“How Dan Stevens Got Weird”

I dig Dan Stevens and I make no apologies. But I do make unexpected analogies! I remember reading, I think, Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Mick Foley’s 1999 autobiography, and I remember Foley writing about Vince McMahon’s habit of getting in the ring and taking chairs to the face and stunners … Continue reading →

Jump Little Children: Reveling in a Revival

Short version: We saw Jump, Little Children, whose members did jump but also are not little children, play at Boston’s City Winery at the end of September. They were great. Longer version: I was introduced to this group back in college and I’ve been a fan since, so watching them play a decade and change … Continue reading →

“How ‘The Raid’ Filmmaker Gareth Evans Is Challenging Himself With New Genres”

“Enough already with Apostle pieces!” you say. “Ha ha ha! Deal with it, sucker!” says I, swinging my second article about one of my recent favorites, Gareth Evans’ new horror joint, right at your face. I didn’t get to write all of the pieces about Mandy, but lord I tried. I am now making up for that … Continue reading →

Review: Gregory Alan Isakov, “Evening Machines”

Hello! I did another music review! This time, it’s Gregory Alan Isakov’s latest, Evening Machines, far and away one of the 2018 albums that’s gotten under my skin; the thing grows on me every time I listen to it. It’s wonderful. Frankly, I’m just going to cut off right here, except to say that if you’re … Continue reading →

“Best of Criterion’s New Releases, September 2018”

Question: Does anyone care if Paste‘s Criterion round-ups publish the month after they’re intended for? This used to bother me just on grounds of professional, writerly pride, but I’m not sure anymore if it’s worth me being bothered by; by the time these pieces land, every release from the preceding month is commercially available, which feels … Continue reading →

“The Best Oktoberfest Parties Around the Country”

It’s October! Which means it’s still Oktoberfest! Only just, of course, but “only just” is just enough. You’ve got a couple days left. Seize ’em. You can start, naturally, by reading my thoughts on the festival, farmed from brewers at Night Shift, Marshall, and Silvaticus, because of course I’m going to speak with MA breweries … Continue reading →

“Films by Women: Five Movies to Watch in September”

Weird to see a “women’s film” spotlight focused on movies from September posted in October, but, uh, mea culpa and such as that. The dog ate my homework. I dunno. There’s not a great excuse for the delay; that being said, I’d still offer that documenting the movies on Septembers slate matters, because some of … Continue reading →

“Sharing a Beer with Esther Tetreault a.k.a. Mrs. Trillium”

Continuing my side career as a major Trillium Brewing Company booster: My interview with Esther Tetreault, one of the most joyful interviews I’ve conducted all year (aided in no small part by drinks*), about Trillium’s past, present, and future, including a discussion of “beer therapy” and a back and forth on the company’s apparent evolution … Continue reading →

Review: Apostle, 2018, dir. Gareth Evans

Well, hey, look at that, a new Gareth Evans movie. I’ve been waiting on more Evans since 2014’s The Raid 2: Berandal, a high point in action filmmaking (if a little bit bloated, but the bloat is all good bloat); he has a way about the camera that ensures the camera is as involved in what … Continue reading →

Review: Bisbee ’17, 2018, dir. Robert Greene

Upfront: I dug Kate Plays Christine, documentary filmmaker Robert Greene’s last movie, but I am floored, still, by Bisbee ’17, his latest, and I saw it over two weeks ago. Maybe that makes me…I don’t know, simple? I think Kate Plays Christine hangs around the edges of fast comprehension. It’s elusive. I like an elusive film, and I’m … Continue reading →

“Robert Redford’s Last Role Is A Dazzling Film With A Simple Message: Do What Makes You Happy”

Minor note about The Old Man & the Gun: As of now, David Lowery is 2 for 4 with me, having won me over with Pete’s Dragon and lost me on both Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and A Ghost Story*. The Old Man & the Gun reads like a snow globe, a capsule containing every sort of movie Lowery grew … Continue reading →

Review: The House with a Clock in Its Walls, 2018, dir. Eli Roth

So imagine this: There’s a house, and it’s littered with clocks, but there’s also a clock in its walls and it’s the clock in the walls that everyone’s fussing about. Doesn’t make a ton of real world sense, but it makes plenty of movie world sense, and presto, there you have it, Eli Roth’s The House … Continue reading →

“Would ‘Halloween’ Be Revered If It Were Released Today?”

Upfront: Questions like these, at face value, don’t have good answers, because we can never know with 100% certainty what those answers might be. That said, I think horror, at least “horror” that does not satisfy the genre’s growing prestige among critics and check respectability boxes, is on a sort of decline among tastemakers, and … Continue reading →

Review: Primaveras, Echoes in the Well of Being

Good day, lords and ladies! I did an album review! A California album review! Because, I’ve got to tell you: Primaveras’ first album, Echoes in the Well of Being, is either a love letter to California or a depressive picture of life dissatisfied in California, depending on how you choose to hear it. Regardless, I dig its … Continue reading →

“How ‘Assassination Nation’ Exploits Privacy Fears”

I’ll be honest, I’m a little surprised Assassination Nation worked so well on me; all the good, exploitative genre stuff we get at the end comes a little too late, and it frankly doesn’t make a lot of sense considering how the rest of the film functions, but it’s satisfying all the same, mostly because if … Continue reading →

“The 25 Best Movies of 1998”

I haven’t watched Happiness in years, and I honestly wasn’t expecting to revisit it ever in my life. Yet here I am, writing about it up on the pages of Paste Magazine for the Movies section’s Best Movies of 1998 list. What a thing. My write-up makes the film sound miserable, which it is, and it makes … Continue reading →