The Columbus Dispatch (June 03, 2004)

Moviola
East of Eager

(Anyway Records): A wise man once said that resignation is confirmed desperation. That same wise man calculated that "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Moviola plays loose, informal, strippeddown American music. Not a single member of the quintet strikes an instrument in anger. (Or as they say in the movies, no guitars were injured in the making of East of Eager.) The 11 songs are filled with gentle foreboding and easy humor. Life deals repeated blows but nothing we can’t handle in the end. Probably. Maybe. Or not. Call it guarded optimism. Call it realism.

"Darkness only gets so dark," Greg Bonnell sings on About You, "before a little light gets in." Not a lot of light. A little. The simple side of life has its appeal. And this lovely music is its own reward.— Bill Eichenberger