THE NOVEMBER MAN

“Sure, it’s dumb. You already knew that. But it’s worse than that.” – Kristofer Jenson, C-Ville Weekly

“Donaldson knows the nuts and bolts of his craft and, perhaps more importantly, knows when to stay out of the way.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

“Because of the fact that they take no risks with THE NOVEMBER MAN, the vast majority of the audience who sees it will come out realizing that there is also no reward.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“It’s significant because one’s expectations for the releases just before Labor Day is that they are trash being swept out the door by the studios.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

“There’s so much about this film that sounds right on paper that it’s amazing how much it gets mangled in execution.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine

“AS ABOVE/SO BELOW is easily one of the worst movies of the year.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“…if you like those amusement park rides, or want to enjoy the feeling of claustrophobia from the comfort of a roomy movie theater, AS ABOVE, SO BELOW does say “boo!” often enough to provide a few jolts or nervous laughs.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

LIFE OF CRIME

“Life of Crime is an entertaining movie featuring adult content, but it’s actually relatively safe for something that’s mainly about kidnapping and extortion.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“…while there is a nice bit of turnabout at the end—it is a Leonard plot, after all—the
rest of the picture lacks the precise comic beats that made other Leonard adaptations so memorable.” – Brett Michel, The Improper Bostonian

“Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and John Hawkes work very well together…at least as actors. The dialogue they share sparkles, especially as their plan starts to go astray and it seems only a matter of time before their words turn deadly.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

THE TRIP TO ITALY

“…it’s difficult to imagine how anyone with even a mild affinity for dry English wit and ennui could be turned off by Brydon’s and Coogan’s sharp brand of self-aware, self-deprecating banter; these guys have the rapid fire ebb and flow of witty discourse down to a science.”  – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine

“While two middle aged men driving around listening to Alanis Morissette may be a funny idea, it doesn’t work at all in the movie, although Coogan and Brydon seem to disagree and milk it dry with increasingly little to laugh about every time they bring it up.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

Much of the joy in THE TRIP TO ITALY revolves around Coogan and Brydon doing spotless impersonations of famous actors (Brydon’s Hugh Grant is so good you’d swear he was there), and taking barbed but loving jabs at each other’s abilities. – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

THE ONE I LOVE

“Terrific ideas for setups don’t always come with equally terrific notions for resolutions.”  – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston

THE CONGRESS

“Bashir’s flights of fancy in the animated half can be dazzling, until it returns to the plot that it never fully established.” – Kristofer Jenson, Dig Boston

“A free-flowing, wackadoo meditation on stardom, identity, illusions, ageism, technology, the life and work of Robin Wright, chemical dependency, kites and whatever else crossed the filmmaker’s mind at any given moment. Then about halfway through it becomes an animated adaptation of a Stanislaw Lem book. Yeah, there’s a lot going on here.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

A LETTER TO MOMO

“…while the story and acting is all top notch in the movie, the real stars of A LETTER TO MOMO may just be the team of artists and animators who spent seven years making the movie.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

Adults will quickly be able to decode the central mystery here, or suss out the details enough to make an educated guess, but A Letter to Momo really isn’t for them. It’s for their kids. If you need proof, then let the film’s one well-timed fart joke do the talking. Your whippersnappers will probably laugh their pants off. – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine