Betsy Sherman
The stupendous Fritz Lang retrospective running over the course of this summer at Harvard Film Archive will soon screen two Lang remakes (in America) of films directed by Jean Renoir.
Two significant feature debuts at the MFA’s French Film Festival — Age of Panic goes where few movies have gone before, while Apaches trains a calm, dispassionate gaze on disaffected youth.
This year’s Boston French Film Festival (July 10 through 27) proffers a just-about 50-50 mix of male and female directors.
Like the Jon Savage book it is based on, “Teenage” avoids gooey nostalgia; the documentary’s enjoyable to watch, and refreshingly not tongue-in-cheek.
Given its its male-weepy genre, the “inspirational sports movie based on a true story,” Million Dollar Arm is surprisingly enjoyable.
The movie intelligently reimagines the Dostoyevsky novella while retaining the emotional turmoil at its core. It’s a brilliantly executed pitch-black comedy.
“Fading Gigolo” isn’t about fulfillment, sexual or otherwise — it’s about the transitions in the lives of its characters.
John Hubley was a dominant force in bringing animation out of the studio system and onto the drawing boards of individual artists . His life story is also an entryway into the social history and controversies of mid-20th century America.
Although rather shallow in its characterizations, “Bad Words” makes up for this deficiency in its rollicking, R-rated demolition of a familiar character-building institution: the spelling bee.
Arts Commentary: The Orchestra Gap — Europe vs. the US