Quantcast
Log In Register

Cinema

For Greater Glory

by Laura Leon June 7, 2012

The Cristero War, an uprising of Catholic revolutionaries fighting a socialist Mexican government bent on denying them religious freedoms, is a fascinating, if little known, piece of history. The movie For Greater Glory does a ...

The Movie Schedule

by The Staff March 30, 2011

Movie Schedule Showtimes effective Wednesday (March 30).   BEACON CINEMA (57 North St., Pittsfield, Mass., 413-358-4781) Sucker Punch (PG-13) 12:15, 2:20, 5:10, 7:20 PM. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (PG) Noon, 2:20, 5, 7:05 PM. Paul (R) Noon, ...

Spring Is Here (Almost), and So Is Oscar

by Ann Morrow February 23, 2011

thumb_08afeatpicDRAGON2

Much to everyone’s surprise, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—the folks who put on the annual Oscar clambake—decided to stay with 10 nominated films in the Best Picture category. Sure, the wags agree ...

Talk About It

by John Brodeur February 25, 2010

I love the ’80s. Who doesn’t? All those great buddy-cop films and that sublime blend of action and comedy—they just don’t make ’em like that anymore. Not that they don’t try. With Cop Out, director Kevin ...

The Loony Bin Trip

by Shawn Stone February 25, 2010

You might expect that a thril ler set in a 1950s mental asylum would make you think. Martin Scorsese’s tricky cinematic nightmare, based on a novel by Dennis Lahane (Mystic River), does not. What the ...

Boredom, Actually

by Laura Leon February 18, 2010

There was a time, first during the hard days of the Great Depression and later during the waning days of the studio star system, when audiences flocked to see “a cavalcade of stars” all in ...

Looking for Justice

by Shawn Stone February 18, 2010

Once upon a time, Texaco arrived in the Ecuadorian Amazon to drill for oil. The company left a few decades later, leaving behind either a little bit of pollution (says successor company Chevron), or an ...

Where’s the Bite?

by Ann Morrow February 18, 2010

Special effects have become a lot more special since the 1941 horror classic The Wolf Man, but judging by Joe Johnston’s remake, bad acting and lousy plotting are timeless. This Wolfman is preternaturally pretty: The ...

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

by Laura Leon February 11, 2010

I just typed From Russia With Love, and luckily caught my gaffe before sending this to my editor. An easy mistake, when the actual title, From Paris With Love, is so obviously a paean to ...

A Boy’s Own Adventure

by Shawn Stone February 11, 2010

His moment: McKay as the titular character in Me and Orson Welles. This is one of those “what if?” stories, in which fiction is blended with fact to make a “better” tale. ...

Old-Fashioned Country Values

by Laura Leon February 4, 2010

A while back in these pages, I recounted one of my earliest live musical events, a George Jones-Tammy Wynette concert in Saratoga Springs. At that time, “No-Show Jones” was infamous for last-minute cancellations, due to ...

Bonbon Cinema

by Shawn Stone January 28, 2010

In his long career, Pedro Almodóvar has fearlessly mixed genres and moods within films—sometimes to great effect, sometimes capriciously. His latest, Broken Embraces, finds Almodóvar at the top of his form: With extraordinary grace, he ...

Heavenly Terminators

by Ann Morrow January 28, 2010

In the latest apocalypse flick, Legion, the inspiring quote, “My name is Legion, for we are many” can be taken as a reference to the many movies that it rips off, rather than the multitude ...

Painful Reserves

by Laura Leon January 28, 2010

A good friend and I were recently discussing, with some astonishment, the fact that solid movies about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—or, rather, the people who fought there—have had little box office impact, no ...

Biblical Distortions

by John Brodeur January 21, 2010

January is the strangest time at the multiplex. In with the leftover holiday-season blockbusters and Oscar bait, there’s usually a glut of films that are too weak in star- and/or buzz-power to fly against the ...

Sad, Sad, Sad

by Shawn Stone January 21, 2010

The screen bursts into color as fantastic imagery flashes before us. A flock of birds lands on a bare tree, becoming leaves. Purple mountains rise; swirling brown leaves blot out the horizon; deep blue seas ...

Too Perfect

by Laura Leon January 21, 2010

Yes, that Tom Ford, the longtime creative director for Gucci and a revered fashion designer in his own right. Dipping his virgin toes into the murky pool of moviemaking, and choosing as his material the ...

Pure Evil

by Shawn Stone January 14, 2010

The title of this nifty horror flick, Daybreakers, says everything you need to know about what writer-directors (and twin brothers) Michael and Peter Spierig feel about vampires—because it refers to humans. These Australian filmmakers don’t give ...

Cause Without a Rebel

by Laura Leon January 14, 2010

Ah, to be a teen again, suffering through the angst evoked in favorite rock songs or, if you’re Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) in Youth in Revolt, movies like La Strada and a shelf full of ...