“The Beautiful and Cathartic Words of Erin Rae”

A couple weeks back, I had the great pleasure of speaking with a young singer-songwriter out of Nashville, Erin Rae, on the strength of the interview I conducted with Lillie Mae out of Boston Calling last month. (Mae. Rae. Try not to get confused.) Like Lillie, Erin is a blast to speak with. Also like … Continue reading →

“How ‘Hereditary’ Skips the Horror Until Its Final Minutes”

  Look: I fucking despised Ari Aster’s Hereditary. I don’t care whose movie it’s supposed to be, or whose perspective we’re supposed to take*, or how the movie sets up its climactic reveals. It’s never what a movie is about that’s a problem. It’s how it’s about it. Hereditary, one of the most misleadingly named movies … Continue reading →

“The 25 Best Movies of 2018 (So Far)”

It’s June. “Best Of (So Far)” list time.  About a third of the blurbs on Paste Magazine‘s June ’18 list have my name on them, and of those that don’t, there are a handful I don’t agree with: I think Avengers: Infinity War is an exhausting slog, How to Talk to Girls at Parties is garbage, and Hereditary … Continue reading →

“In Tribute to Felix, Westworld’s Only Good Human”

I don’t know if there’s a way not to lay this on too thick, but, my dudes, the human beings of Westworld are straight up doodoo. Seriously, in this show, we’re terrible, horrible, no good, very bad flesh and blood entities. Except for Felix. Felix is kinda like Jesus in Westworld, only when he dies, he definitely isn’t … Continue reading →

“How Ocean’s 8 Succeeded Where Ghostbusters Went Wrong”

I’m surprised that this is a hot-ish take (which I guess makes it a lukewarm-ish take, right?), but: Ocean’s 8 is a superior gender-flipped reboot to most other gender-flipped reboots released to date, chief among them being Ghostbusters ’16, a movie I do not have a positive relationship with.  Look, the plain damn truth is that these … Continue reading →

“The Best Documentaries of 2018 (So Far)”

Oh, hey, shocker, I happily wrote capsule blurbs for Hale County This Morning, This Evening and Crime + Punishment for Paste Magazine‘s “best docs of ’18 to date” list, man, bet you’re all real fucking surprised about that.  I don’t know what else you want me to say. They’re great movies. Hale County This Morning, This Evening in particular … Continue reading →

Review: Hearts Beat Loud, 2018, dir. Brett Haley

For clarity’s sake, all of the things I say about Brett Haley in the intro to my review of his latest, Hearts Beat Loud, is absolutely true: I’ve never spoken to him one on one, but I have seen him speak, twice, two years in a row, at Independent Film Festival Boston, where in both appearances he … Continue reading →

“In Her Netflix Show, Michelle Wolf Gives Us A ‘Break’ From All This News”

I’m interested in seeing how The Break with Michelle Wolf picks up in quality, but really, I’m interested in learning how many people actually tune in to watch it. It’s a good show; maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, but the first two episodes (FYI: It’s a weekly joint, rather than a … Continue reading →

Review: American Animals, 2018, dir. Bart Layton

Days after my review of Bart Layton’s American Animals published at Paste Magazine, I’m starting to wonder if I had problems with the film based on what I thought it should be rather than what it actually is.  Yeah, yeah: Sounds like a bunch of hand-wringing movie critic anxiety over nothing. American Animals tells the story of four … Continue reading →

“Lillie Mae: Music In Her Blood”

Boston Calling isn’t over yet! I mean: It is. But I still have coverage to share, so it sort of isn’t? Anyway, I wrote a profile of the very great, super talented Lillie Mae Rische for Paste Magazine after chatting with her about how life’s treated her since releasing Forever and Then Some in 2017, her … Continue reading →

“Boston Calling Wrap-Up”

Well, I did it. I survived my first Boston Calling, which is my first music festival (covered as a member of the press), and also the second festival I’ve covered this year (of three festivals total, the third one being a beer fest coming up this July).  There’s a lot to say about Boston Calling, … Continue reading →

“What ‘Solo’ Should Have Kept in the Past”

You’ve probably read this blog for long enough that you know well my distaste for prequels that senselessly construct backstory for elements of narrative that don’t actually demand a fucking backstory. So if you’ve seen Solo: A Star Wars Story, you can probably guess that I hated, hated, hated the script’s decision to tell us how, exactly, … Continue reading →

Review: The Gospel According to André, 2018, dir. Kate Novack

Don’t ask me why the header image for this review is so small. Instead, ask me why it took planet Earth so long to make a documentary about the life of eminently fascinating human being André Leon Talley, who I was first introduced to during the period of my life where I watched America’s Next Top Model. … Continue reading →

“The Guy Who Plays Chewbacca Reveals What It’s Like To Live As A Wookie”

Rawwrrarrrgg, grrghghgggg, ggwwwghh, aaararrrgwwwh, wwwwwwwgggghhhrrrw. Translated from Shyriiwook, that roughly comes out to, “For Thrillist, I had a conversation with Joonas Suotamo, the delightfully Finnish actor who plays Chewbacca in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi about how gosh darn hot it gets in that Wookie suit.” I hope that helps! (And please … Continue reading →

Review: Summer 1993, 2018, dir. Carla Simón

I remember dealing with a lot of bullshit and nonsense growing up as a child, from emotional growing pains to literal growing pains, but at least I didn’t have to live with the specter of AIDS hanging over me, which the protagonist of Carla Simón’s superb feature debut, Summer 1993, does. The film is startlingly lovely considering … Continue reading →

“Films by Women: Seven Movies to Watch in May”

This month, we didn’t report on five movies directed by women currently in theaters or available at home. We reported on seven. Grant that two of them, The Rider and Let the Sunshine In, expanded in May but originally came out in April; we’re sort of cheating on this one. But if they’ve only just expanded, that means you … Continue reading →

“Boston Calling Preview”

So: I’m writing about music now, too. Don’t give me that look. I know you ostensibly “visit my blog” to “read about movies and television,” and that “my brand is all over the fucking place,” but the reality is this: Freelancing about the movies is great, but really hard, because every asshole who’s sat through a … Continue reading →