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Blog Log 2006

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December

12/31 Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year)!

12/31 Book review of Kafka on the Shore  by Hauruki Murakami.

12/29 Hats off to Sylvester Stallone for Rocky Balboa (link to my review), in eight days the film has made over 30 million. It took 8 years, a lot of nos (no one, movie execs in particular, wanted to see another Rocky) and 24 million dollars (in the black fast for an unwanted duck) to get Rocky back up on the silver screen. Sly’s persistence in seeing it through is reminiscent of his tireless pugilist driven by heart and integrity. In interviewing the Italian Stallion, I had newfound respect. He was introspective, focused and passionate about the film that wrapped up the life journey of the infectious underdog who put him on the map back in 1976.  (An interesting side note: the original Rocky was just enshrined in the Library of Congress’s film archive.)

12/28 The movie of the week to see! It’s a very good week! Yes Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy are Oscar bound in Dream Girls—and it is one of the best of the year—but don’t miss Children of Men, a dark, anarchistic portrait of the future in the vein of Blade Runner (1982) and The Road Warrior (1981). And adding Oscar worthy nods as a sexy school teacher who has an affair with a much younger male student and the woman who susses her out are Kate Blanchett and Judy Dench in Notes on a Scandal.

12/25 Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and for those of you that can speak Chinese, Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year).

12/24 DVD Picks of the Week! Unless you’re a huge Brian DePalma fan you can pass on the Black Dahlia, though it is notable for Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett’s solid performances as fictional LA gumshoes trying to solve the real life murder of Elizabeth Swan. The Descent is perhaps the most visceral horror film in years as 6 female jocks go down into a North Carolina crevice and discover they are not alone in the dark. Genuine gut churning creeps—a must see for horror fanatics.

12/23 Racism, hate and idiotic bureaucracies. British historian, David Irving was released from an Austrian prison this week.  That’s not impressive, but what is, is his crime. Irving was sentences to 3 years in jail for belittling/denying the Holocaust when lecturing on Austrian soil. What I still can’t fathom is the fact that the Austrian court has a law on the books that curbs free speech (jail time for denigrating the Holocaust). Sure Irving’s a fool, but the Austrian rule is… see my February 2006 Rant on the matter.

12/21 The movie of the week to see! Post WWII and Cold War espionage thrillers, The Good German and The Good Shepherd, look great and have some terrific performances, but they never quite fulfill their ambitions. Likewise, sporting flicks, Rocky Balboa and We Are Marshall are admirable and pleasing efforts, but the one that shines the brightest is Zhang Yimou’s The Curse of the Golden Flower, it’s scrumptious to behold and a logical follow up to House of Flying Daggers (2004), though it’s scope resonates that of Akira Kurasawa’s Ran (1985). Longtime Yimou collaborator, Gong Li is both sensual and poignant as the Queen conflicted by duties to her husband, lover, children and the dark secrets that haunt her.

12/20 Reviews of Rocky Balboa, Eragon and We Are Marshall.

12/19 An Interview with Sylvester Stallone talking about age and Rocky Balboa—aka Rocky VI.

12/17 DVD Picks of the Week! New: Unless you have a burning need you can pass on the unnecessary remake of All the Kings Men (though Sean Penn gives a near Oscar worthy performance), Lady in the Water, the latest (and feeble) spookfest from M. Night Shyamalan, Neil Lebute’s lame remake of The Wicker Man and Uma Thurman having some fluffy fun in the tepid My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Get the odd and alluring animated take on Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly (Dick is the guy who’s book inspired Blade Runner and Minority Report) and the wickedly funny take on familial dysfunction on the road, Little Miss Sunshine. Also, if you’re fired up for the new Rocky (and it is a pleaser) and you want a taste of another lovable Philly underdog, then Invincible, the true life story about a 30-year-old local who made it as a walk-on with the Eagles, is for you. Reissues: The Conformist (1970): Bernardo Bertolucci’s tale about a spineless fascist is one of master director’s crowning achievements. For Hong Kong action addicts there’s Police Story (1985) and from the land of cult there’s the original (and there’s no comparison between the two) Wicker Man (1973) complete with Britt Ekland’s naked, singing sashay.

12/17 A good last second present, or if you’re up for café styled theater infused with punk rock burlesque, see The Onion Cellar at the American Repertory Theater. And, if you’re a fan of the Dresden Dolls (who are uber tight in this loose rock opera) then it’s an extra holiday treat for you.

12/16 High hypocrisy? Governor-elect Deval Patrick made his way to center stage by promising a new era of openness where political nepotism and waste would not be tolerated. So why is the history making politician throwing the most expensive inauguration the state has ever seen and financing it through corporate sponsorship? The answer is probably somewhere between over zealousness and ego. Let’s just hope it’s a moment of delusional blindness caused by the glare of the spotlight and that Mr. Patrick soon focuses on the business at hand and doesn’t become another media hawking governor looking to move beyond the statehouse before the job is even started.

12/15 The movie of the week to see! Forget Eragon, the dragon riding, Lord of the Rings wannabe and see The Pursuit of Happyness. In the real-life rags to riches yarn, Will Smith gives a surprising performance and the film moves in unexpected and harrowing turns.

12/14 Review of The Pursuit of Happyness.

12/10 DVD Picks of the Week! New: Meryl Streep shines as a over-bearing, egotistical fashion mag boss in The Devil Wears Prada and Oliver Stone takes a Lifetime turn with the affecting 9/11 remembrance, World Trade Center. Reissue: Bugsy (1991). This is where Warren Beatty met his future wife, Annette Benning, and their chemistry sparkles onscreen as the titular gangster who broke from the mob to build Las Vegas and his love. A lot of 40s and 50s American history is covered, and there’s the gangster hook, but at the core it’s a classic love story.    

  *   Best of 2006? The Boston Society of Film Critics (of which I am a member) makes their picks this weekend. Look back here Sunday Night for the results.

12/08 Michael Richards’s choice of words gets me all riled up, get the Rant.

12/08 See it: on air (NECN) reviews of Apocalypto and Blood Diamond.

     Air Time: I’ll be back on NECN Friday (12/8 @ 7:45 AM) to review Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto and Blood Diamond.

12/08 The movie of the week to see! Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto and Edward (Glory, The Last Samurai) Zwick’s Blood Diamond, both tell harrowing tales of hope and survival under extreme oppression. Forget all the mung on Mel and his anti-Semitic meltdown, this is his most alluring, and perhaps brutal, turn behind the camera. The recreation of sixteenth century Mayan civilization is stunning. That’s not to say Zwick’s rendering of the poverty and war in conflict torn Sierra Leone is any less impressive. Leonardo DiCaprio gives his second full-bodied and mature performance of the year, and Djimon Hounsou is almost certain for an Oscar nod as the afflicted father trying to save his family with the mother of all diamonds. Two of the year’s best with plenty of social consciousness and nail biting action to go around.

12/07 Reviews of Unattended Minors and Turistas.

12/05 It’s all in the timing: Is it just me, or does it seem odd that John Bolton, who's been in the post of US Ambassador to the UN of 16 months, is now stepping down because he doesn't think the Senate will approve him. What was the Senate doing for 16 months? Waiting for the 2006 vote to shift the power so they could oust the controversial Bush appointee? (Probably not, the Republican would have pushed for it). In sports, there are interim coaches, but to me this is just inefficient and unproductive. If the guy's been doing the job for a year, it's his unless there's some gross negligence. If the Senate wants to put their stamp of approval on such an important post, they should get to it sooner.

