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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The lives of actors are idiosyncratic things, and you just never know when (or if) a big break is going to come along. It happened to Michael Keaton with his breakout role in Birdman. And if Caddyshack hadn’t come along, Rodney Dangerfield would never have gotten a chance to make Easy Money and Back to School. (And we all know what a loss that would have been.)Read More
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So, Spike Lee.
Spike Lee is a filmmaker who loves to put a burr under people’s saddle. From She’s Gotta Have It in 1986 through Do the Right Thing in 1989 (arguably his masterpiece, at least in terms of controversy) to Malcolm X in 1992 and Bamboozled in 2000, Lee produced a string of accomplished films on black themes that got crossways with lots of people.Read More
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Welcome to July, the second stop on your three-month “What Summer Can Be Like In New England” tour. As we have learned up to now, summer in New England can be like summer in San Francisco; don’t put your fleece away just yet.
Still, if July’s beginning is any indication of what the rest holds in store, we may be in for a demonstration of “Why People Come to New England In the Summer.” Let’s hope.
While we’re waiting, we have a sci-fi thriller showing this week at The Music Hall that will fulfill your need for a summer movie that you can watch without turning your brain off. If you’ve seen the previews (there’s one after the jump, ed.), you know that Ex Machina has a sleek, futuristic look that’s perfect for a film that asks what it means to be both artificial and intelligent, and what it might mean for us humans—poor, meat-pod creatures that we are—when AI really gets revved up.Read More
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Choosing which movie to see is often vexing. There are just more releases every month than an ordinary human being with an actual life can see. It’s a shame, but there it is. But sometimes it’s harder than usual.
A month or so ago, as I was facing the task of choosing which movies to discuss in May, I had a couple of real posers. Last week, my choices were either Catherine Deneuve in On My Way or Nymphomaniac Vol. I. I chose the one with all the naked people in it because I wanted to keep up with what Lars von Trier is up to. But I knew that the Deneuve film would also be good.
The choice for this week was equally difficult, given that I would rather watch movies in The Historic Theater. The Big Room was playing Enemy, an intellectually challenging thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal. I like Jake, and I like thrillers.
And yet, despite all that, I chose to head to The Loft to watch and discuss Particle Fever, a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider, the extremely large machine built in France and Switzerland to shoot very small bits of matter at one another at unimaginably high speeds in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Higgs Boson.Read More
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