The Next Thing (TNT) Festival presented by ArtsEmerson:The World On Stage-- is right around the corner! It's a 10-day "mash-up" of film, music, and live performance edited on the spot and streamed live! TNT begins Feb 15 but as a prelude ArtsEmerson is screening Classics of World Cinema beginning Feb 1st. One of my all [...]
The Oscars are Feb 24, and over the next few days there are few "Oscar" films I need to catch you up on before the big event! See a French film called AMOUR which won this year's Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and is among this year's nine Oscar nominees for Best Picture. [...]
I have always loved this musical onstage, but was never so miserable as when I sat through all 157 minutes onscreen. LES MISERABLES--despite some exceptional musical performances--dies a torturous death by close-up at the hands of tone-deaf director Tom Hooper. "LES MIS" as we familiarly call it, is the theatrical extravaganza put to music by [...]
I have seen LINCOLN-- and he is Daniel Day-Lewis. This is an absolutely flawless performance, which together with Spielberg's direction, Tony Kushner's screenplay, based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book TEAM OF RIVALS, and a treasure trove of vivid performances -- has resulted in one of the finest movies of the year, and one [...]
I've seen it--the film of the year: THE SESSIONS. I know it's only October, but the bar is now set extremely high. THE SESSIONS makes everything else I've seen lately look fake and showy. The premise is simple and unusual, based on the true story of 39 year old Mark O'Brien (Boston born?) poet/journalist living [...]
