Film section editor at DigBoston, a biweekly newspaper.
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9to5: The Story of a Movement 2020
Labor activism defines 9to5, but isn’t necessarily what makes it engaging. Which poses the question, what does it have for the already converted audience? First, it’s a vital piece of previously unreported Boston history, correctly prioritizing specific details over generalized platitudes. Second, the editing’s clean and intuitive enough to pursue that piece of history across other regions and decades of time without losing sight of the specific people and particular motivations that started it off. And third are the interviews…
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Better Luck Tomorrow 2002
Very perceptive at dramatizing moments where teenagers’ performances of masculinity and maturity inadvertently melt into something more fraught and real. Like when a study group suddenly gains a sexual undercurrent neither party knows how to deal with (Shen and Cheung are beautiful as two people who are both too anxious to start hooking up with each other), or when a fight at a house party gets a little too edgy for even the fighters involved. And the performances match that…
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No Sudden Move 2021
No Sudden Move’s script is by Ed Solomon, who deserves some credit despite having gone too far with the homage. His narrative establishes a diverse range of characters that each behave somewhat believably despite all being unwitting pawns within a reasonably complex plot that’s specific to an industry, a region, and a historical period—which is a minor feat, and it does play. Tying it all up, for better or worse, is the script’s very thematically unified vision of American life...…
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Support the Girls 2018
Something of a “shift film” (apologies to Park Lanes): it begins with an opening credit sequence laid over shots of Texas highways (a commute), then charts the workday at an independently operated faux-Hooters restaurant from open until close (followed by a coda). That opening preps you for the graceful whiplashes of Bujalski’s cinema—the titles play over upbeat country pop until the film smash-cuts to a person in a parking lot crying helplessly in their car. That is Lisa (Regina Hall),…
