“It’s sparse enough to invite all sorts of allegorical readings. At the time, some viewers assumed it was a statement about the HUAC hearings, Alas, the racist bullying and cowardice on display in Bad Day At Black Rock are depressingly applicable to any American era, and I note with a shudder that Ryan’s sneering ringleader is first seen wearing a red baseball cap.” – Crooked Marquee, 04/17/2026

“Penn’s nervy performance goes full Ratso in a parking garage scene when he dares a car to run him over. It’s a magnificently off-putting turn, all twitchy paranoia with a voice as thin as his pencil mustache. Daulton was the forerunner of the actor’s iconically obnoxious cokeheads in Carlito’s Way and Hurlyburly, but not all viewers found pleasure in his company.” – Crooked Marquee, 04/03/2026

“An odd, mercurial Western from an odd, mercurial genius, One-Eyed Jacks has one foot in a classic Hollywood production style, with handsome VistaVision photography and a traditional score. Yet there’s something troubling and downright nasty about the picture, which anticipates the morally ambiguous, revisionist Westerns that would come along a few years later.” – Crooked Marquee, 03/27/2026

“This is a gentle and humane film, keeping a respectful distance from the characters’ suffering. The most powerful dialogue exchanges in Tender Mercies are when people pause for a moment and really think before answering a question. We’re enormously moved by straightforward affirmations like ‘Yes, I do’ or ‘Yes, he is.’ Is that a lot harder than it looks? Yes, it is.” – Crooked Marquee, 03/13/2026

“I don’t believe for a second that there are this many upset ballet and opera fans. I think people are just tired of Timothée Chalamet. There are six months of promotional events, precursor ceremonies, sit-down interviews and gala rubber chicken dinners before the Oscar envelopes are finally opened in March. We spend half the year on year-end awards.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 03/12/2026

“‘I’ve always been fascinated by films within films,’ said the Brattle’s creative director Ned Hinkle. ‘The best instances of these are when an audience watching a film in the real world is brought into a cinema by the character onscreen and we all experience a particular moment together. It creates a crazy, almost metaphysical bond with the characters in the movie.’” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 02/25/2026

“In this case, half a movie is better than most in full. It’s a work of dazzling breadth and grandeur, with a naughty modernity that reportedly caused clashes on the set between filmmaker and star. (No doubt the Hays Office never would have allowed the prince’s panty-sniffing scene.) It may have taken 98 years, but Queen Kelly is finally ready for its closeup.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 02/25/2026

“Yet for a knockabout comedy contrived as a way to make boat payments and get drunk on the beach, Donovan’s Reef is nonetheless fascinating on several fronts, not the least of which is its fantasy of benevolent colonialism in a tropical Valhalla. The island is a utopia lorded over by aging white warriors. Lucky for us their hearts are in the right place.” – Crooked Marquee, 02/20/2026

“Kubrick was fascinated by the ways in which we foolish mortals try to impose order on an indifferent universe, constructing elaborate systems and machinery that inevitably come crashing down around us. His dark sense of humor and the pitiless temperament of his films caused some to label him a misanthropist, though I’d say he qualifies more as a realist.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture, 02/19/2026

“It’s to La Cava’s great credit that these madcap shenanigans never feel forced or shrill. The long, elegantly constructed scenes accumulate characters and momentum like a snowball rolling down a hill. This was a glorious period in American cinema during which everyone spoke as quickly as possible. Even bad jokes sound funny if you say them fast enough.” – Crooked Marquee, 02/06/2026