I have been beyond bored with movies this season. THOR still dominates the box office and is playing on 3 screens at my local multiplex. Just not excited about the god of thunder or comedy sequels: DADDY'S HOME 2 (second place at the box office) or A BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS both featuring intergenerational hi-jinks at [...]
BLADE RUNNER 2049 continues a tale that asks what it means to be human, but despite being almost an hour longer than the original, is a much more routine experience, building on the first installment without expanding its thematic footprint. The sequel lacks the tension, the mystery, and the emotional resonance of 1982's BLADE RUNNER, but is [...]
A few more SCREEN GRABS in the dog days of summer--and none of the following are dogs: DUNKIRK: If you haven't already, see this masterful and intimate experience of the grueling WWII battle when the Nazis had 400,000 Allied troops-- British, French, and Belgian--trapped on the beach at Dunkirk but they never surrendered; [...]
PATRIOTS DAY--Pointless. If you lived through the Boston Marathon bombings, nothing compares. For all its good intentions and attempts at verisimilitude, this film adds nothing and mutes the impact of that tragic week in Boston's history. It also traffics in some pretty annoying cliches: Boston cops are, apparently, the most foul-mouthed in the country; and only the same roster of actors [...]
If you're still looking for that perfect gift for someone you love who loves the arts, I am passing along this 2016 Holiday Gift Guide, itself a gift from WBUR's The ARTery writers-- and I am proud to be one! This annual gift guide has several stockings full of suggestions in every discipline [...]
Boston's two film critics' circles (I belong to both) have voted their year end awards! The BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS (BSFC) have named "La La Land" starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and directed by Best Director Damien ("Whiplash") Chazelle as BEST PICTURE! The Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA) has named "Moonlight" BEST PICTURE with Best Ensemble for the magnificent trio [...]
Many movies reveal their secrets within the first five minutes, and it's not until the end that we understand what we have already seen-- and know. When that moment comes in ARRIVAL, it's like a tsunami in slow motion. ARRIVAL spills its secrets softly in a grand, goosebump-inducing sci-fi adventure that made me feel like I was tumbling through space [...]
Ben Affleck as THE ACCOUNTANT is crunching more than numbers. This is a real departure for the actor as he brings to life an ass-kicking, Asperger's syndrome, math wiz working his way through an intense labyrinth of secrecy and surprise. The film is a refreshing and well-balanced mix of farflung elements: action, thriller, romantic comedy(!) family dysfunction, and a shout [...]
A pair of movies now playing at a cineplex near you wear their agendas on their sleeves: each re-tells a true story, skewers its villains, and brings its audience right up close to the imagined scenes of the action whose outcome we already know. Director/co-writer Oliver Stone's SNOWDEN comes with a careful central performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, computer wiz and infrastructure analyst for the National [...]
Chesley Sullenberger is the reason computers will never take over the world. He's exactly the sort of hero Clint Eastwood would set his sights on-- another man who casts a long shadow over the techno-driven world. Eastwood has directed Tom Hanks as SULLY the pilot who made the miracle landing on the Hudson after a flock of birds crashed [...]
