For a late October weekend-- two movies whose houses are haunted: REBECCA and THE NEST. I have always loved the original-- Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar-winning gothic masterpiece REBECCA based on Daphne du Maurier's novel about wealthy widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) who brings his new wife (Joan Fontaine) home to his sprawling English country estate, [...]
These two films couldn't be more different and I liked them both-- one in spite of its being outright awful and ridiculous, the other because it pretty much accomplished what it set out to do. THE SECRET: DARE TO DREAM stars Katie Holmes as a down-on-her-luck widow named Miranda raising three kids when [...]
It's over! The winners of Oscars 2020 are in and it was an historic night. Here are the highlights and low lights beginning with the evening's BEST moment: ***PARASITE winning four Oscars including the first time in Oscar history that a non-English film, as well as a South Korean film, won Best Picture. [...]
The critics have spoken-- and women ruled the Boston Society of Film Critics awards! "Little Women," much of it shot in and around Concord and Boston, topped the list of winners at the 39th installment of the BSFC awards, 2019. We gathered all day Sunday, December 15 to vote the best in 15 [...]
No doubt you've seen my review of PARASITE, the most well-conceived, executed, and surprising movie out there now, but here's my take on a few more--worthy in whole, in part, or not at all... These films represent my wide-ranging interest in all kinds of movies, even as fewer and fewer of them are now playing [...]
It's all in the title: PARASITE, a meticulously calibrated, razor sharp masterpiece of humor, horror, and social commentary from Korean writer/director Bong Joon-Ho. "Parasite" which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2019-- and the first Korean film to win that honor--subverts all your expectations as it innocently works its way into your psyche. [...]
I love to be scared at the movies, so I couldn't wait to see US, writer/director Jordan Peele's follow up to his 2017 satirical horror hit GET OUT, which earned him an Oscar for Best Original screenplay. US is a different creature; with an evocative premise, and a cast to take it and run with it, [...]
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 [...]
They didn't make my Five Fave Films of 2017 so far, nor are they all the Boston area Film Critics choices, but here’s another batch of films, like cookies for the holidays-- yummy & crummy; some to be savored, some to be consumed guiltily in the dark, and some cookies, well, should be tossed. [...]
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 [...]
