The year end train continues! Over at The Playlist, I wrote a few capsules about a few of the best performances of 2016, notably the dueling works of Isabelle Huppert, who appears in both Elle and Things to Come, two very different movies where she plays very similar roles. You should maybe take a looksie, eh? … Continue reading →
When did Pablo Larraín become one of cinema’s hardest working people? The guy has two movies in theaters right now, and they’re just the second and third movies of his that have graced screens in 2016. The Club is probably the best of the bunch, but I liked his latest, Neruda, a sort-of biopic about Pablo … Continue reading →
Is there that much difference between a play and a movie that it’s worth talking about? Yes, of course, but also no; it depends greatly on the movie in question, and that movie happens to be Fences, a film that’s based on a play and shot like a play and which ultimately feels like a play, but … Continue reading →
You’re aware, I imagine, that I am a member of BOFCA, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and if you are aware of that, then you are also likely aware that every year, we vote, as critics groups do, to determine with authority which movies of the last 365 days were, in a word, “best.” … Continue reading →
All We Had encompasses a very, very particular storytelling aesthetic that I find absolutely loathsome, in which the director, Katie Holmes (also its star), decides it’d be fun to soft-shoe life lived hand to mouth on the open road. It’s basically dress-up, except she’s dressing up like a really poor person. I’d rather not say … Continue reading →
I liked Sophia Takal’s sophomore film so much that I wrote about it twice: Once for Independent Film Festival Boston, once at the beginning of this here December month. (Both times for Paste Magazine, because surprise.) If you’ve already seen the film, well, no harm in reading my thoughts. If you haven’t, see it, then think … Continue reading →
I found the experience of Lion frustrating, but it took me time to understand the depths of my frustration. The film works for about an hour, its first hour, where young Saroo Brierly winds up lost in Calcutta, a place where he knows neither a soul nor a word of the language spoken; the terror he … Continue reading →
What a crazy world we live in, where a person can do the right thing and get their ass kicked for it by bureaucracy. That’s what Johnny Ma’s debut film, Old Stone, is all about. It’s a lean, harsh bit of work, maybe a bit too off the rails in its final moments (and certainly too … Continue reading →
I’m a 32 year old man and I love princess movies. There. I said it. Moana is no exception, but this is also because I love Dwayne Johnson and have since my days as a wrestling fan. (“In between now and then, I’ve grown up,” says the guy who still think farts are hilarious.) Anyways, so … Continue reading →
A movie about a man who keeps bees, his son who keeps books, and the silly generational tiffs that erupt between them on a farm in rural Northern China. Sit on that for a second. Sounds dull as a stone, right? Right! But The Beekeeper and his Son is actually a super interesting film, one that’s … Continue reading →
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