I knew Blake Howard would be calling to talk about The Weight. Padraic McKinley’s Depression-era gold heist yarn is the kind of meat and potatoes thriller you thought they didn’t make anymore. It’s an instant dad movie classic in which Ethan Hawke does a shockingly credible Clint Eastwood impression opposite friends, footballers and Russell Crowe. – One Heat Minute, 09/15/2026
“A celebration of the communal concert-going experience, focused just as much on the audience as on the band. It tries to capture what it feels like to sway arm-in-arm with thousands of like-minded folks rhapsodically screaming about how Sally can wait. This is an unusually emotional concert movie. You can really get carried away on those soaring choruses.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 09/15/2026
“A stunning piece of filmmaking, using rigidly locked-down frames and careful placement of characters within them to indict an entire worldview. Manuel is working in a complete, visionary tradition, telling the story through color, costume and intensely controlled production design. Filipiñana is full of blistering social commentary, but it’s all in the images.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 09/11/2026
“One of those sequels that immediately undoes the emotional arcs and hard-won conclusion of the previous picture, rebooting the characters to factory settings so we can watch the same conflicts play themselves out a second time to diminished returns. Bullock’s daughters literally have their memories erased to make the plot possible.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 09/10/2026
“As crass and morally repugnant as any movie made this year, with the possible exception of Melania. It’s more of the gross Green Book fantasy in which a streetwise white slob has to teach the uppity Black guy in a suit how the world actually works. Once again, Wahlberg is playing dress-up and telling us it wouldn’t have gone down like that if he’d been there.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 09/06/2026
It’s showtime, folks! Had a blast sitting in with pals Jason Bailey and Michael Hull to break down Bob Fosse’s 1979 semi-autobiographical extravaganza and its exuberant semi-apology for a life of drinking, drugging, womanizing and all that jazz. I also talk about when I almost went Joe Gideon and received a very special message from Ben Vereen. – Guide For The Film Fanatic, 09/06/2026
“Pauline sees through them, quietly taking it all in. Langlet’s performance teeters between girlishness and something more sophisticated. She watches the lovers construct silly little fictions for themselves, the necessary self-deceptions we use to get by in the grown-up world. The trip serves as Pauline’s initiation into the foolish, messy ways of adulthood.” – Crooked Marquee, 09/04/2026
“The grisly siege thriller is a virtual litany of allusions and Easter eggs that has no identity of its own, nor any reason for existing other than to show off the dubious taste of its creators. From the faux-Carpenter synth score to the old-school, practical squib effects, it’s a feature-length fanboy fap session, and an overproduced, hollow one at that. I’m too old for this shit.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 09/03/2026
“The alluring, black market atmosphere is like Casablanca with all the idealism sucked out. It’s a movie where the hero is a loser and the movie star is a heel. Yet The Third Man plays like a jaunty, almost farcical affair. The film bobs and weaves to the jangling zither music of Anton Karas, so that these characters seem to be dancing through the rubble.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 09/02/2026
“The best parts are the black-and-white, interstitial glimpses of Perry being whisked around beneath the stage between numbers, with costumers and hairdressers descending upon her like an F1 pit crew. I know there are countless reasons why it never would have happened, but I wish Frederick Wiseman could’ve gone on tour with a pop star.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 09/01/2026
SPLICED PERSONALITY 