What a delicious double feature! I saw these movies months ago and can still taste them! I love food. The science and the art. I don't cook. I do bake, mind you--and just LOVE to eat, taste, try new things, analyze recipes and whatever I'm eating (ooh.. the crumb on that cake!... Is that star [...]
THE HUNTING GROUND. The title alone suggests a population served up to predators. This is precisely the circumstance on college campuses all over the country, where, according to this shocking and stirring documentary "1 in 5 women in college is sexually assaulted, yet only a fraction of these crimes are reported, and even fewer result in punishment for the perpetrators." How [...]
AMERICAN SNIPER keeps firing shots heard round the world. The film's impact has been reverberating ever since its opening weekend--continuing to dominate the box office, breaking box office records (though it was just ex- Sponged from the top slot this weekend by Mr. Squarepants) and igniting a firestorm of controversy among pundits, critics, movie stars, and the public. The movie directed [...]
Who cares about the OSCARS-- right now. In fact, regional groups like the BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS have been known to have a major influence on which way the wind blows at Oscar time. So listen up fans, cinephiles and Oscar-ites: WE HAVE SPOKEN. We met today at the hippest hotel in town the REVERE HOTEL [...]
It's a sad, strange story, and it's hard to believe it's true: FOXCATCHER is a tale of three men-- two Olympic wrestling brothers, and the very rich man who covets them. Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo play Mark and Dave Schultz who won Olympic gold medals in wrestling, Dave also acting as trainer to his younger brother Mark. Enter Steve Carell as John [...]
It's time for the stars of summer --Godzilla, the Guardians of the Galaxy, those rebellious apes, and Tom Cruise-- to make way for the more adult pleasures of FALL. Things are getting serious now as movies designed to jolt the brain as much as the blood pressure are set to hit the big screen, many of [...]
12 YEARS A SLAVE tops the list of Boston Society of Film Critics Awards with three awards including Best Picture of 2013, Best Director-- Steve McQueen, and Best Actor-- Chiwetel Ejiofor for his role as Solomon Northup in this true story of a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery. Seventeen of the 21 [...]
I like THE HUNGER GAMES: series, and the second installment, CATCHING FIRE--despite a colleague's calling it "a long slog"--absolutely held me. Once again, the charismatic Jennifer Lawrence as the reluctant firebrand Katniss Everdeen continues to rebel against the capitol. Having out-witted the powers that be in the first Hunger Games--a TV spectacle in which children [...]
ALL IS LOST--Robert Redford's latest as a man alone and adrift at sea-- plays like an extended Viagra commercial. You know-- older, handsome outdoorsman testing his mettle against the elements; there's a broken mast involved. I know, I know. It's Redford--and there's already Oscar buzz about this performance and this movie. Well, I know what [...]
12 YEARS A SLAVE is as unsparing as its title. The film is a shattering experience-- for actors and audience--as we are dragged into the abyss of slavery through the documented real life experience of a free black man in upstate NY who was kidnapped from his family in the middle of his life, and [...]
