OK. The big night is upon us and it's the wild west out there. Not just the Kevin Hart controversy; the cutting telecast categories controversy; the "only Gaga/Kendrick Lamar can sing" controversy; the "popular" movie category controversy; but also that crazy slate of Best Picture nominees with no front runner! Well, the final ballots are [...]
The Lyric Stage company has gone from THE WOLVES to THE LITTLE FOXES, Lillian Hellman's classic about a ravenous pack of southerners hungry for a business deal that would satiate their need for even greater wealth and power. This melodrama set in the antebellum south is brilliantly helmed by Scott Edmiston, staged on a glorious [...]
Women dominate much of what's onstage right now, beginning with George Bernard Shaw's comedy of manners, gender, class, and now-- colonialism and cultural assimilation. PYGMALION has gotten a makeover by New York's brilliant Bedlam theater company by way of Underground Railway Theater at Central Square. It's a crisp, up-to-the minute, vibrant and touching take on a classic. [...]
SO MUCH THEATER OUT THERE NOW! I caught up with five shows while nursing a broken ankle (don't ask) and most of them were worth going the distance. OTHELLO at THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER in Cambridge by way of The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is an update on Shakespeare's tragedy about a noble man of [...]
HURRY! FREE ADVANCE SCREENING of filmmaker Peter Jackson's documentary "THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD" Monday January 28, 2019 7PM at AMC Boston Common For the chance to download two complimentary passes to this advance screening please visit: “THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD” (running time 99 minutes) Rating: R for disturbing war images Director: [...]
HURRY! FREE ADVANCE SCREENING of the SONY PICTURES release "MISS BALA" Wednesday January 30, 2019 7PM at AMC Boston Common For the chance to download two complimentary passes to this advance screening please visit: “MISS BALA” (running time 1 HOUR 43 minutes) Rating: PG-13 for gun violence, sexual and drug content, thematic material, and [...]
There are two new comedies onstage in Boston right now, both entertaining, and well-executed by superb casts, but it was the scripts that gave me pause. The New England premiere of SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company was a hit off-broadway and absolutely made me laugh-- and that's about it. What we have [...]
HURRY! FREE ADVANCE SCREENING of the STX release "THE UPSIDE" Wednesday January 9, 2019 7PM at AMC Boston Common For the chance to download two complimentary passes to this advance screening please visit: “THE UPSIDE” (running time 2 hours 6 minutes) Rating: PG-13 for suggestive content and drug use Cast: Nicole Kidman, Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart, Julianna Margulies Writers: Jon Hartmere, Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache Director: [...]
SO many excellent films came out at the 11th hour-- meaning not until FALL 2018 (ridiculously late I might add), that it has taken me until now to see all the good stuff. Here is a list of my TOP TEN favorite films of 2018. Many of these films allowed us to see ourselves in [...]
I love this annual marathon meeting-- our 38th-- of the BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS to decide our year end faves! We voted the "Best" in 15 categories topped by our BEST FILM of the year: the stunning IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK written and directed by Barry Jenkins, about a young African American couple in 1970's [...]
