Where would we be without two-time Best Actress Oscar winner Sally Field and another of her indelible, quirky, wholly committed, utterly endearing performances? One glimpse of Field in the opening sequence as Doris Miller crying at her mother's funeral, wearing cat eye glasses and a big Minnie Mouse bow wrapped around a towering bun of hair-- and she had me at [...]
ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN free passes to the Fathom Event's documentary "Living with Beethoven" featuring The Berlin Philharmonic! Enter to win by emailing fathomeventsboston@gmail.com with “BEETHOVEN – JOYCE’S CHOICES” in the subject line. 5 admit 2 winners will be selected and emailed their complimentary passes. Passes will be valid for the Showcase Cinema De Lux [...]
It's easy to slam the OSCARS as a superficial contest of egos on parade. Not sure what it says about me that I love every gown and gaffe, every windy speech and backfiring joke, every upset, melt-down, frozen-faced loser, and tear-filled acceptance--as well as all the long stretches in between. Every year it's the same but different. A different complexion, a complexion that reflects [...]
THE 2016 OSCARS are upon us and I thought I'd weigh in on a few films I'd been mum on-- in case you were wondering for what and whom to root! ROOM: Nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay is a compactly explosive film about a horrifying situation: a young woman kidnapped, impregnated, and kept prisoner by a sexual predator-- and [...]
It's a quiet time of year for movie releases after the blockbusters of summer and the Oscar contenders of fall. It's the perfect time to think "silents." We can't actually hear them sighing in ecstasy, but it isn't hard to imagine from those shimmering "pictures" what was happening on the "silver screen" back in the early days of film when actual silver was [...]
I love a good storm--and dazzling heroics float my boat. Disney's THE FINEST HOURS satisfies both cravings in a new film which comes at a time of year that generally finds us in the doldrums of the movie release schedule. But this film is a new year's treat. Not only is it well made, but it tells the true story of the most [...]
OK. Seth Meyers is officially a genius. He's the heir apparent to Jon Stewart as comic provocateur and skewerer of all things worth skewering from politics and pop culture to the metastatic media coverage that follows. Seth has now broadened his reach to include movie criticism and sociolinguistics. Yeah, we know he's from New Hampsha, but he knows a Bahstin accent when he [...]
What an intense week. I cannot write anything else before expressing how heartbroken I was to learn that brilliant actor Alan Rickman and musical icon David Bowie died--both Londoners, both at age 69 of cancer. Bowie was an artistic visionary and sonic adventurer who cut an endlessly original and challenging swathe through the musical landscape. We find him [...]
A flurry of fine films has just descended on the big screen in the last few weeks, almost too many to take in; but I did my best and here are my TOP FIVE FILMS of the year, some of which aren't due out until Christmas! 1) THE REVENANT-- A stunning 156 minute saga by award-winning Mexican director Alejandro G. Inarritu (BIRDMAN) starring Leonardo DiCaprio [...]
Never mind The Force-- I HAVE AWAKENED! The latest installment of STAR WARS EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS has pulled me out of the Doldrums of Prequel (a group of empty islands way off the coast of the Star Wars franchise) and takes us home, back to the tale's original charm, storytelling, irresistible characters, sense of adventure, humor and excitement, and creates new characters [...]
