the whole movie will collapse like a house of cards.” – North Shore Movies, 04/10/2022
“It’s a thrillingly visceral experience, but also one with a questioning, philosophical soul. The Train was the last studio action extravaganza to be shot in black-and-white, and the shades of gray suit the murky moral inquiries. It’s a movie about foolhardy heroes and grand, symbolic gestures, wondering aloud if art and culture are really worth dying for. And if not, what is? ” – Crooked Marquee, 04/08/2022
“This is an odd and unsettling film that despite its fundamental strangeness still somehow never manages to be all that interesting. Lemercier’s insane stunt is in the service of a by-the-numbers biopic that checks off all the important events in Celine Dion’s life – oops, I meant Aline Dieu’s – without having much of an angle on any of them.” – North Shore Movies, 04/07/2022
“Pine is excellent as the lovelorn, regretful rogue, even if most of Metz’s direction seems to be for him and Newton to gaze at each other across the table as ‘sexfully’ as possible. It’s the kind of role you could see Redford playing 40 years ago in a movie that would’ve had a larger scale and a few more big twists. Still, this is a four-star film for turtleneck fetishists.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 04/07/2022
“What began as a drama about the plight of our veterans veers off into nonsense. All the evocative details about post-military life in America are dumped in favor of improbable machine gun battles in bustling, European locales where henchmen can’t hit the side of a barn. It’s like if Coming Home suddenly shape-shifted into a Liam Neeson revenge picture.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 04/07/2022
“You’re not going to find a film more aptly titled than Everything Everywhere All At Once. This madcap, maximalist opus from writer-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert is an exhilarating, exhausting experience. Frantic, philosophical and seriously silly, it’s entirely too much of a movie about how the world can feel like entirely too much. Especially these days.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/31/2022
“Rock’s fury was focused on performative outrage and empty, politically correct gestures, spitting fire at corporations like Lululemon, which put up signs in their stores congratulating themselves for standing against racism while selling $100 yoga pants. Most folks, the comedian countered, would be fine with $20 yoga pants that said the n-word once in a while.” – Rolling Stone, 03/31/2022
“The prevailing wisdom within the Academy seems to be that regular folks don’t care about these categories, because I guess boring stuff like editing, production design, original score and sound aren’t important aspects of the cinematic experience. Audiences will instead be indulged this year with new awards sourced on Twitter, of all godforsaken places.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/24/2022
“Szumowska takes a workmanlike approach to the survival sequences, for the most part trudging along through poor visibility, with Watts tripping over things once in a while or falling into holes. The film was shot in Slovenia, and area viewers will note with some amusement that the extensive exteriors bear not even a passing resemblance to the Granite State.” – North Shore Movies, 03/23/2022
“The calendar kicks off welcoming writer-director Flora Gomes. The 72-year-old, Bissau-Guinean filmmaker studied in Cuba under the legendary Santiago Álvarez and worked as an assistant to French New Wave master Chris Marker, before returning to his homeland to make a series of powerful pictures confronting the legacy of Portuguese colonial rule.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 03/22/2022
SPLICED PERSONALITY 