“Cold War Kids Adapt to Changing Times with ‘New Age Norms 3′”

What a time to be a Cold War Middle Aged Man. Continue reading →

Review: Cold War, 2018, dir. Pawel Pawlikowski

I did, four years ago, write a review of Pawel Pawlikowski’s post-war masterpiece Ida, but I’m not certain it’s still online or if I ever even shared it on this website; that’s too bad, because it’d be nice to revisit my words for context for Cold War, Pawlikowski’s new film, which I imagine years from now I’ll also … Continue reading →

BOFCA’s 2018 Awards (And My Personal Ballot)

Well: We did it. It’s not often that a critics group’s awards match up closely with my own feelings, and if I’m being really nitpicky, this year’s Boston Online Film Critics Association awards miss a few marks for me; if you know me well and you’ve followed this blog since I started bitching about a certain … Continue reading →

Stay Frosty Oscars: My Half-Assed Academy Awards Predictions

Fair warning: I really didn’t want to write this piece, and I’m doing it out of misguided obligation. Maybe I’m whining, but cut me some slack; I’ve already written about the #OscarsSoWhite fracas, and also contributed a handful of yadda yaddas to Paste Magazine’s annual Oscar preview (though I spend most of my yaddas turning my nose up at the … Continue reading →

2011: Retrospective, Awards, & ACVF’s Top 15 (Pt.1)

2010, as a cinematic year, left me somewhat cold. I distinctly remember having a difficult time choosing my annual top ten, for two reasons. One, this time last year I’d only seen about thirty-ish movies; that’s not a very wide range of movies to choose from, though I was certainly able to muster ten films … Continue reading →

“Best of Criterion’s New Releases, November 2019”

In November’s Criterion round-up: There’s a cold war being fought, Betty Blue and Eve make the voyage all about themselves. Continue reading →

Andy’s Best Things, 2018 Edition

Hi. I’m late writing this up. I had other plans for ringing in 2019. Honestly, snowboarding and beer are only part of it. If I think about it for a second, I don’t really have a lot to say about 2018; I’m sans a unifying statement to reconcile all of the pop culture I digested … Continue reading →

Review: Hail, Caesar!, 2016, dir. Joel & Ethan Coen

Let’s get one thing outta the way: Hail, Caesar! is minor Coen brothers. It is not No Country For Old Men, though if we are using that as the yardstick separate “minor” Coens from “major” Coens, then nearly every film they have made since 2007 falls into the former category. You can instead lump Hail, Caesar! in with A Serious … Continue reading →

Review: The Assassin, 2015, dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien

“Hou Hsiao-Hsien made a wuxia film. That career choice makes logical sense in a vacuum: Hou is positively obsessed with history, and history, more so than fantasy, is wuxia’s bread and butter. But there’s little in Hou’s body of work aside from his preoccupation with the past to suggest an interest in swordplay. He’s made … Continue reading →

Spider-Man: Homeroom

It’s bad enough we have to learn about superheroes in movie theaters all across the world these days, but now our children have to learn about superheroes in the classroom. Someone, please: Think of the children. There’s a lot that happens in <i>Spider-Man: Homecoming</i>, most of it designed to bolster the bonds holding the Marvel … Continue reading →

Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane, 2016, dir. Dan Trachtenberg

Challenge mode: talk about 10 Cloverfield Lane without talking about what it is versus what it isn’t, all while avoiding the pitfalls of spoilers (with the term “spoilers” being loosely and variably defined by everyone who happens to click on this article). That’s a daunting task made necessary only by J.J. Abrams and his insatiable appetite … Continue reading →

The ‘D’ Is Silent: Django Unchained Trailer

I’ll just leave this right here. My tendency to go hot-and-cold on the films of Quentin Tarantino* is well-known; the fact that I am almost robbed of words to describe my feelings toward the teaser for his latest, Django Unchained, should speak highly of its quality**. From Christoph Waltz devouring the screen with the same satisfaction … Continue reading →

TV Review: Game of Thrones, 2.2: The Night Lands

Remember last week when I theorized that each episode of Game of Thrones‘ second season, following the pilot, would probably place more focus on a smaller number of characters? Seems like time’s proving me right. Maybe that’s not a boast exactly, since it’s just plain old logical, but expect this to be the routine with each … Continue reading →

The 2012 Boston Independent Film Festival Schedule Has Been Released!

It’s exactly three weeks until 2012’s Boston Independent Film Festival kicks off, and to that end the slate of films to be shown at the fest has been released. There’s a great amount of range here, from horror/exploitation flicks like V/H/S and Headhunters to new Todd Solondz as well as the latest from Bobcat Goldthwait, God Bless America; that’s … Continue reading →

The Criterion Files: F For Fake/The Flowers of St. Francis

After skipping a week*, it’s time for another dip into the Criterion Files, where I’ll be hand-picking a pair of titles from the much-vaunted Criterion Collection and giving them the (abridged) ACVF treatment. Last time, I looked at two films which share a common thread together in the form of genre. While I’ll endeavor to … Continue reading →

Review: Hanna, 2011, dir. Joe Wright

Hanna makes a sound argument that action movies need not be artless, though maybe when the person at the helm is Joe Wright the final outcome can only inevitably attain a level of artfulness worth observing. Wright is responsible for 2007’s Atonement, a strikingly beautiful film that remains mostly empty despite its impressive craftsmanship; where … Continue reading →

Playing Detective In Carpenter’s “The Thing”

(Author’s foreword: The following essay draws inspiration from Rob Ager’s excellent two-part series on Youtube regarding Childs’ status at the end of John Carpenter’s The Thing. The two clips can be found here and here. My intention as author of this piece is to argue for the film’s place in overarching cinematic canon, and to … Continue reading →

…And Your Next Franchise Is…

…a movie based on a book you may not have read yet and might not be aware of if not for rags like Entertainment Weekly enthusiastically jamming the upcoming film adaptation down your damn throat at every opportunity. I’m not bitter, really. Color me more perplexed. If you ask EW— or any other major media … Continue reading →

TV Review: Game of Thrones, episodes 9 & 10

Well, I’ll say this for the marketing team behind Game of Thrones— they can’t be accused of false advertising. Baelor and Fire and Blood wrap up the first season of the series, and what a pair of episodes they are. I don’t think I need to warn anyone reading this of imminent spoilers, so with … Continue reading →

Review: Midnight in Paris, 2011, dir. Woody Allen

A review for Midnight in Paris requires no preamble simply because it’s the best movie Woody Allen has made in years, which alone should be sufficient reason to watch it in light of the director’s limp and joyless recent output. But a review that begins with the suggestion that Midnight in Paris far exceeds the … Continue reading →