“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” of 1974 (remade four times so far, incidentally) probably initiated the idea of the faux documentary as a basis for the horror film. Possibly more influential, if more crudely made, the brilliantly marketed “Blair Witch Project” solidified the concept, inspiring a number of later movies — the “Paranormal Activity” franchise, […]
Film review
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Film Reviews: “Alive Inside,” “Starred Up,” and “The One I Love”
“Alive Inside” (NR), Directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett Screens Tuesday, September 9, 7 p.m. at the Little First-time director Michael Rossato-Bennett’s deeply affecting documentary, “Alive Inside,” spotlights the crusade being waged by social worker Dan Cohen as he seeks to drastically alter the way our country cares for the elderly. As founder of the nonprofit organization […]
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Film Review: “The November Man”
Whatever else the contemporary thriller accomplishes, the form strongly establishes the Central Intelligence Agency as major villains in the world of espionage and counterespionage. Over the decades, films as different as “Gorky Park,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” and most recently, “A Most Wanted Man,” to cite only a few examples, paint the Agency as thugs, torturers, […]
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“Land Ho!”
Grandpa gets his groove back in “Land Ho!” an episodic road trip comedy about aging friends. Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson) and Colin (Paul Eenhoorn) as they travel through picturesque Iceland. Perpetually horny Mitch, somehow always ready with a pot hookup and an off-color joke, is the instigator of the impromptu trip, hoping it will cheer […]
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“Calvary”
In recent years, documented incidents from Irish history have inspired some powerful motion pictures, most notably Stephen Frears’s “Philomena,” which won considerable critical and commercial success in 2013. Revelations about the brutal treatment of children, including sexual abuse, by priests and the virtual imprisonment of unwed mothers in workhouses supervised by nuns, shocked Ireland, damaging […]
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“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”
Nearly 10 years after the release of “Sin City,” Robert Rodriguez’s ultra-stylish adaptation of Frank Miller’s hard-boiled, neo-noir graphic novel series, the director returns to the rain-slick streets and darkened alleyways of Basin City. But something has clearly been lost in the intervening years. The original “Sin City” (one of the best films of 2005) […]
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Film Review: “Mood Indigo”
French filmmaker Michel Gondry has built a reputation around his inventively handmade, DIY visual aesthetic. Gondry’s films burst with fanciful imagery, imperfectly crafted out of tinfoil and cardboard, and it’s tempting to dismiss his films as frivolous exercises in quirkiness. But that would be to ignore the real sense of sorrow lurking at the center […]
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Film Review: “The Giver”
After a visit to the new Soviet Union in 1919, the great muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens famously remarked, “I have seen the future and it works.” In Hollywood, for many years they have seen the future and … it sucks. Dystopia now replaces any possibility of happiness in the brave new world that we’d like […]
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Film Review: “Boyhood”
The process behind the creation of “Boyhood,” the remarkable new film from director Richard Linklater, is nearly as extraordinary as the film itself. Assembling his cast for a few days at a time, the film’s shoot lasted for a total of 45 days, but those days were spread out over the course of 12 years […]
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Film Review: “Magic in the Moonlight”
The experience of watching Woody Allen’s annual movie, “Magic in the Moonlight,” suggests that last year’s “Blue Jasmine” represents something of an anomaly in his long, prolific career. In that picture he abandoned a number of his perennial subjects — the upper West Side ambiance, the preoccupation with sexual inadequacy, the tendency to rely on […]
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Film Review: “Guardians of the Galaxy”
For the 10th entry in its Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios reaches deep into its character roster to bring intergalactic outlaws the “Guardians of the Galaxy” to the big screen. Though lacking the name recognition of Iron Man, Thor, or Captain America, the Guardians have been around since the late 60’s, with a number of changes […]
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Film Review: “I Origins”
Since the earliest years of cinema, science fiction has inspired filmmakers. Its major subjects — space travel, time travel, alien encounters, robots, the future — translate easily to film, the most magical of the arts, the most hospitable to the possibilities of fantasy. The form also responds to the dreams and fears of its time […]
