>
Laura Clifford
Tomatometer-approved critic
Reeling: The Movie Review Show has been produced by Robin and Laura Clifford at the Malden, Massachusetts cable access television station, MATV, since March 16,1991. Reeling is also cablecast on these cable access stations in Massachusetts: Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Wakefield, Belmont, Waltham, Salem and Lowell with more on the way. Robin and Laura have attended film courses at Emerson College and workshops in 16 mm film production at the Boston Film and Video Foundation.
Red Sid and Nancy Aguirre, the Wrath of God The Decalogue The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Being There The Wizard of Oz
Boston, MA
http://www.reelingreviews.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
The Boy and the Heron (2023) |
a beautiful piece of work and unmistakably Miyazaki, but as with many personal films, some may find it more difficult to relate to, this one’s narrative stranger than usual with an overstuffed narrative. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Dec 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023) |
for the most part the film feels like it’s going through the motions and for the first time, CGI is readily evident in what were once entirely handmade creations. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Dec 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
Poor Things (2023) |
a darkly hilarious, sexually provocative, visually Gilliamesque tale of a liberal, feminist awakening in the Victorian era. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Dec 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
Concrete Utopia (2023) |
…both a disaster movie and a Serlingesque exploration of human behavior in an apocalyptic situation. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Dec 04, 2023
|
|
|
|
Eileen (2023) |
Director William Oldroyd ("Lady Macbeth") conjures the period and place atmosphere with authentic gray, chilly detail, but characterization and motivation have been stripped too far down in Luke Goebel’s adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh's novel - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Dec 04, 2023
|
|
|
|
Menus-Plaisirs: Les Troisgros (2023) |
Don’t expect to see a meal prepared from start to finish as Wiseman isn’t trying to make a cooking show here, instead up to his usual agenda of documenting the workings of an establishment from soup to nuts and it’s mighty satisfying indeed. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Dec 03, 2023
|
|
|
|
Robot Dreams (2023) |
This lovely, ultimately heartbreaking story about the power of connection and painful absurdities of fate is all the more amazing for being told with no dialogue or title cards… a wistful work of animated art. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Dec 02, 2023
|
|
|
|
Monster (2023) |
For the first time...Kore-eda works from a screenplay he did not write and yet Sakamoto Yûji appears to reference several of Kore-eda’s films within a “Rashomon”-like story that shifts our perspective with its three points of view over three acts. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Maestro (2023) |
excepting Cooper’s willingness to cede the spotlight to his female costar, this is a very different film from “A Star Is Born,” both a biopic of a real person and riskier in its artistic choices, a marriage portrayed as mosaic. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 22, 2023
|
|
|
|
Wish (2023) |
Directors Chris Buck ("Frozen") and...Fawn Veerasunthorn, haven’t tightened a story that feels assembled from used parts, but they have assured the film has a magical look of soft colors, warm light and detailed texture...DeBose is in fine voice - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 20, 2023
|
|
|
|
Napoleon (2023) |
suffers from a sleepy-eyed performance from Phoenix which emphasizes Napoleon’s theoretical sleep apnea, a lack of sexual or romantic chemistry between him and Kirby and historical blunt force over political clarity. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 19, 2023
|
|
|
|
Fallen Leaves (2023) |
With “Fallen Leaves,” Kaurismäki exhibits a heightened mastery of tone, his film at once funny and deadly serious and one of his best. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 19, 2023
|
|
|
|
Leo (2023) |
The second Sandler family project of the year...puts dad Adam back in the spotlight as a lizard who’s just learned of his own mortality...in a charming animation that casts him as part fairy godmother and part inspirational teacher. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 17, 2023
|
|
|
|
Thanksgiving (2023) |
a new gory comedy horror holiday classic...Eli Roth ("Hostel”) has not only delivered on every beat of his 2007 trailer, but he’s done so with the sick invention of many “Final Destination” films and character and genre cliché derived humor. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 16, 2023
|
|
|
|
May December (2023) |
The three leads are phenomenal, Portman’s husky come-ons amusing in their brazenness and revelatory in their application, her direct camera reading of Gracie’s love letter the film’s climactic assumption of character. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 16, 2023
