The first few minutes of this documentary are a tribute to discretion: a montage of talking heads who refuse to talk--and as Diana Vreeland once said, "elegance is refusal." The very fact of this documentary verges on the indiscreet, but I forgave the indiscretion and am thrilled to have had a peek. This is a [...]
In one of the more entertaining Oscar nomination ceremonies in recent memory, Andy Serkis and Tiffany Haddish announced the nominations for the 90th Annual OSCARS this morning from California. THE SHAPE OF WATER lead with 13 nominations. By my calculation, there were a few flubs, snubs, & surprises: --Spielberg was snubbed as Best Director for [...]
It's been another tough year for me at the movies. The swamp of desperately-plotted comedy and superhero sequels clogged with action sludge-- pulled me down, but not out. I hung on until late fall, when the cinematic floodgates opened to release a wave of excellent movies I'm still riding. I have not yet seen PHANTOM [...]
It happened this weekend: The BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS (of which I am a veteran member) met for the 37th time and voted Paul Thomas Anderson's PHANTOM THREAD (which a significant number of critics have not yet seen) starring Daniel Day-Lewis in his ostensible farewell performance as a fictional couturier, the BEST FILM [...]
Happy summer one and all! A pro-LONG-ed bout of pneumonia and a vacation abroad has kept me away from my website for awhile-- but I'm back up to speed with a slew of movies over the next few days and some "must-see" theater to recommend. Today I begin with the WOODS HOLE FILM FESTIVAL about [...]
In marathon season, after a marathon of coverage including the fictionalized film "Patriots Day" and the documentary play "Finish Line," the latest entry in the reportage of Boston's beloved race comes in first with the last word. My review here reprinted from The ARTery. "Boston" is the first feature length documentary film on [...]
This was a strange year for movies. I could barely find a thing to watch all summer, and then was inundated with a flood of excellent features in the Fall. No one mainstream film commanded our attention, but smaller, isolated gems shown brightly on a far-flung horizon. ONE of these for me stood far above the rest. Herewith my top five films, in no particular order AFTER my favorite film [...]
If you're still looking for that perfect gift for someone you love who loves the arts, I am passing along this 2016 Holiday Gift Guide, itself a gift from WBUR's The ARTery writers-- and I am proud to be one! This annual gift guide has several stockings full of suggestions in every discipline [...]
Boston's two film critics' circles (I belong to both) have voted their year end awards! The BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS (BSFC) have named "La La Land" starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and directed by Best Director Damien ("Whiplash") Chazelle as BEST PICTURE! The Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA) has named "Moonlight" BEST PICTURE with Best Ensemble for the magnificent trio [...]
The story of Kitty Genovese, a young woman who was stabbed to death in NYC over 50 years ago while 38 people did nothing-- still haunts us. But that's not what really happened. Nevertheless, that horrifying tale of urban apathy reverberated through a family, branded a neighborhood, indicted the media, tore a hole in our innocence, and embedded [...]
