“No life lessons are learned and there’s no moral to the story that I can surmise, at least not beyond the deep appreciation of faded fads, forgotten pop songs and evenings that stretch out into the night with endless possibilities for adventure. It’s a thrilling movie to watch, hurtling forward with the headlong rush of two young people who can’t wait for their lives to begin.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/22/2021
“The most lovingly photographed of the Massachusetts locations is the Wakefield Bowladrome, where it has never stopped being 1978 and all the filmmakers had to do to make it period-specific was take down the ‘No Smoking’ signs. It’s also symptomatic of a certain carelessness on Clooney’s part. I mean, who ever heard of candlepin bowling on Long Island?” – North Shore Movies 12/20/2021
“You have to get dinged around a bit by life before you can make a movie like Fat City, a film that dwells in disappointment without making a big deal about it. The picture drifts in and out of the characters’ days with little in the way of momentum and would probably feel as purposeless as these people’s lives, were it not for Huston’s amiable eye.” – Crooked Marquee, 12/17/2021
“Some people like to claim Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie, even though it takes place at a Christmas party on Christmas Eve and prominently features sleigh bells and Christmas carols on the soundtrack. But even if you don’t want to call Die Hard a Christmas movie, I consider it a holiday gift. After umpteen viewings, the movie still makes me a jolly, happy soul.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/16/2021
“Paul Thomas Anderson’s loose, loopy tale of teenage adulation in 1973 is the director’s most endearing picture, an episodic ramble through fading fashions, ephemeral fads and memories that endure. There’s magic in their misfit, Hollywood-adjacent misadventures, and a wistful evocation of just how fleeting such connections can be. I didn’t want it to end.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/15/2021
“But before the surprisingly rousing third act – for my money the first time since The Avengers assembled that a Marvel movie has achieved the giddy liftoff of all your action figures landing in the same sandbox – No Way Home is some seriously rough sledding, reflecting what a non-starter Tom Holland’s MCU incarnation of Peter Parker turned out to be.” – North Shore Movies, 12/15/2021
“Being The Ricardos is shockingly dismissive of its subject’s genius, allowing Kidman to fumble her way through some brief, half-hearted slapstick while the movie is more interested in another one of Sorkin’s beloved toxic workplaces, where everybody walks-and-talks with their chests puffed out, sputtering profanities and constantly trying to one-up each other.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/09/2021
“The series is an indulgence, admits the Brattle’s creative director Ned Hinkle. ‘I’m not too shy to say it is my 50th birthday this year and this is my gift to myself. When I think about movies that were formative for me or are special to me, it seems like a lot of them come from 1984, a year that gave us Buckaroo Banzai, Repo Man and Streets Of Fire,’ he smiles.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/08/2021
“Fabietto so hates the crummy hand he’s been dealt, he wants to create an entirely different reality to live in, and cinema allows him to build newer, more beautiful worlds from scratch. I’m not sure The Hand Of God always works, but I felt like I understood something important about Sorrentino and his elaborately constructed pictures when it was over.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 12/01/2021
SPLICED PERSONALITY 