”Filler like this only makes it hurt all the more that the Academy long ago shuttled their Lifetime Achievement Awards off to a separate, untelevised ceremony. Maybe you would like to see pioneering cinema legends like Wes Studi, David Lynch, and Lina Wertmuller receive honorary Oscars and learn a little about their lifes’ work? Too bad.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 02/10/2020
Skyped in again with my dear friend Craig D. Lindsey, who was kind enough this time to introduce me as “a longtime motherfucker, everyone likes him and shit.” (Only the first part is true.) In any case, it’s shortly after the Oscars and we’re talking about the euphoria of Bong Joon Ho’s history-making wins amid an otherwise disastrous telecast. – Everything Is Cancelled, 02/10/2020
“It’s all a matter of routine, which the movie conveys with an artfully numbed sense of dread. The Assistant illustrates how entrenched power structures perpetuate themselves in an office environment, and how everybody who’s interested in sticking around for very long knows enough to mind their place and when to look the other way.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 02/07/2020
Had a slightly tipsy 2AM Mountain time chat with host Blake Howard about some highlights from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, including Eliza Hittman’s extraordinary Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Josephine Decker’s Shirley, Kirsten Johnson’s Dick Johnson Is Dead and the regrettable fiasco of Dee Rees’ The Last Thing He Wanted. – The Take Podcast 01/31/2020
“Partially a product relaunch, this surprisingly sturdy documentary is itself a savvy business maneuver, positioning one of the biggest stars in the world as a comeback-hungry underdog while introducing us to a new Taylor 2.0 who cusses, disobeys her advisors and is unafraid to speak out about politics, women’s issues and anything else she damn well pleases.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/30/2020
“It’s difficult to imagine a more spectacularly depressing lineup of films. The nominees, which are of substantially higher quality (if not higher spirits) than in recent years, cover such crowd-pleasing topics as cancer, kidnapping, child rape, abortion, Alzheimer’s and animal abuse. I watched them all in a row and needed to go lie down for a little while.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/29/2020
“There’s something so deliciously rotten about Cats it makes you want to share the experience with others. ‘You know, the thing everyone forgets in this age of Netflix is that movies make temporary little communities of a few hundred people at a time,’ Judge enthuses. ‘And this strange little community is truly reveling in the cultural atrocity of Cats.’” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/23/2019
“It’s a bustling ecosystem of hustlers and hoods, all working at shared interests and cross purposes with the density — if not the detail — you’d find in a Richard Price novel or a David Simon television series. Ly isn’t afraid to wear his influences on his sleeve, with elements of Training Day and La Haine bumping up against memories of Clockers and The Wire.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/16/2020
“These are vexing, sometimes infuriating affairs, probably best suited to viewers who always fall hardest for the ones who don’t love you back. Spending a few days immersed in Schanelec’s work I came to find myself enthralled by her abject indifference to audience expectations, up for the challenge of films designed to remain teasingly out of reach.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/15/2020
“The secret weapon here of course is Stewart. Wearing a bleach-blonde buzz-cut and a bomber jacket over a sports bra, the former Twilight teen turned international art cinema icon shows no signs of slumming as she applies her trademark inverted-Brando millennial murmurings to the screenplay’s stock scenarios. I loved watching her in this.” – North Shore Movies, 01/10/2019
SPLICED PERSONALITY 