12/03 DVD picks of the week! New: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, is more fun than the fist installment and Bill Nighy is Oscar worthy as the undead and tentacle-face pirate, Davy Jones. Miami Vice is full of itself, but director Michael Mann (Manhunter and Heat) knows how to capture the mean-spirited dark side of crime with flare. And the somber, cautionary male bonding yarn, The Groomsmen, from, Ed Burns (The Brothers McMullen) may have been the most underrated film of the year. Reissues: The original Rocky (1976) is out to prime the release of Rocky Balboa—aka Rocky VI. Bill Conti’s infectious theme music and Sly’s every-guy underdog have proven timeless after 30 years. And, before Mike Nichols wiped out The Graduate in 1969, he collaborated with Liz Taylor and on-again, off-again hubby, Richard Burton for the screen adaptation of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf (1966).The pair’s real life drama seemed to perfectly accent that of their dysfunctional onscreen persona. It’s all part of the new Taylor/Burton Collection.

 

November

11/28 Review of 3 Needles.

11/25 DVD picks of the week! New is a three pick. The Man of Steel series is revitalized by the stylistic hand of Usual Suspects (1995) and X-Men (the 2000 original and 2003 sequel) director Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh is a seamless transition from Christopher Reeve, making Superman Returns the best Superman since Superman II (1980). Also Kevin Smith’s way late follow up to Clerks (1994), Clerks II is way funnier than it should be and The Ant Bully, which did not get it’s proper due in the theaters, is a solid animation feature for the whole family.

11/23 Oh yeah… HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Be well, be happy and be safe.

11/23 The movie of the week to see! Volver, Pedro Almodóvar’s latest on female bonding is a nice companion piece to Talk to Her (2002) and All About My Mother (1999). Penélope Cruz gives perhaps the best performance of her career as a woman trying to make ends meet in the wake of her mother and husband’s death. As with most Almodóvar films, banal occurrences grippingly spiral off into the absurd and surreal.

11/22 Reviews of Deck the Halls, Déjà Vu and Let’s Go to Prison. 

11/21 Ready for the next go-round on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and Same Sex Marriage? Get the Rant.

11/20 Now that the OJ thing (essentially If I killed Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, here’s how I did it) has been scrubbed, I must admit, I’m kind of sad. I wanted to see OJ make a spectacle of himself and was curious to see just how close he would come to saying he did it. Would he use a first person narrative as he recreated the heinous act? I was also curious to see just how much further publisher Judith Regan would twist her motives; from Barnum Bailey, to secret sleuth hoping to cop a liberating confession, to abuse victim. What next? In the end, all she did was make herself and OJ look like repugnant money grubbers and rip away at the healing wounds of the Browns, Goldmans and OJ’s children, who have probably lost their bid for a quiet, normal upbringing.

11/19 I can’t say that I am surprised Sacha Baron Cohen is being sued over the hit film Borat. It’s making tons of money, but if you watch the movie, you wonder why would this jackass consent to this, or why would they say something so clearly unflattering on camera? Sure, it’s fall on the ground funny, but did you ever notice how religiously Jackass obscures bystander’s faces, or wonder just how uproarious some of the unseen footage might be if a few more pranked souls signed the waiver form?  From reports, Cohen seems to have employed tactics of entrapment and misrepresentation. No matter how tight the signed consent form is, the studio will probably have to pay out and Mr. Cohen could face prosecution. Now there’s an idea for a movie: Borat Goes to Jail.

11/18 DVD picks of the week! New Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth is a captivating contemplation on just how devastating the effects if global warming might be. Sure he’s still stiff Al, but the subject matter should prop you up in your seat. Reissues The Double Life of Veronique (1991) the late Krzysztof Kieslowski’s enigmatic yarn about two lives lived so similar there must be something divine. The sublime Irene Jacob plays both Veronique (Paris) and Veronika (Poland). Each is an accomplished singer and has a heart problem. One day they almost meet. Don’t think too hard, The Double Life of Veronique is more romantic poem than a mystery to be riddled out.

11/16 Review of The Return.

11/15 The movie of the week to see! Bond is back with a vengeance. Dark, raw and gritty Casino Royale is both departure and throw back. The two and a half hours sails by in a blip and let there be no doubt, Daniel Craig is Bond and an action Bond to boot. He’s put through an amazing gambit of physical feats that might have killed a lesser (fit) Bond. The best Bond in nearly 30 years.

11/13  Read it: Is it too soon for movies like United 93, World Trade Center and The Queen? Read my blip Seeking the Truth in Dramatized Reality on Web del Sol.

11/12 DVD picks of the week! New Forget about The Da Vinci Code, it was a tepid book and even less of a thrill on the big screen, and Hard Candy, which wowed audiences at Sundance, provokes, but is a convoluted pretender in net. New/Old hits. Peter Jackson’s remake if King Kong, and Chan-wook Park’s psycho-revenge-thriller, Old Boy are the (great for the Holidays) picks. Reissues There’s James Bond Ultimate Editions, all the Bonds up to the soon to be released Casino Royale (I have seen it and Bond is back with a vengeance) and The Green Mile (1999) is out too.

  *  See it on YouTube! Yup that’s me in Drink Up, my collar bone was broken right before filming (hit by an MBTA bus while on my bike) and all the dialogue is improvised. Don’t take it too seriously (and yeah the quality is low), but enjoy.

11/10 The movie of the week to see! Harsh Times, from the creators of Training Day, features a fierce performance by Christian Bale as a sociopathic ex-Ranger, but the pick is James Longley’s harrowing documentary about the war in Iraq, Iraq in Fragments, which puts a civilian face on the misery and uncertainty.

11/9  Reviews of Harsh Times, Iraq in Fragments and Santa Clause 3: the Escape Clause.

  *  Live in Ohio? Vote my dad’s lifelong best friend Bob Shamansky into congress.  He’s served in the house before and is a rare politician who bows to no outside influence. He follows his mind and heart when it comes to people.

11/6  Up in the air like me? Don’t not vote, that’s a cop out. Be sure to vote! At this late time I’m still pondering (here in the gubernatorial race in Massachusetts) the risks of change for something that seems to be more in line with what I believe represents me, versus four more years with someone who knows the way things work on Beacon Hill.

11/5  DVD picks of the week! New There’s not much doing with the wildly successful, but uninspired, animated kiddie romp Cars and the Wayans brothers’s mini-man comedy, Little Man. Reissues you can’t beat the heart and soul of modern classic Cinema Paradiso (1990). It may be in Italian but the timeless romantic themes are international in their emotional delivery

11/3 The movie of the week to see! Yes Borat is drop dead hilarious at turns, but it can’t sustain the breakneck pace. And while Babel is no Crash, it is an alluring weave of diverse drama, much in the same vein that director Alejandro González Iñárritu made his signature with Amores perros and 21 Grams. Get the latest on what’s playing

11/2  Review of Saw 3.

