I first covered Independent Film Festival Boston back in 2012, when I was but an inexperienced festival-going critic (and an inexperienced critic in general). I was still writing for my man Marc’s blog, GoSeeTalk, at that time, before I started writing for outlets like Screen Rant and getting addicted to the hustle. Things were different … Continue reading
“It’s so sexy / To be eating dinner in America” Continue reading
One of the best films of the year also has the most out-of-left-field gag about gummy bears of the year. Not that there’s much competition, but if there was… Continue reading
Lying about your grandma’s mortality seems like a bad idea, except when the bad idea ends up forming the basis of a really good movie. Continue reading
One of the most under-appreciated filmmakers in the world has released what’s already looking like her most-appreciated film, and Andy has mixed thoughts. (On the reaction to the film, not the film itself.) Continue reading
Andy absolutely will not shut up about how bad “Hereditary” is until you agree that “Hereditary” is bad. Continue reading
Friends! I forgot to share this…forever ago, when I went on the Spoilerpiece Theater podcast with my good buddies David Riedel and Kristofer Jenson, and by “forever ago” I mean like two weeks ago (which is forever in Internet time). Anyways: We talked, hucking spoilers all over the place of course, about Nancy (which I wrote about … Continue reading
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
I exhausted my brain writing about Hale County This Morning, This Evening for The Playlist, so I’m leaving this intro short. Basically: You really need to see this movie. You also need to see it on a big screen, which is something I rarely demand when recommending documentaries. Hale County This Morning, This Evening is fucking beautiful. It’s also … Continue reading
My remote Sundance rampage continues! (Sundancepage?) From soul-crushing Greek arts farts to a documentary about police corruption in America, specifically police corruption in the NYPD, the largest police in the country. Crime + Punishment is tangentially about brutality, because how could it not be, but it’s primarily about quotas: How arrest quotas are still in play among … Continue reading
When we talk about modern Greek cinema, we’re guaranteed to talk about two filmmakers in particular, being Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari. (Aside: Tsangari is a much, much, better filmmaker than Lanthimos.) This is so true that even when we talk about other Greek filmmakers, like Babis Makridis, we’re still talking about Tsangari and Lanthimos, … Continue reading
Oh, Top of the Lake: China Girl; I wish I liked you better. The first season of Jane Campion’s SundanceTV series is phenomenal, make no mistake; also make no mistake that she should have left it at one season, assuming that her plan for following it up was always, well, this. Top of the Lake: China Girl … Continue reading
If you could have a perfect holographic image of your late lover, whether your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, or some undefinable fling, stored on a hard drive, and if you could talk to that image whenever you please, and if that image could learn about the person it reflects and become more and more like … Continue reading
Every year for the last five years, springtime has provoked a transformation of sorts in me, or maybe more accurately provoked my unabashed and kinda obnoxious excitement. If you’ve been keeping up, you can probably guess why: Spring in Boston means Independent Film Festival Boston, which means that for a week or so, Andy gets … Continue reading
It’s a thing in the entertainment biz that if a movie about subject A is released into the pop cultural wilds, inevitably another movie about the same subject will be released shortly thereafter. To wit: Andrew Neel’s Goat opened in theaters last September, detailing the intimate particulars of fraternity hazing rituals and rites of initiation. It’s … Continue reading
And here’s my second Sundance review for The Playlist, detailing the exquisite My Happy Family, a Georgian film by the directing duo of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross. I’ve never seen anything they’ve made together before. I want to go back and watch all of their works now. My Happy Family is absolutely wonderful, and while I have a … Continue reading
I’m not at Sundance, but that doesn’t mean I can’t remotely cover Sundance from home! For The Playlist, I reviewed a pretty good documentary called The Workers Cup, about workers building the future stadium for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and by “building” I mean “kinda being treated as subhuman by their employers in some truly fucked … Continue reading
I watch a lot of movies, and I don’t write about all of them. This is especially true of the annual year-end rush to cram in as much movie watching goodness as possible before voting deadlines for the Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA) and the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS). Consider these capsules my … Continue reading
Late April to early May is the time of year when I tend to fall into a brief but intense depressive state with little warning and seemingly without provocation. But if you know me, and you know how I spend my time, you know that my short annual bouts of melancholy and gloom coincide with the … Continue reading
If you have been tuning into this space for the last week and wondering why I have posted exactly zero new updates, it’s because I’ve been gallivanting around Bermuda since the 12th. But I’m back in Boston, and with eight days to spare before Independent Film Festival Boston’s 2016 rumpus, I’d say it’s about time … Continue reading
