“It’s not hard to see the pattern in writer-director Cristian Mungiu’s movies of individuals being abused by inflexible institutions, but Fjord has caused a stir for flipping the script so that the victims are the people we usually see presented as the bullies. A friend described it as an inverted Footloose, and I honestly can’t do better than that.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 10/25/2026
Both Blake Howard and I were enormously moved by Eleanor Coppola’s behind-the-scenes chronicle of her daughter’s massively ambitious Marie Antoniette, a movie to which time has been much kinder than either of us were at the time. My two big takeways: I don’t know how this film only cost 40 million dollars and I don’t know how anyone makes movies with men. – One Heat Minute, 10/25/2026
“‘It’s daunting,’ admitted longtime Somerville Theatre manager and new co-owner Ian Judge, who will be celebrating his 25th year at the venue next May. ‘But we see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to save these theaters for future generations. We’ve got great customer support, so I feel like the trajectory is good. This is like a weird little miracle to me.’” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 10/23/2026
“Shot for under a million dollars, this is the dingiest-looking fairy tale you’ve ever seen. Yet there’s an air of enchantment amid the tenements and garbage. Doo-wop singers serenade the city by the light of trash can fires. Avildsen is constantly reminding you how small these people are, positioning them at the end of long, lonely streets lined with run-down row houses.” – Crooked Marquee, 10/23/2026
“Longworth is taking over programming at The Brattle as part of a 15-city tour promoting The Bisexuals, the latest season of You Must Remember This. The series introduces us to Libby Holman, a 1920s torch singer with a racially ambiguous stage persona and a voracious sexual appetite that didn’t so much transcend gender boundaries as disregard them entirely.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 10/22/2026
“He makes a terrific Ripley. So much so that you wish the filmmakers would ditch the postmodern frou-frou and just cast Ehrenreich in a straight Highsmith adaptation. The easily foreseeable problem with A Talent For Murder is that the new Ripley story conjured by Murray-Smith for the purposes of the screenplay can’t hold a candle to Highsmith’s originals.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 10/22/2026
“Can a movie be too beautiful? It’s hard not to come away wishing Love of Your Life had been a bit rougher around the edges. The images are too cozy for this story. Aesthetically, the film could have taken a few cues from the prickly performance by its star Margaret Qualley, a very pretty actress who isn’t afraid to go to some ugly emotional places.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 10/16/2026
Blake Howard and I wrap up our 2026 Anne Hathaway lovefest by praising her deliciously campy turn as an airport novelist Medea in this knowingly goofy adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestseller, which begins with the most blood-soaked meet-cute we’ve ever seen. It looks like something out of a rom-com Margaret. You’ll know right then if this is a movie for you. – One Heat Minute, 10/15/2026
“Lost on Ebert and other pearl-clutchers at the time was the movie’s seriousness of purpose. For all its shocking content and garish excesses, The Devils is a pointedly political picture about how shame and religion are weaponized by the wealthy and powerful to advance their economic interests. It may be more relevant today than it was in 1971.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 10/15/2026
“This is a wild, mind-melting movie people are going to be talking about for the rest of the year, and probably long after that. Fielder and Oppenheim have ingeniously assembled a gut-busting cringe comedy that doubles as an unexpectedly hefty philosophical inquiry into the nature of perception. It’s also the story of a master manipulator meeting his match.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 10/14/2026