 

October

10/28 DVD picks of the week! New If you like Tom Cruise’s first two Mission Impossibles, then you’ll be happy with then latest. But the movie to see is Michael (Welcome to Sarajevo and 24 Hour Party People) Winterbottom’s Road to Guantanamo, a provocative docudrama about three Islamic men who wind up in the US’s notorious prison in Cuba. Reissues It's a Wonderful Life is out for an anniversary release. Besides being a perennial holiday staple, it’s a deserving of its status as timeless American classic. The themes of fighting the good fight, how much difference a single person can make and the struggle to provide for one’s family in hard times are as relevant now as when the film was released in 1946.

10/25 The movie of the week to see! Sure Death of a President kicked up a lot of controversial just on it’s subject matter (the assassination of President Bush), but in execution it’s largely a tiresome whodunit. The better choice is Running With Scissors. Based on Augusten Burroughs memoir, it’s a harrowing, oft hilarious tale of a dysfunctional upbringing in Western Massachusetts. The ensemble cast (Evan Rachel Wood, Brian Cox, Jill Clayburgh, Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes) features Oscar worthy turns by Annette Bening and Alec Baldwin as the juiced up and whacked out parents. The latest on what’s playing.

10/22 DVD picks of the week! With the sometimes funny Jack Black comedy Nacho Libre (at times feeling like an Andy Kaufman wrestling stunt), the impressively animated, but uninspired Monster House and the tepid, American Haunting on tap, there’s not much doing for New —though Slither does deliver the cheesy pre-Halloween camp. However, Reissues is a veritable gold mine with Quentin Taratino’s seminal crime noir, Reservoir Dogs (1992), Lawrence Kasden’s steamy turned deadly sexy play between William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. Body Heat (1981) and Australian director Jane Campion’s subtle but affecting tune up for the Piano (1993), Sweetie (1989) which tells the tale of a dysfunctional woman misunderstood in an impatient universe.

10/19 The movie of the week to see is Little Children. Based on Tom Perrotta’s novel, the film, much like Perrotta’s other book-to-screen adaptation, Election (1999), takes off more on the screen than it does in bound format. Most of this is due to Todd Field’s deft sense of suburban malaise he breathes into the film. He had similar success with In the Bedroom and co-wrote the script with Perrotta. The added Rod Serling-esque voice over works to deepen the aura and the performances by Kate Winslet as the frumpy housewife having an affair and Jennifer Connelly as the uptight perfect wife fortify the effect—though it’s too bad we don’t get to meet Slutty Kay on screen as one does in the book. Note: I have yet to see Flags of Our Fathers or Marie Antoinette. For all you need to know when heading to the theater, go here.   

10/18 Review of The Marine.    

 *    Radio Head! I’ll be on the Todd Feinburg Show (WRKO 680) to talk about Martin Scorsese’s criminally fun return to form, The Departed and the whole Boston angle, including Jack Nicholson as the impromptu Whitey Bulger figure. We’ll also discuss the Boston mob on screen and Scorcese’s impressive career. Tune in this Monday (10/16) @ 9:00PM. Not in Boston? The show is broadcast live over the I-Net:J.

10/14 DVD picks of the week! New: Jennifer and Vince have some moments in The Breakup, but for spousal rivalry it’s not as devilish as let’s say The War of the Roses (1989)—but far better than the tepid son of the devil remake, The Omen. Reissue: Warren Beatty was more than a pretty face when he won the Best Director Oscar for Reds (1981)about an American journalist swept up in the Russian revolution and then there’s Clean Shaven (1994) Lodge Kerrigan’s eerie yarn about a schizophrenic man (Peter Greene) on a quest. It’s a one of a kind experience and both are keepers for the cinephile’s vault.

10/13 The movie of the week to see is Amy Berg’s exceptional documentary, Deliver Us From Evil (see the 10/12 entry below). It’ll evoke your ire at the Catholic powers that be, and strangely enough, perhaps a shard of sympathy for a pedophile.

10/12 My Boston Phoenix article, New church sex abuse film rings familiar reveals the  ignominious  tie between Boston and Cardinal Bernard Law, and Amy Berg’s stirring new documentary, Deliver Us From Evil concerning the pedophilia cover-up in the Catholic Church.

10/12 Reviews of American Hardcore and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

10/10 DVD picks of the week! New: Tyrese as a modern day Clyde half of a Bonnie and Clyde duo, in Waist Deep has merit up to the silly conclusion but the pick is easily, Robert Altman’s return to Nashville form, A Prairie Home Companion.  The ensemble cast includes Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, and uproarious Woody Harrelson and Lindsay Lohan.

10/5  The movie of the week to see is a double dip. Forest Whitaker is Oscar worthy as Idi Amin in Kevin (Touching the Void) Macdonald’s fictitious, The Last King of Scotland, and of course, Martin Scorcese’s long awaited thriller about double dealing Boston cops, The Departed (it’s based on the 2002 Hong Kong auctioneer, Infernal Affairs) is a glorious spectacle fueled by sharp dialogue and Jack Nicholson as a Whitey Bulger-esque mob head. 

10/1  DVD picks of the week! New: David Mamet’s Edmond and Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Great New Wonderful, a interweave of lives in post 9/11 New York, are appealing choices, and X-Men: the Last Stand will please fans of the franchise, but the pick is Thank You for Smoking, Jason (son of “Ghost Buster” Ivan) Reitman’s irreverent take on smoking lobbyists. Aaron Eckhart and Maria Bello are good fun as the MODs (Merchants of Death) and Rob Lowe is an uproarious sideshow as a plasticized Hollywood agent. Reissues: Say hello to my little friend. Great low brow—and highly rewatchable—action with both Scarface (1983) and Point Break (1991). Pacino as the rags to riches Cuban taking over the drug trade in Miami (Scarface) delivers the classic lines with aplomb with Brian DePalma directing Oliver Stone’s script; and Keanu Reeves  (Point Break) is his wooden self as an undercover cop in Kathryn Bigelow’s crime drama, which is far more compelling than it has any right to be.

 

September

9/30  Check out Body Works 2 at the Museum of Science. Dr. Gunther von Hagens’s plastination of cadavers is riveting, educational and most certainly a tad creepy. Perhaps the most chilling item on display is the contrast of a healthy lung to a smoker and coal miner’s lung. The pregnant woman and the fetuses beg some questions, and as you walk though the exhibit, you’ll keep asking yourself who were these people (according to the exhibit, they all consented and nothing about their identities or origins are revealed) and would I ever want to be put on display like this?

9/29  Open Season and School for Scoundrels are fine for what they are (kiddie fare and revenge of the nerds fun) but, The movie of the week to see is the documentary The US vs John Lennon.  Handsomely composed, the film about the Nixon Administration’s efforts to deport the peace loving former Beatle from the US, lacks focus, but it captures a tumultuous swath of history with profound poignancy.

9/28  Reviews of Open Season and School for Scoundrels.

9/23  DVD picks of the week! New: Edward Norton as a disturbed lover in the urban western Down in the Valley is an interesting look, The Fast and  the Furious: Tokyo Drift is out too, and Beowulf and Grendel is a quirky new take on the age old Danish yarn,  but the pick is  Lady Vengeance from Korean director Chan-wook Park. The film rounds out Park’s revenge trilogy—don’t miss Old Boy. Reissues:The horror, remember the horror. Gear up for Halloween with the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). The Dead Zone (1983) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), featuring a very young Johnny Depp. All classic horror staples from guys named Hopper, Craven and Cronenberg.

9/22  NECN video reviews of All the King’s Men, Renaissance, Haven and Flyboys.

