CITY Magazine. Arts. Music. Culture.
Rochester, New York's source for arts, music, events listings and culture, on the web and in print every month. Offering alternative news since 1971.
Film critic for CITY Newspaper, writer, iced coffee addict, and dinosaur enthusiast.
“Trumbo” documents one principled man’s fight for his ideals, set against one
of the most shameful chapters in Hollywood (and America’s) history.
The year has undoubtedly had its share of ups and downs, but 2015 will go down as a good one in at least one regard: it’s the first time we’ve been lucky enough to get not one, but two Pixar movies. That they’re both original films is doubly impressive, considering that the studio’s scheduled output […]
Sometimes you just need a movie break during the holidays. Here are our suggestions on what to watch this season The term “Christmas movie” means different things to different people. Just like the holiday itself — which can be both universal and extremely personal — we all celebrate in our own way, and certain films […]
The series comes to a satisfying conclusion, even if it never quite lives up to the previous installments.
Everybody loves an underdog story. Rooting for a scrappy, gutsy hero to win the day against seemingly insurmountable odds is a timeless formula, and the secret behind the success of the popular “Rocky” film series. So it’s fitting that when expectations were low for the seventh film in the franchise — a spin-off following Adonis […]
Actor and musician Creed Bratton has led an eclectic life, and has the varied career — spanning music, movies, and television — to prove it. Best known as a founding member of 60’s rock band The Grass Roots, and later as the lovably psychotic paper salesman Creed on “The Office,” Bratton has maintained a successful […]
“Spotlight” has become
one of the more acclaimed films of the year thus far, and it’s not hard to see why.
If ever there was a perfect illustration of how a film is less what it’s about than how it is about that thing, “Room” is it. Adapted by Emma Donoghue from her best-selling 2010 novel, “Room” is a gripping and deeply emotional story that nevertheless revolves around a nightmarish scenario of victimization. Taking inspiration from […]
When the High Falls Film Festival was founded back in 2001, with a mission to highlight the contributions of women in the film industry, just 17 percent of jobs behind the camera were held by women. Sadly, 14 years later not much has changed. In fact, that statistic hasn’t budged an inch. The need to […]
Twenty-four films into its 50-year run, the James Bond series has become the equivalent of cinematic comfort food: the flavor may sometimes vary slightly, but the familiar ingredients audiences crave are always present. With the secret agent’s last outing, 2012’s “Skyfall,” director Sam Mendes was able to inject the formula with some emotional resonance — […]
In the days before the Internet made communication easy and the transfer of information instantaneous, films provided a crucial role in allowing us to learn about people and places that were otherwise worlds apart. This week, the Dryden Theatre will kick off a new month-long film series called “Here and Elsewhere,” which presents a lineup […]