|
|
|
|
Dream Scenario (2023) |
A Charlie Kaufmann movie woefully lacking Charlie Kaufmann...sure to delight many, but its scattershot approach weakens its heady, ethnological and evolutionary concepts and its last half hour is a drag. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 (2022) |
one wild ride and an essential piece of rock history. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
It's a Wonderful Knife (2023) |
The main pleasures to be found here are in the relationship between Winnie and Bernie Simon...and in the design of the ‘Angel,’ whose creepy, glossy, smooth white face mask and flowing robes suggest Ghostface by way of the Ghost of Christmas Past. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Rustin (2023) |
While the movie itself can be problematic...Colman Domingo’s transformational performance is so inspiring it is difficult not to get swept up in it. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
Beyond Utopia (2023) |
As is made abundantly clear by Gavin, most Westerners only know what the Kim regime, currently led by Kim Jong Un, want us to know…In fact, human rights abuses in North Korea are so unparalleled, their only comparison is to Nazi Germany... - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 04, 2023
|
|
|
|
What Happens Later (2023) |
Not having seen Steven Dietz’s play ‘Shooting Star,’ it is difficult to determine what cowriter (with Dietz and Kirk Lynn)/director Meg Ryan saw in his airport romance, but what she’s done with it is something best left on the tarmac. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Nov 01, 2023
|
|
|
|
Cat Person (2023) |
…writer Michelle Ashford’s adaptation of Kristen Roupenian's sensational 2017 short story expands it in all the wrong directions, creating an irrecoverable imbalance and rendering Margot a complete lunatic - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Fingernails (2023) |
The premise behind “Fingernails,” though, especially the titular part..is so silly it is difficult to figure out just what Nikou is satirizing. In the end, it merely seems the obstacle to what turns out to be an otherwise traditional romantic comedy - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 28, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Killer (2023) |
I wasn’t expecting a black comedy, but that is just what director David Fincher has given us with his procedural reverse character study of a man whose strong ideas about his own identity prove somewhat unfounded. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Priscilla (2023) |
Writer/director Sofia Coppola adapts Priscilla Presley’s memoir in fleeting takes, like flashes of memory which build into an interior portrait of a marriage unseen despite the continual glare of global media. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 24, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Holdovers (2023) |
While there is never any doubt where this film is headed, it’s a lovely, moving story infused with holiday spirit about broken people making each other whole again. Giamatti is perfection in a role custom tailored for him… - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 24, 2023
|
|
|
|
Where the Devil Roams (2023) |
The filmmaking collaborative known as The Adams Family...has become a real indie powerhouse in the art horror genre. This isn’t just one of the best horror films of the year, but a true American original. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 23, 2023
|
|
|
|
Once Within a Time (2023) |
…a surreal, continually morphing journey, one which resembles a German expressionistic, Orwellian ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as imagined by David Lynch and filmed by Guy Maddin, Philip Glass’s score adding a futuristic element. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 22, 2023
|
|
|
|
Anatomy of a Fall (2023) |
Triet creates tension from her first image, that of a ball bouncing down the stairs, where it will be retrieved by Snoop, the dog who in many ways represents the deceased… - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 22, 2023
|
|
|
|
My Love Affair with Marriage (2022) |
a heady, wildly entertaining personal exploration of the chemical nature of romance. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 21, 2023
|
|
|
|
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) |
it is in witnessing those murders – abrupt, violent and brutal – ...that we most recognize Scorsese’s auteurship here, his lengthy period film often feeling more like binging a prestige HBO limited series. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 15, 2023
|
|
|
|
Nyad (2023) |
The film is both a threefold character study and an adventure story, Bening, Foster and Rhys Ifans as swim navigator John Bartlett all fully inhabiting exceptional people with very different dreams and motivations. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 11, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Burial (2023) |