*   Air Time: Try again; I’ll be back on NECN Friday (9/22 @ 8:45 AM) to review All the King’s Men, Renaissance, Haven and Flyboys. The bad news is that I did and endo on my bike and have a nasty scab on my chin. Let’s see what a few days and makeup can do.

9/21  Nixon and Peace, the Pope and the Pedophile, and Shindler’s Folly, get the Rant.

9/21  As was with last week’s recommendation, The movie of the week to see, All the King’s Men is a mixed bag. Sean Penn is part spectacle and part Oscar shoo in as the hick (based on Robert Penn Warren fictitious recount of Huey Long’s assent to power) who becomes governor of Louisiana in the 40s. The 1949 version won 3 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Broderick Crawford. Steve Zaillian, who wrote the script for Schindler’s List, directs, but somehow, the middle of the film seems to be missing. Nonetheless, the odyssey from simpleton to corrupt power monger, intrigues throughout. Get the latest on what’s playing.

9/20  Review of Haven.

*     Help save The Brattle, Boston’s only repertoire movie theater where you can see all the classics. Attend the silent art auction on September 28th.

9/17  DVD picks of the week! New: With flimsy fare like the gymnastics melodrama Stick It, and insipid videogame horror flick ingeniously named Stay Alive, the easy choice is The Proposition.  John Hillcoat’s Outback Western written by rocker Nick Cave and starring Guy Pearce and Ray Winstone, is bleak, violent and wholly consuming in its exploration of law, duty, morality and the gray lines in-between. Sam Peckinpah would approve. Hard Candy, the Sundance darling about a teen nymphet turning the tables on a would be pedophile. Is worth a look but it’s not as provocative as its setup.  Reissues: Grease (1978), the classic Broadway musical about high school life in the 50’s turned into a classic big screen staple. Well worn and well adored. With John Travolta and Olivia Newton John as the young love.

9/15  Welp, due to a dead battery, a confused AAA service man and some doggie poop, I didn’t make it to NECN on time today. Maybe next week. Stay tuned. Cheers.

9/15  The movie of the week to see is Brian De Palma’s opulent mess, The Black Dahlia. Based on James Ellroy’s (LA Confidential) and starring Josh Hartnett  and Aaron Eckhart as testosterone fueled cops trying to solve the notorious murder, the film wanders off the tracks, yet De Palma keeps things interesting no matter how convoluted (or near camp) the ride gets. Gridiron Gang shows its mettle too as another real life to big screen pigskin drama like Invincible, but that’s as far as the similarities go. Gridiron Gang is about troubled teens finding their way off the streets and to a better life through purpose and teamwork. Everyone’s Hero makes for good father and son baseball viewing.

*     Air Time: I’ll be back on NECN Friday (9/15 @ 8:45 AM) to review The Black Dahlia, Everyone’s Hero and Gridiron Gang. 

9/14  Reviews of The Covenant, Everyone’s Hero and Gridiron Gang.

9/10  DVD picks of the week! New: Goal! is out, as is the tepid Tarantino want to be, Lucky Number Slevin (and lord I do enjoy Lucy Liu on screen), but you’re better served by last week’s selection, United 93. Reissues: See Tom Cruise and Sean Penn together in the early days as military cadets in Taps (1981), there’s even Beavis and Butt-head do America (1996), but the easy choice is the first Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983). Return of the Jedi (1983) is a big furry flop, but without argument, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is the series crowning gem, and of course the original cornerstone, was based on Akira Kurosawa’s great samurai epic, The Hidden Fortress (1958)

*    The 22nd Boston Film Festival is upon us (September 8-15). The big feature will be The Last Kiss staring Zach Braff and there will also be a film by Sylvester Stalone’s son. That doesn’t entirely sound like a rebound from last year’s transitional undertaking (the old stewards shipped out), but time will tell. The new organizers say they want the BFF to be right up there with Sundance or Toronto.

9/8    The movie of the week to see is Half Nelson about an inner city schoolteacher full of ideals and addled by a drug addiction. Great performances abound, especially Ryan Gosling as the Mr. Goodbar junkie. Get the latest in what's playing.

9/7    Reviews of Crossover and Nobelity.

9/1    DVD picks of the week! And what a week it is! New: If you enjoyed the rough and tumble action in the Transporter, then you’ll love District B-13. David Belle’s stunt work rivals that of a young Jackie Chan. Also out is Peter is Paul Greengrass’s poignant and appropriate, United 93, most likely the best film of the year and not seen by enough people during it’s theatrical run. Reissues: There are some masterpieces to be had. Take your pick, these are top 100 all-time selections: Ridley Scott’s dark futuristic thriller, Blade Runner (1982), Akira Kurasawa’s classic cornerstone, The Seven Samurai (1954) and Federico Fellini’s light romp, Amacord (1973). In the What were they thinking? category there’s Shock Treatment (1981)  the pseudo sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And in the You know what they’re thinking category, Jackass is put out again on DVD to pave the way for the theatrical release of JA2 on September 22nd.

 

August

8/31  The Wicker Man is an abysmal bomb. Director Neil LaBute who got under people’s skin with In the Company of Men (1997) and Your Friends & Neighbors (1998) takes the frisky cum campy 1973 cult hit (it’s recently been re-released on DVD and worth a gander) and turns it into a sexless bore (Britt Ekland’s naked singing frolic is a near one of a kind). **An interesting aside to note here, original director Robin Hardy, whose credits are basically just The Wicker Man (and it is a gorgeously composed film), has his own reimagining of The Wicker Man in the works called Cowboys for Christ. So much Wicker, so little time. That said, The movie of the week to see is the screen adaptation of David Mamet’s Edmond. It’s classic Mamet, featuring long time alter ego William H. Macy as an angry white male—material Mamet mined so well in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)—and it’s helmed by Stuart Gordon who made his name with the cheesy cult classic Re-Animator (1985). Get the complete run down on what to see.

8/31  Review of Edmond.

8/29  Is the violence in Boston abating as City Hall and the media have reported or is it a premature and unwise assertion? Get the Rant.

8/29  Yes Snakes on a Plane is cheesy fun, but it’s not the instant cult classic that the Internet marketing campaign made it out to be. In its second week of release it fell to #6 on the box office tally. Would the film have done worse without the hype, or were expectations set too high and now that the cat’s out of the bag, audiences aren’t biting? Sound off.

8/29  Big Papi’s out with an irregular heart and the Sawks are still skidding like mad since the devastating 5 game sweep by the hated Yankees last week. Is this the final death knell that will kill the post season?

8/28  Bike Long: My good friends Jim  and Tracy are biking along the west coast. Check out their daily log.

8/27  DVD picks of the week! New: Deepa Mehta’s Hindu feminist anthem Water is poignant and riveting. It’s a tough call, but Jennifer Aniston as a melancholy maid in Nicole Holofcener’s biting comedy Friends with Money, is the choice. Reissues: Adventure cum chaos. If you want your adventure romantic (and when Kathleen Turner was one of the hottest women in Hollywood), the Romancing the Stone series is out on box set. If you want your adventure dark and with hairy foot, then the latest The Lord of the Rings Trilogy repackaging is for you. 

