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Sean Burns

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Sean Burns is a film critic for WBUR’s Arts & Culture and a contributing writer at North Shore Movies and Crooked Marquee. He was Philadelphia Weekly’s lead film critic from 1999 through 2013, and worked as a contributing editor at The Improper Bostonian from 2006 until 2014. His reviews, interviews and essays have also appeared in Metro, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The Boston Herald, Nashville Scene, Time Out New York, Philadelphia City Paper and RogerEbert.com.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Blue Heron (2025) 97% EDIT “As understated as it is emotionally shattering. Hindsight isn’t always a blessing.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture May 7, 2026 Full Review The Sheep Detectives (2026) 95% EDIT “'The Sheep Detectives' has a low-key, easygoing sense of humor, like an old English countryside comedy that just so happens to feature talking lambs.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) May 7, 2026 Full Review Animal Farm (2025) 27% EDIT “The CIA may have done a lot of horrible things, but they never financed a Seth Rogen movie.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) May 7, 2026 Full Review Deep Water (2026) 73% EDIT “It’s got some spirited work from Harlin, who takes delight in devising some truly ghoulish exits for these poor passengers. ” – Spliced Personality (Substack) May 2, 2026 Full Review The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) 78% EDIT “Amid the feel-good, gang’s-all-here trappings, the film flirts with provocative ideas about a culture in decline, where seemingly every institution is being gutted for the sake of the bottom line. ” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture Apr 29, 2026 Full Review Late Fame (2026) 88% EDIT “One of our greatest living actors and arguably the most consistent, Dafoe plays the sheepish postman like a slowly opening flower. ” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 28, 2026 Full Review Mother Mary (2026) 72% EDIT “All the woo-woo mysticism and trippy special effects sequences are several orders of magnitude less interesting than two great actresses snapping at each other on a soundstage.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 24, 2026 Full Review The Serpent's Skin (2025) 93% EDIT “It’s astonishing what Mackay has already accomplished at 21 years old. From here it looks like the sky’s the limit. ” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 22, 2026 Full Review Michael (2026) 39% EDIT “The movie ends in 1988 with Jackson’s triumphant solo ‘Bad’ tour, which is kind of like ending an O.J. Simpson biopic with him winning the Heisman Trophy.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture Apr 21, 2026 Full Review The Stranger (2025) 90% EDIT “The movie is distant and aloof, which is true to the spirit of the material, if something of a drag to actually sit through.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 19, 2026 Full Review Balls Up (2026) 23% EDIT “A listlessly stupid movie made by a guy who used to be much smarter about making stupid movies.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 19, 2026 Full Review The Christophers (2025) 96% EDIT “Soderbergh’s film comes as such a sweet relief because it reminds us of everything McKellen can do when he’s not stranded in front of a green screen.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture Apr 16, 2026 Full Review Outcome (2026) 28% EDIT “I can’t really defend the movie, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 12, 2026 Full Review Erupcja (2025) 85% EDIT “There are worse ways to spend 71 minutes than this wispy tale of youth and self-absorption.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 12, 2026 Full Review The Divine Tragedy (2026) EDIT “A naughty, big-hearted party of a movie. ” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 12, 2026 Full Review Hamlet (2025) 71% EDIT “This might be the shortest ‘Hamlet’ I’ve seen, but it feels like one of the longest because every scene is played at the same pitch.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture Apr 10, 2026 Full Review My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow (2024) 100% EDIT “I probably don’t need to tell you that nothing in this movie made me feel better about the way things have been going over here lately.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Apr 3, 2026 Full Review The Drama (2026) 76% EDIT “Teetering on the edge of tastelessness and pushing touchy buttons with diabolical delight, ‘The Drama’ is the most provocative American movie I’ve seen since ‘Eddington,’ and will probably be just as divisive. ” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture Mar 31, 2026 Full Review Fantasy Life (2025) 81% EDIT “Peet gives one of those blazing comeback turns that makes you wonder how we all could have forgotten about a performer in the first place.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Mar 31, 2026 Full Review One-Eyed Jacks (1961) 67% EDIT “An odd, mercurial Western from an odd, mercurial genius.” – Crooked Marquee Mar 28, 2026 Full Review Marc by Sofia (2025) 74% EDIT “A cozy hang with the cool kids. ” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Mar 27, 2026 Full Review Miroirs No. 3 (2025) 95% EDIT “Glancing and beguilingly light on its feet, as gentle as the cascading Ravel suite from which the film takes its title.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture Mar 26, 2026 Full Review Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026) 76% EDIT “One moment made me sit upright in my recliner and shout "OH, F--K YOU!" aloud in my apartment while looking for something to throw at the screen. I don’t normally do this. You can ask the neighbors.” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Mar 24, 2026 Full Review Boorman and the Devil (2025) 100% EDIT “Catnip for film buffs. It's one of the best movies I've seen about the making of a movie. ” – Spliced Personality (Substack) Mar 20, 2026 Full Review Project Hail Mary (2026) 94% EDIT “It’s worth noting that ‘Project Hail Mary’ runs seven minutes longer than ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ and that movie begins with the dawn of man.” – WBUR’s Arts & Culture Mar 19, 2026 Full Review
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