Betsy Sherman

Book Review: “Pre-Code Essentials” — When Moviemakers Played the Game of Evade-The-Censor

November 18, 2025
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Film fans who love the style and spirit of early-thirties Hollywood will have to control themselves from drooling happily all over this fabulously written, photo-filled volume.

Film Series Review: Columbia 101 — The Rarities, A Tasty Cinematic Smorgasbord

November 4, 2025
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A preview of a few of the obscure gems and curios in this huzzah to Columbia Pictures.

Film Review: “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” — Maternal Fury Fuels a Ferocious Dark Comedy

October 17, 2025
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“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You: is a powerful addition to the recent female-created examinations of the ways women, and particularly mothers, can be unsupported or outright dismissed by contemporary society.

Arts Remembrance: Lenny Bruce — On the 100th Anniversary of his Birth

October 13, 2025
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Raise a glass to Lenny Bruce, champion for—and martyr to—Americans’ First Amendment right to free speech. October 13, 2025, is the hundredth anniversary of his birth in Mineola, New York.

Film Review: “Made in New Jersey” — A Fabulous Trip in the Cinematic Way-Back Machine

August 4, 2025
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This journey in the way-back machine contains many delights, some staged and some as part of the photographic record of America from 100-plus years ago.

Film Review: “Filmlovers!” — A Valentine to the Movies and the Cinema-Going Experience

July 22, 2025
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This piquantly enjoyable docufiction emphasizes how movie spectatorship encourages empathy and understanding.

Film Retrospective: “Floating Clouds … The Cinema of Naruse Mikio” — Dedicated to Women’s Passions

July 3, 2025
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Film scholars, programmers, and the many filmmakers influenced by Naruse Miko value him as having crafted well-rounded portraits of women and their lives across decades of Japanese cultural changes.

Film Reviews: At the Independent Film Festival Boston — Shorts Dartmouth: Narrative

April 26, 2025
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The Independent Film Festival Boston has been a major showcase for short films from New England and beyond. Here’s a roundup of one of this year’s programs, “Shorts Dartmouth: Narrative” (collections are named after streets in the Back Bay). There’s not a weak one in the five-film bunch.

Film Preview: “Planet at 50” — Unspooling Treasures from an Important Japanese Film Archive

April 9, 2025
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Planet’s holdings include nearly 20,000 film prints, as well as ephemera such as posters, scripts, and film magazines.

Film Review: “Bob Trevino Likes It” — Finding an Inspiring New Lease on Life

March 28, 2025
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Tracie Laymon’s comic drama about the serendipitous connection between a 25-year-old woman whose sense of self is fraying and a man stymied by loss is both entertaining and profound.

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