8/25  Invincible is better than it should be for a piece of formulaic fluff off the Disney feel good machine, but The movie of the week to see is Factotum, with unlikely—too clean cut and square jawed—Matt Dillon as Charles Bukowski’s notorious alter ego, Henry Chinaski. It’s a cocktail with surprising kick. Make it a double by catching Mickey Rourke as Chinanski in Barfly (1987) and if you wanted a triple shot, read Hollywood (1994), Buk’s fictitional account of making Barfly. Then of course you’ll need to meet up with your friends and kick back some beers at Bukowski’s Tavern in Inman Square. All Buk all the time. Get the latest scoop on what’s playing.

8/23  Reviews of Factotum and Invincible.

8/22  Red Sox on the ground bleeding, the quest for Fall ball fleeting. Sounds like a Jim Morrison song, huh? All kidding aside, do you think they can recover from a 6 of 7 slump to be playing in week 2 of October? Sure the 0-5 Boston Massacre at the hands of the hated Yanks is painful, but keep in mind, there is a lot more ball to be played and the heart and soul of the team, Vteck is on his way back soon. Look for an exciting late season rally. Agree, disagree?

8/21  DVD picks of the week! New: Wolfgang Peterson, who did The Perfect Storm (2000) and Das Boot (1981), knows water epics and makes this remake, Poseidon (of the 1972 disaster flick, The Poseidon Adventure) a lot more riveting than it should be, and Phat Girlz carries a lot more weight than being a Mo’Nique vehicle, but still, proceed at your own risk. Reissues: perhaps on of the greatest film noirs of all time and the seminal femme fatal flick, Double Indemnity (1944) directed by the great Billy Wilder and staring future TV icons, Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck is truly one of America’s greats films that doesn’t usually get the full respect it deserves.

8/21  It was a tough go, but a lot of fun at the 2006 BUDA Summer Club Ultimate championships at Fort Devens, Mass. Rabbit Disk came out swinging to go 5-1. losing in the semis.

8/18  The movie of the week to see is Bart Freundlich’s Woody Allen-esque Manhattan melodrama about couples, Trust the Man in which, Freundlich’s real life wife, Julliane Moore, plays a famous actress in a dead marriage. Snakes on a Plane is fun, but doesn’t live up to all the hype. Get all the scoop on the latest in theaters.

8/17  Reviews of Step Up and Trust the Man.

* In Print: My essay Moore Controversy: One Rambling Critic Takes On Another (June 2004) on Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11 is in the Web del Sol anthology Your Life is a Movie available at Amazon.

* In Print: My short Scrambling is now available in Thieves Jargon’s first anthology, Year of the Thief, which will soon also be available at Amazon too.

8/2   DVD picks of the week! With the cheesy likes of RV and Scary Movie 4, nothing new this week, but in reissues there’s Apocalypse Now: the Complete Dossier, Francis Ford Coppola’s love labor and one of the greatest American movies, no matter how it’s wrapped up; and a trio of Sir Laurence Oliver’s passionate takes on Shakespeare: Henry V, Richard III and Hamlet is an impressionable collection set. Only Orson Wells, Kenneth Branagh and Franco Zeffirelli have come close to Oliver’s standard in cinematic retellings of the bard.

* Radio Head! It looks like I’ll be on the Todd Feinburg Show WRKO (680) to talk about Oliver Stone’s strangely conventional World Trade Center and other summer movies this Friday (8/11) @ 9:30PM. Not in Boston? The show is broadcast live over the I-Net:J.

8/11  The movie of the week to see is Oliver Stone’s oddly patriotic World Trade Center. Yes that’s right, the left wing polemic who tackled Nixon, JFK and the Vietnam War with Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven and Earth, makes a very un Oliver Stone movie. It’s a relatively conventional portrait of heroism about those who put their lives on the line to save those in peril after the 9/11 attacks. Straight up and heartfelt perhaps we now have a kinder, gentler Stone? Get all the scoop on the latest in theaters.

8/10  Reviews of The Groomsmen and Beowulf and Grendel.

8/9   Rant: The Shameless Sham of M. Night Shymanalan.

8/6   DVD picks of the week! New: The quirky high school pulp noir, Brick is perhaps the freshest film of the year and Spike Lee’s bank heist thriller, The Inside Man takes pat material to new places, even if the ending goes off with a fizzle instead of a bang. The suave leading performance by Clive Owen is a big plus and Jodie Foster and Denzel Washington throw in with grit and conviction. Both are solid picks. There’s also Larry the Cable Guy if you want to scratch your lowbrow backside.

8/5   Yes Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby starring Will Ferrell as an affected NACAR driver is funny and goes places (like homosexuality) that NASCAR would never dream of, still the movie of the week to see is a tie between the visceral chiller The Descent  and Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s sharp Brother of the Head, a faux documentary about conjoined brothers who play Bowie-esque glam rock.

 8/4  Review of The Descent.

 

July

7/29  V for Vendetta drags and while The Shaggy Dog—thanks to Tim Allen—has some laugh worthy moments, the DVD pick of the week is not new or really a reissue, it’s Nicolas Roegg’s haunting 1973 psycho-thriller, Don’t Look Now, which you can see at the Harvard Film Archive next Thursday and Friday.

7/28  NECN reviews of Miami Vice, The Ant Bully and a kinder gentler Oliver Stone and  World Trade Center. See the clip.

7/28  Party! Boston’s nurturing literary hung Grub Street is hosting a “Gone Sweaty” soirée tonight. Stop by for readings by local authors, good music and networking. I’ll be working the bar. For more details on the party and Grub Street, go to their website.

* Air Time: I’ll be back on NECN this Friday (7/28 @ 8:45 AM) to discuss Miami Vice, The Ant Bully and the recent spat of movies dealing with and based around the events of 9/11. 

7/28  Miami Vice, is a dark alluring mess that shares little with the nostalgic TV series it stems from (director Michael Mann was the TV show’s executive producer). Gong Li’s elegant, feisty femme fatale steals the film from co-stars Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, but it’s not enough. Clerks 2 is a hoot and a lot more fun than it should be—and Rosario Dawson is bewitching—but the movie of the week to see is the plucky fable The Ant Bully featuring the voice talent of Nicolas Cage and Julia Roberts. It’s the best animated feature to come along since The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. Get all the latest on what’s playing.

7/27  Reviews of My Super Ex-Girlfriend and The Ant Bully.

7/22  With the likes of Final Destination 3 and The Benchwarmers, there is no New DVD pick of the week this week. The easy Reissue selection is the classic Billy Wilder caper Some Like it Hot (1959), staring sex siren Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon.

7/19   The movie of the week to see is My Super Ex-Girlfriend Uma Thurman has great fun as Superwoman with control issues. It’s a light confection with a romantic twist, just what the summer demands.

7/19   Reviews of Once In a Life Time and Little Man.

7/16  DVD pick of the week is the sentimental coming of age tale in 70s Atlanta, ATL.

 7/8    It’s another weak week so no DVD picks of the week, although Basic Instinct 2 is a curiosity to behold for those gripped by the original’s audacity. 

* Radio Head! I’ll be on the Todd Feinburg Show WRKO (680) to talk about The Devil Wears Prada and other summer movies this Friday (7/7) @ 9:20PM. Not in Boston? The show is broadcast live over the I-Net:J.

7/7   Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is an adventurous romp in need of a plot. That said the movie of the week to see is A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater’s gritty, live animation take on Philip K. Dick’s 1977 novel about lost identity and manipulation. Dick is no stranger to the big screen; his prognosticating works have fueled Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report.

