Glenn Rifkin

Movie Commentary: Handicapping the Oscars

January 17, 2014
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The nominees for Best Picture are a deserving lot, except for “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which is a bloated mess of a movie that is an hour too long .

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Concert Review: The Boston Celtic Music Festival — A Rousing Break From Winter

January 13, 2014
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The music was loud, the dancers laughing and sweating and clearly happy to be liberated from their cabin-fever inducing confines to let loose and have some fun.

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Film Review: A Powerful “Philomena”

January 3, 2014
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Evaluating actress Judi Dench is akin to watching a great athlete do a high dive or land a difficult jump on ice skates. She nails it so often that you half expect a row of judges to hold up cards with nothing but 10’s on them.

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Music Interview: Childsplay — Featuring the Fiddles of Bob Childs

November 26, 2013
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What makes Childsplay unique and inspiring is its back story. Every one of the fiddles played on stage was made by Bob Childs, a Cambridge-based luthier who has been making exceptional instruments by hand for more than 30 years.

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Theater Review: “Million Dollar Quartet” — An Infectious Evening for Aging Baby Boomers

October 10, 2013
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The audience, mostly gray-haired seniors and aging baby boomers, walked out with smiles on their faces, as did I.

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Music Review: A Warm Homecoming for Singer/Songwriter Paula Cole

August 25, 2013
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Singer/songwriter Paula Cole’s musical and personal journey has been a long, sometimes painful hejira.

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Film Review: “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” — Powerful But Ambitious to a Fault

August 20, 2013
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There are plenty of intensely moving moments in this expansive biopic, based very loosely on a real White House butler named Eugene Allen, who was profiled by Wil Haygood in a 2008 Washington Post feature.

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Film Review: “Blue Jasmine” — Woody Allen’s Evocative Triumph

August 11, 2013
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What carries Blue Jasmine over the moon is the breathtaking, Oscar-worthy performance of Cate Blanchett, whose tortured Park Avenue socialite on the skids is among the most stunning performances by an actress in years.

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Film Review: A Likable Coming-of-Age Story: “The Way, Way Back”

July 14, 2013
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Stuffed with familiar themes from coming-of-age classics like “The Summer of 42,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” “The Way, Way Back” is a long stretch from its predecessors, but the film is salvaged by a terrific cast.

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TV Feature: Finding “The Inner Light” at the Star Trek Convention

June 14, 2013
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Google the favorite Star Trek episodes of all time and “The Inner Light” is on just about every top ten list.

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