“The gimmick here is that it’s a movie about the making of Rocky done in the style of a Rocky movie, and not one of the good ones. Timed to draft off the original picture’s 50th anniversary, it’s a phony, frictionless pile of content paste. I can’t help but wonder what the purpose is of watching a cosplay baby food version of a story everybody already knows.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 11/12/2026
“Such a rich emotional experience because it’s about characters who are capable of surprising us. Sometimes they even surprise themselves, discovering reserves of compassion and fortitude, pettiness and grace. It’s a sad picture but never a depressing one, thanks to the warmth and fullness of its humanity. I basically cried for like the whole fuckin’ movie.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 11/12/2026
“The wonder of it is that a then-76-year-old Hollywood legend could still go so hard, helming an independently financed, proudly NC-17 shocker in which the star of Showgirls fellates a fried chicken leg with her face busted open. What makes Killer Joe so appallingly funny is Friedkin’s rowdy, good-time approach to the sickening material.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 11/11/2026
“A master of compression, Pawlikowski is adept at sketching entire life stories in brief, succinct scenes. He’s a match made in heaven with Hüller, one of cinema’s great minimalists who can give you the world with a tremble of her lower lip. But as far as excellent movies about Hüller road-tripping with her dad go, this one isn’t nearly as funny as Toni Erdmann.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 11/08/2026
“Notoriously played by Nicolas Cage as a pompadoured tsunami of hormones and adolescent anxiety, Charlie is one of the actor’s great gonzo turns. Much to his leading lady’s horror, Cage based Charlie’s voice on that of Gumby’s pal Pokey and wears an oversized dental prosthetic throughout the picture, exhaling his lines in an adenoidal whine.” – Crooked Marquee, 11/06/2026
“The movie is a mix of reminiscences and candid footage from the final year of Shea’s life, complete with collages of poetry, puppetry, animated reenactments and entomological asides. It’s all suffused with a touching generosity, as Fitch fumbles about trying to hang on to the memory of a dear friend and figure out how best to share her with the world.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 11/06/2026
“It’s Malkovich’s meatiest role in decades. His slurry, insouciant line readings are imbued with a child’s naughty self-satisfaction, yet we can never be sure how much of this is an act he’s putting on. There’s a wily old spy lurking beneath all the inappropriate outbursts, cunningly aware that this trip is part of a forced retirement plan he might not choose to accept.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 11/04/2026
“Really more of a situation than a story. Kreutzer doesn’t come up with plot complications so much as she sometimes lobs an ironic counterpoint here and there, calling attention to how little Gentle Monster is interested in the victims of these crimes, or in anything outside the perspective of a blameless female artist who was deceived and wronged.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 11/02/2026
“It feels less like a political documentary and more akin to the work of Sophy Romvari, whose Blue Heron was the highlight of IFFBoston’s spring festival and one of the best films released this year. Ahangarani is similarly interested in examining her family history through artifacts while asserting her presence behind the camera and in the editing room.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 10/30/2026
“While there’s something to be said for curling up on the couch under a blanket to watch scary movies, being frightened at home alone can’t compare to screaming along with hundreds of strangers in the dark. A benefit of living in one of the greatest repertory cinema cities in the world is that the month of October is stuffed silly with big-screen fright-fests.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 10/29/2026