 7/4   Happy 4th of July!

 7/3   It’s a weak week so no DVD picks of the week, though Stoned is an interesting depiction of the demise of former Stones founder and rocker, Brian Jones.

 

June

* Have your own movie screening: The beloved Brattle Theater has come a long way out of the woods since last years fiscal crisis but is still in dire financial straits. Win the Brattle Raffle ($10 a pop) and you get to host your very own double feature. It’s a win-win. The drawing is in August, but buy early.

6/29  Superman Returns is retro chic and Brandon Routh does Christopher Reeves right; The Devil Wears Prada is more fun than it should be, but the movie of the week to see is The War Tapes, a gritty documentary about the imperiled soldier in Iraq as told by soldiers with cameras.

6/28  Article on copyright infringement and film critics: Copy Cat: a fellow critic cops a plea in The Boston Phoenix.

6/28  Review of Waist Deep.

6/25  DVD picks of the week! New: With such tepid material as Failure to Launch, Ultraviolet, Annapolis and Madea’s Family Reunion—though Find Me Guilty with Vin Diesel showing some range as a thespian is a kind of rough, hidden gem— the pick is the creepy French psycho-thriller Caché, where a couple (Daniel Auteuil and the lovely Juliette Binoche) receive anonymous videotapes of them being watched. Reissue: With only the muddled and disappointing Monty Python pirate caper, Yellowbeard (1983) out, and Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (1987), Taylor Hackford’s documentary cum concert film (he later would do When We Were Kings and includes An Officer and a Gentleman among his credits) celebrating the soulful king of early rock-n-roll, has a starry cast that includes Eric Clapton, John Lennon and Keith Richards, the choice is a cinch. Hail! Hail!

6/23 NECN reviews of Click and Waist Deep.

6/23 Click is what it is, your basic Adam Sandler romp cum bathroom humor; and yes the film does—oddly—take a It’s a Wonderful Life turn, but the movie of the week to see is a tie between The Road to Guantanamo and Great New Wonderful, both flawed, yet provocative films that deal with a post 9/11 universe without mentioning the catastrophic event that looms over the film. R2G is liberal dramatization/documentary by Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People and 9 Songs) about the ordeal of three Pakistani Brits capture in Afghanistan and routed to the infamous prison in Cuba. GNW is a much more subtle tale of New Yorkers wrestling with the posttraumatic stress a year later—the real shocker is that it directed by Dude, Where's My Car? Danny Leiner.

* Air Time: I’ll be back on NECN this Friday (6/23 @ 8:45 AM) to discuss Click and Waist Deep.

6/19 Think it’s a cinch to be a film critic? Check out James Parker’s muddled, yet poignant, and all-too-true essay in this weeks Ideas section of The Boston Globe.

6/18 DVD picks of the week! New: The Hills Have Eyes remake, lacks the camp of the 1977 Wes Craven original, though director Alexandre Aja (High Tension) uses the bigger budget to pour on the effusive gore. It’s good for slash happy viewers, but the pick for the week is Syriana, Stephen Gaghan’s mind bending CIA thriller based on the misadventures of operative Robert Baer, earned George Clooney a best supporting Oscar and topped my list of Best Films of 2005.  Reissue: Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated, but didn’t win, for his performance as an affected youth in Lasse Hallström’s quirky familial caper, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).

 6/15 Thieves Jargon’s Year of the Thief gets a write up in the Boston Phoenix.

 6/14 Reviews of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Heart for the Game.

 6/14 Jack Black channels Andy Kaufman in the latest from Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) but it can't sustain, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift disappoints, so the choice for movie of the week to see is easily Ward Serrill’s female hoop dream, Heart for the Game. Get the latest on what's playing.

6/11 DVD picks of the week! New: Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, 16 Blocks and The Pink Panther are out, but the choice is resoundingly Dave Chappelle’s Block Party. Directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), of all people, the documentary chronicles the comedian’s journey of good will to entertain friends from before he was a bog star. Laughs, issues of race and embattlement and soul pounding music from the likes of Kanye West, Mos Def and the Fugees propel the film. Reissue: the quirky Aussie sci-fi movie The Quiet Earth (1985), where only three survive an apocalyptic calamity. It’s more about social dynamics than weird science.

* Get your name in a movie: Jason Redmond one of the brains behind the Independent Film Festival of Boston is producing Speaking in Code, a documentary, where, for a $50 donation, you get free drinks at the Enormous Room (on 6/11 @ 6 PM), an opportunity to mingle with the filmmakers, your name in the credits and even some input into the editing process (footage will be shown and votes taken). More here.

6/7 I can’t choose. With two great choices, the movie of the week to see is a toss up between Lady Vengeance from Korean revenge maestro Chan-wook Park (Old Boy) and Robert Altman’s quirky, yet wholly fulfilling, Prairie Home Companion, which boasts a typical Altman ensemble that includes Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, Virginia Madsen, Kevin Kline and tween queen, Lindsay Lohan. Get the latest on what's playing.

6/5 The Thieves Jargon Reading.

6/4 Lost and Found: A boy reclaims his bike.

6/3 DVD picks of the week!

6/2 NECN reviews of The Break Up and An Inconvenient Truth.

* Air Time: I’ll be back on NECN this Friday (6/2 @ 8:45 AM) to discuss The Break Up and The Omen.

*  Reading: On Friday June 2nd I’ll be reading my short shot Scrambling, which will be included in Thieves Jargon’s first anthology—out in a few weeks. Details: 8PM. at The Lilly Pad, formerly the Zeitgeist in Inman Sq, Cambridge Mass.

6/2 With The Break Up a bit of a disappointment (The Puffy Chair is a better choice for an ill-fated romantic comedy), the movie of the  week to see is toss up between the hyperactive French action thriller, District B13 and Al Gore’s environmental lesson on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. Al’s still stiff, but his message is one of relevance and grave interest. Get the latest on what's playing.

6/1 Michael Moore’s the one under scrutiny from a vet who feels he was grossly manipulated in the scathing Bush documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 to appear to support Moore’s agenda—an agenda he wants nothing to do with. Here’s the story on the suit, which lends credibility to my 2004 essay on the big polemic—which—because you really needed to know— will be published in Web del Sol’s soon to be released (on Amazon) anthology, Your Life is a Movie.

 

May

* Radio Head! I’ll next be on the Todd Feinburg Show (formerly Taste of Boston Tonite) on WRKO (680) to talk movies and DVDs Thursday May 25th @ 8PM now Monday May 29th @ 9PM. Not in Boston? The show is broadcast live over the I-Net:J.

5/30: DVD picks of the week! New: With tepid fare like Date Movie, the choice is the adaptation of Richard Price’s race melodrama, Freedomland. It’s no Crash. Reissue: Platoon (1986). Yes, Oliver Stone can sometimes come off as a delusional hack, but this early work about the conflict over a soldier’s soul (Charlie Sheen reminiscent of his father in Apocalypse Now) in Vietnam, and Born on the 4th of July, are emotionally charged masterpieces propelled by inspired and award-worthy performances. Let’s hope for a return to form with World Trade Center. 

5/26: X-Men 3 is a fun ride that will thrill franchise fans, but the movie of the week to see is John Hillcoat’s dark, disturbing Aussie western, The Proposition. The film features a script by rocker Nick Cave and a break out performance by Danny Huston, son of legendary director, John. Peckinpah and Leone would be pleased.

5/25: Review of See No Evil.

5/20: DVD picks of the week! New: Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman’s bravado performance as a transgender person makes Tranamerica the pick this week. Reissue: Patton (1970) did you know that Francis Ford Coppola was fired as the screenwriter? George C. Scott gives a legendary—and Oscar winning—performance as the legendary general.

5/19: On Sunday May 21st I’ll be hosting Talk Cinema at the wonderful Kendall Square Cinema. The film, Heart of the Game, starts at 10AM, theater doors open at 930AM. The screening is for TC members, but you can buy day of tickets.

5/19: It’s not just Hank’s stiff performance or bad  hair that make The DaVinci Code an ephemeral thriller more memorable for it’s church controversy than it’s cinematic panache. But then again, the book by Dan Brown was propelled by hokum. Audrey Tautou (Amélie)  and Ian McKellen shine. United 93 and Friends with Money are better bets. Get the scoop on the latest.

5/18: Early bestiality, or kissing cousins? According to this in the Boston Globe, you may just be a monkey’s uncle. The article claims that there is DNA evidence that indicates early man was cross breeding with chimps, up to, and exceeding, one million years after simians and hominids split on the evolutionary tree. Does any one else find this creepy?

5/17: Those silly Brits. Don’t think, just hit this link (the back ground) and then this one, and enjoy a good chuckle. It’s all self-explanatory.

5/12: DVD picks of the week! New: With the dim and so-so likes of The Ringer and Winter Passing the pick this week reverts to last week’s Munich. Reissue: Napoleon Dynamite (2004) is a quirky Revenge of the Neerds-esque hoot, but recent reissues, The 400 Blows (1959), Delicatessen (1991) and The Passenger (1975) are better bets.

5/11: With Poseidon and Stolen out—a lean remake of a cheesy 1970’s disaster flick and a documentary about the Gardner art heist — the movie of the week to see is a throw back to the harrowing and cathartic United 93, and/or the quirky, dark  Friends with Money.

5/10: Reviews of An American Haunting, Goal!, Poseidon and Water.  

5/7: DVD picks of the week! New: Munich Steve Spielberg’s contemplation on terrorism and reprisal was on of 2005’s best, Terrence Malick’s opulent The New World is worth a look too. Reissue: The 400 Blows (1959) François Truffaut’s intense docudrama about wayward French adolescents.   

5/6: It’s the 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby. I know this is a big traditional slice of Americana, but why is it such an obsession for just two minutes? Got something to say on it? Sound Off. 

Good to see old friend Kevin Millar back in Fenway park last night (I was at the game), but even better to see Big Papi blast a 3 run homer to lift the Sox over the Orioles 7-3. 

5/4: Mission Impossible 3 packs a lot of high adrenaline action, but the movie of the week to see is Deepa Mehta’s Water a feminist anthem set in 1938 India as Gandhi’s movement to evict the Brits takes hold.

Radio time tonight may be post 9PM. And I’ll be on NECN the next morning.

5/3: Review of Stick It.  

5/2: Miracles do happen! With Mirabelli back, Papelbon and Big Papi deliver: Sox over the Yanks, 7-3 in a nail bitter. Round 2 tonite, that is if the rain lets them get to it.

5/1: Wonderful News! My short The Season That Almost Wasn’t won 1st place in the Open Window Contest at Ghost Road Press.

5/1: I’ll be back on NECN this Friday (5/5 @ 8:45 AM) to discuss Mission Impossible 3 and United 93.

5/1: When Johnny comes marching home, and I don’t mean back to Red Sox, but the home plate tonight at Fenway as the heated rivalry between the Sox the Yankees gets underway in 2006. Former Sox turned Yankee, Johnny Damon has a hot bat and his fellow Bombers are playing well, while the Sox are sagging. The AL East lead is on the line. Prediction: a rain-delayed miracle for the home team, other wise it will be a long night. Late breaker: Can you believe catcher Doug Mirabelli is back, and starting with Wake on the mound? Perhaps good things may just happen?

What? Not going to watch the Sox or listen to me on the radio? Then get the buzzwords from aspiring and veteran Boston writers at the Grub Street Riot Act at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge.

 

April

4/30: DVD picks of the week! New: Last Holiday Queen Latifah carries this romantic-comedy with a twist. Reissue: The Harder They Come (1973) Reggae star Jimmy Cliff stars in this Rasta western of sorts and Delicatessen (1991), a quirky, unparalleled, French post-apocalyptic comedy—a big personal favorite.

4/26: The New Yorker does it again. Last week Martin Amis had a fiction piece about 9/11 head terrorist Mohamed Atta, and this week a review of United 93, maybe the question isn’t “Is it too soon?” but “Is it too much?”

4/26: Review of Hard Candy. Movie of the week to see: United 93, tasteful, patriotic and compelling from start to finish. Not for all, but any who go will feel moved and emotionally exhausted. Get the lowdown on all the week’s movies.

4/23: DVD picks of the week! New: with duds like Aeon Flux and Tristan & Isolde in the mix with Shop Girl (which I have not seen but am curious to see—great cast and it’s based on a Steve Martin short) the recommendation this week is Woody Allen’s Match Point. Not your typical Woody, sans comedy it’s a somber British murder mystery with winning performances by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and uber it girl, Scarlett Johansson. Reissue: two great choices; Brian De Palma’s unheralded Vietnam morality play, Casualties of War (1987) starring Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox, and Terry Zwigoff’s quirky documentary, Crumb (1994) about the idiosyncratic cartoonist, and one exceptional choice; The Passenger (1975), the timeless collaboration between Antonioni and Nicholson. Haunting from start to finish, you are the object of the title and you can’t take your eyes off the road.

4/22: The IFF (Independent Film Festival of Boston) is an unqualified hit. This is just the kind of film festival this town needs. Unfortunately only two days remain. Films/performances that impressed: Ryan Gosling (who knew?) in Half Nelson, the screen adaptation of Mamet’s Edmond, the quirky, humorous The Puffy Chair (screenings still left), Ed Norton in Down in the Valley (screenings still left) and I anxiously look forward to the closing night Aussie western, The Proposition.

4/20: Reviews of The Wild and Scary Movie 4.

4/17: My rant Proulx BS, or How the Little Bald Guy Became a Political Lightening Rod has been published up on Web del Sol.

4/16: DVD picks of the week! New: Hostel, Eli Roth’s follow up to Cabin Fever delivers snuff film chills. Reissue: Cross of Iron, the always amazing Sam Peckinpah turns WW2 terrain into the wild west as James Coburn leads a platoon of Germans out from behind Russian lines in the war’s waning hours.

4/15: Film Fun! The Independent Film Festival of Boston the city’s fresh new Film Fest with teeth, that feels like Sundance and seems to be supplanting the long running and now struggling Boston Film Festival, runs April 19-24.   

4/14: Who would have thought it: the Red Sox trade pitcher Bronson Arroyo to the Cincinnati Reds (the NL where pitchers bat) for hitting prodigy Wily Mo Pena, and as of this time, Arroyo has 2 homers and Wily Mo, zippo—yikes! 

4/13: Reviews of Phat Girlz, The Benchwarmers and Stoned.

4/13: Like Lost and hate repeats? Go here and be saved.

4/5:  Reviews of ATL, Slither and Basic Instinct 2.

