FOCUS
“…you’re better off walking out after the film departs the Big Easy. At least then you won’t be crushed by the incomparable weight of disappointment.” – Andy Crump, Paste Magazine
“FOCUS breaks faith with the audience’s previous investment for extended sequences of rug-pulling, cheap fake-outs, and generally jerking us around.” – Sean Burns, Movie Mezzanine
“FOCUS is a stylish and fun con artist film that’s gorgeous looking, in more ways than one; but sadly sputters out of gas towards the final act.” – Tim Estiloz, Boston Examiner
“FOCUS is a welcome return to form for Smith even though the swindling and conning taking place gets a bit tiresome in the final act.” – Sam Cohen, Under the Gun Review
“…has a way of peering, cleanly and crisply, at whatever genre its gaze settles on: Romantic comedy, stylish caper flick, thriller, crime drama.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston
“You don’t have to check your brain at the door, exactly, but you might want to set it to cruise control.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
“In spite of the obvious flaws that it contains, I do find FOCUS to be decent in enough areas to carry you all the way to its conclusion without boring you to the point where you’ll regret watching it.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
“The denouement makes us go back over the movie to recalibrate and at least one scene in hindsight doesn’t quite make sense.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices
THE LAZARUS EFFECT
“It’s literally LUCY and PET SEMATARY combined, but it takes place in a lab.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
“LAZARUS is mired in the predictability of its genre conventions, showing its cards on the table before actually playing them.” – Monica Castillo, International Business Times
“..it’s a B-movie that manages to be more than a potboiler..” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
SONG OF THE SEA
“Watching the narrative unfold piece by piece is akin to reading a good book, flipping by page after page of a well-worn tome of fables as old as Ireland itself.” – Andy Crump, Paste Magazine
“The film has the same heightened sense of adventure one would expect, but it has the courage to let the narrative pace the tale in a gentle, yet surprisingly effective way.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide
“In the tradition of modern animated films such as THE PAINTING and THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY, SONG OF THE SEA casts its spell regardless of age.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston
MAPS TO THE STARS
“[Cronenberg’s] body horror pokes at our discomfort with ourselves, and in MAPS the horror is with our heroes, the celebrities we chose to celebrate and the terrible human beings they may be behind closed doors.” – Monica Castillo, International Business Times
“…Cronenberg doesn’t let us laugh. He keeps actors separated, rarely letting them stand next to each other within a frame, giving the dialogue an intentionally stilted quality.” – Jake Mulligan, Dig Boston
“[Cronenberg] pins his characters in isolated single shots — they’re not listening to each other anyway — but all this formal rigor is beside the point when the material is so lazy and cheap.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality
“In the end, MAPS TO THE STARS is harder to grasp than VIDEODROME or NAKED LUNCH, and like those two films it demands repeat viewings.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter
BALLET 422
“While some of it is interesting to watch, none of it is compelling enough to really capture our imaginations.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide