On Tuesday, we will be discussing Love and Friendship, a film that brings together two creative people for whom I have a great deal of affection. The first is Jane Austen, who is, without a doubt, one of the clearest-eyed, most wickedly amusing observers of human behavior ever. Her insights into the jealousy, snobbery and folly of late 18th and early 19th century England can still draw blood, which is why filmmakers keep making and remaking her novels into movies. (Well, the fact that her works are all in the public domain and feed the current general hunger for costume dramas may have something to do with it.)Read More
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There are lots of classic combinations that never go out of style: Peanut butter and jelly; pizza and beer; summer nights and romantic comedies. There’s a reason some ingredients get married and never come apart.Read More
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Well, it’s time to get serious about this movie stuff! We have three straight weeks of discussions coming up in July, and the movies themselves, are (I think) all perfect for summer evenings. There’s not a gut-clenching moral dilemma, haunting historical tragedy or blood-soaked shoot-out in the bunch.Read More
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Well, it finally happened yesterday, the official first day of summer and the longest day of the year. And that means that the New England race to pack as much gardening, drinks on the deck, beach time, lobster rolls, kayaking and other forms of merriment as humanly possible into about 10 weeks is in full swing. (It also means that the day will be getting shorter from now on, but I don’t want to depress anyone.)Read More
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We don’t hear much from filmmakers in Greece these days (and no, I don’t count My Big Fat Greek Wedding), but given that country’s position at the foundation of Western Civilization, that seems like a shame. A country that gave us The Iliad and the Odyssey and a dysfunctional family of gods that could go straight onto reality TV—The Real Gods of Mount Olympus!—might tap into some interesting places in our collective psyche.Read More
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Hollywood will soon be flooding America’s theaters with disaster movies of every imaginable type, from epidemics and alien invasions to battling superheroes and cranky supernatural forces. (Was our planet inadvertently built on top of some kind of intergalactic graveyard? That would explain a lot.Read More
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So, here it comes. Tomorrow night (Tuesday, April 19) we will be doing a discussion of Anomalisa, the latest film from Charlie Kaufman. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s the intriguing mind behind the scripts for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the writer/director of Synecdoche, New York. And yes, he’s more than a little odd in his way of looking at the world.Read More
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The Music Hall, from whom all cinematic blessings flow, must have been worried that April might produce too much giddy happiness in its PWSD-afflicted New England clientele. So they decided to give us a Spring Tonic in the form of two very substantial movies. Accordingly, our two films for discussion this month are Carol and Anomalisa.Read More
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