4/4:  Why is David Foster Wallace so embraced? See the rant by one of the disillusioned—Okay, it’s really a review of his short story collection, Oblivion.

 

March

3/30: Reviews of Stay Alive and Larry the Cable Guy.  

3/20: Get the latest Rant: Proulx BS, or How the Little Bald Guy Became a Political Lightening Rod.

3/15: Review of Find Me Guilty.

3/14: WebCast of the Oscar Rewind on New England Cable News. Doesn’t work? Go to NECN’s video library and search on me.

3/8: Reviews of Winter Passing and The Shaggy Dog.

3/8: Thanks to some pressure from the editorial staff at The Boston Phoenix this Holocaust revisionist  website has pulled my review of The Last Days from its Nonsense index, but if you know the old URL, it still lingers. I guess I should be honored to be tagged as nonsense on such a nonsensical site.

3/6: Well it’s all over, and I’m happy to say it went as it did. Besides the Crash upset—which to me was not that big of an upset—the Academy Awards went off without a hitch, host John Stewart was his Comedy Central self. Will he be back? Time will tell. For more Oscar related mania, see the links below.

* The year in film (2005): Tom's Top 10, Oscar Nom Report Card and Oscar Night Predictions.

3/3: I’ll be on New England Cable News to discuss Oscar Monday morning at 8:45AM.

3/3: Reviews of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, Doogal and Madea’s Family Reunion.

3/2: Beantown Blogers, to which I’ll be a regular contributor, is Live!

3/2:  My story Antenuptial has been accepted and posted on Double Dare Press.

 

February

2/26: And now I find out that a Holocaust revisionist  website—call it friends of David Irving—have posted my review of the 1998 Holocaust documentary, The Last Days, as Nonsense. I’m not sure what in my review is nonsense, and I guess overall I should be pleased to be put in such company, but they posted the review without my permission or attributing it to it’s source, The Boston Phoenix. Stay tuned, there is more to come, be it rant, a Phoenix response or lawsuit. The chips are in play.

2/24: Fascism Lives! Get the latest Rant.

2/24: Hub: prose about our fair city, can you make out the subject?

2/23: Review of Date Movie.

2/22: Goodbye Larry Summers, we hardly knew yah… The controversial ex-Harvard President, was he a duplicitous manipulator, misunderstood visionary or patsy? Sound Off.

2/22: Oscar on the Cheap? Get the latest Rant.

2/22: What is the New Yorker up to? Has anyone seen the Brokeback-gun wielding Cheney cover for the 02/27/2006 edition? The Brokeback Cheney-Bush lampoon has been done ad-infinitum and with all the Brokeback Oscar craze and the funny-cute Brokeback Mountain and Back to the Future spoof spreading across the Internet, you’d think the New Yawker would be a tad fresher and less cliché.

2/16: Reviews of Freedomland and The Pink Panther.

2/16: Three Korean orphans, ages 10, 12 and 14, need money to get back home, see the story. If you want to help out, donations (checks) can be made out/sent to:

Lee Children's Family Fund

c/o Sovereign Bank NE

1 Moody Street

Waltham, MA 02453

2/16: The Battle for the Brattle is on tonite at the Regent Theater in Arlington. The Brattle Theater is dire financial shape. If you like repertory cinema, then this is a great opportunity to help save the Brattle and have fun doing it. Great live music with the Twinemen (the surviving members of Morphine) and food from Blue Ribbon BBQ.

2/11: Fresh Pond Theater is back online, operating under Entertainment Cinemas, who owned the theater back in the 80’s before selling it to Loews.

2/9: Review of When a Stranger Calls

2/8: The Globe finally got it right (a few days ago) and posted relevant contact/what to do information, regarding the compromised customer credit card fiasco, on Boston.com. Also, in seeking help, I did receive several courteous and timely responses from the Globe’s ombudsman, Richard Chacón.  

2/3: A funny spin on Brokeback Mountain and Back to the Future. And who knew the Loews Fresh Pond Cinema closed? Could be part of the AMC-Loews merger or is the theater being swept aside by home entertainment advances?

2/2: Review for Big Momma's House 2 is up!

2/1: Damn the The Globe! They released my credit card data in an act of sheer stupidity. See the article on one of the biggest F-Ups in compromising confidential customer data. Does just a sorry get them off the hook? How secure is our critical financial information really? Should we trust less and be more concerned? And if The Globe can’t keep confidential customer data secure, how sure can you be of their reporting? The bigger question however, is why the information concerning this and how to check your account not all over their Subscriber Services Information page or Boston.com for that matter? Sloppy and disrespectful, or dodging the issue? If you’ve got something to say, give me a shout. If you’re a subscriber and think you’re impacted, go here, because you won’t find out how to get there by going to Boston.com and poking around. Trust me.

 

January

1/31: More to do about not-so-true memoirs? In the wake of the James Frey scandal, Augusten Burroughs, already in litigation for his liberal memoir Running With Scissors (see my August 2005 Rant on the matter), is now adding a disclaimer to his next memoir, due out in May. Get the full story.

1/31: How’d I do? See my Oscar Scorecard.

1/27: My Oscar Predictions are up. See my Editor’s Picks and the official Oscar site.

1/27: A trip to Walden.

1/27: My articles and reviews (and Top 10 for 2005) are organized and archived under my name on SolPix @ Web del Sol.

1/26: Reviews for Underworld: Evolution and Annapolis are up! See the Tom Meek page at the revised Phoenix site.

1/25:  Direct to Video Too: Bursting the Bubble on Film Distribution—get the latest Rant.

1/25: The Web del Sol Your Life is a Movie Anthology with my essay on Michael Moore is coming soon. See the cover mockups.

1/24: Like Lost and live in Boston? Cambridge’s Rustic Kitchen shows the show on 2 big flat screen TVs and offer a discounted bar menu. 

1/23: Movies—the revised (was 300 now more) 500 To See is Up!

1/22: Steve Almond’s article about embattled author James Frey in The Boston Globe is on the mark (though it gives Jonathan Frazen far too much credit) and just underscores my 1/20 Blog entry.

1/21: Got theater? Live in Boston and like the theater? I highly recommend No Exit at the American Repertory Theater the stage moves (a lot!) while three lost souls torture each other in hell.

1/21: How Brokeback Mountain Appeals to Us All—get the latest Rant.

1/20: James Frey, got busted by the Smoking Gun for fabrications in his best selling and Oprah approved memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Why do authors do such a thing? Well for one, money. Truth sells far better than fiction flat out, so knowing this authors and publishers try to get creative with their non-fiction to entice readers. Check out my August 2005 Rant, which took author Augusten Burroughs to task for his liberal memoir Running With Scissors. The rant was posted here on 8/8 and this appeared in The Boston Globe on 8/17. Frey is just the latest in an erupting swirl of fakery driven by dollars. Not that I wanted to say I told you so, but… Prognosticator, or BS artist? You tell me.

1/13: I’m POed that Magic Hat has dropped it’s Humble Patience and Heart of Darkness (my personal favorite) stout/porters this fall and winter. It seems like a marketing screw up of the highest order. See my letter to the CEO, Holy Brew Master and Marketing Dunce.  

1/1: Happy New Year! I’ll be on WRKO (680) again on Thursday 1/5 at 7:20. This may be a weekly gig, stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

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