Maggie Betts ("Novitiate”) has put together a great ensemble who deliver the goods despite a slippery script which fluffs over...legal questions...its best element just might be Athie in a breakout role as the quiet legal digger behind the star power. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Candela (2023) |
Andrés Farías’ stylish, stunningly photographed (by cinematographer Saurabh Monga) neo noir gives LGBTQ and immigration twists to the noir tropes it honors, its approaching storm reminiscent of “Key Largo.” - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Mission (2023) |
The filmmakers will analyze how the yearning to go native mixed with Evangelical fervor led to death…a thoughtful and well laid out analysis of a preventable tragedy. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 09, 2023
|
|
|
|
V/H/S/85 (2023) |
one very strong entry, a good one, a solid piece of filmmaking that outstays its welcome and two outright duds…Mike P. Nelson’s (2021’s “Wrong Turn” reboot) ‘No Wake / Ambrosia’ is the absolute cream of this crop - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 08, 2023
|
|
|
|
She Came to Me (2023) |
I’ve never been much of a fan of writer/director Rebecca Miller’s films, so her latest is a refreshing surprise, a thoroughly balmy (in a good way) romantic comedy…Dinklage…has never looked so charmingly downcast, anxious and alarmed - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Exorcist: Believer (2023) |
copies every foreboding beat of the original, from its religious opening in a foreign land to childhood incontinence, the film ironically begins to go off the rails as refrains of Tubular Bells introduce Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil into the action. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 04, 2023
|
|
|
|
Foe (2023) |
Ronan and Mescal do not stint on their respective talents for digging deep emotionally, but the film about a disintegrating marriage is wrapped within a clunky sci-fi shell which distracts more than it illuminates. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 03, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Royal Hotel (2023) |
always seems to be on the verge of becoming an update on “Wake in Fright,”...stays perpetually on the brink of outright horror...instead it is more of a cautionary tale about choosing your traveling companions wisely. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Storms of Jeremy Thomas (2021) |
...it is Tilda Swinton, who starred in Thomas’ “Young Adam,” who proffers the film’s most trenchant observations, calling Thomas ‘rock ‘n roll’ and discussing his ‘very English qualify of transgression.’ - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Creator (2023) |
Edwards’ ("Monsters") stab at an epic sci-fi extravaganza is an odd futuristic look at the U.S. refighting the Vietnam War with AI instead of northern Communists as their target within a story that feels like its been told before. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Flora and Son (2023) |
As usual with a Carney film, music is the connective tissue, this time veering into rap, which Flora discovers her son is actually very good at and which meshes surprisingly well with what Flora’s been learning about guitar and song construction - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 24, 2023
|
|
|
|
Trenque Lauquen: Part II (2022) |
...will envelop you in its many mysteries and delight you with its mischievous spirit. Have you ever fallen in love with a movie? This one might just do the trick. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 22, 2023
|
|
|
|
Trenque Lauquen: Part I (2022) |
...will envelop you in its many mysteries and delight you with its mischievous spirit. Have you ever fallen in love with a movie? This one might just do the trick. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 22, 2023
|
|
|
|
Fair Play (2023) |
a relationship thriller with loads of dramatic tension...Unfortunately, once the inevitable happens, Domont takes things so over the top, and multiple times at that, that any impact her film had gets lost in the ludicrousness of her final act. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 19, 2023
|
|
|
|
It Lives Inside (2023) |
Dutta has a lot to say about the immigrant experience, that sometimes uncomfortable conflict of honoring one’s family traditions while trying to assimilate into another culture...It is the genre elements that disappoint - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 18, 2023
|
|
|
|
Dumb Money (2023) |
director Craig Gillespie’s ("I, Tonya") latest social comedy is a well laid out instructional on the Gamestop stock phenomenon that plays like “The Big Short” for Dummies - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 16, 2023
|
|
|
|
Stop Making Sense (1984) |
Seeing this in a 4k restoration with Jerry Harrison’s remastered soundtrack on a towering IMAX screen is tantamount to having been there. Heck, given our immersion into the stage, it might be even better. - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
|
|
A Haunting in Venice (2023) |
while the craft of the film is notable, it suffers from the same underwritten characters and weak narrative as writer Michael Green’s first - Reeling Reviews
Read More
| Posted Sep 11, 2023
|