Gerald Peary

Film Review: Three Shorts Featuring Writer and Activist James Baldwin, Man of the Hour

March 24, 2023
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In these short films James Baldwin does not come off as a relaxed person, someone at ease with himself or quite comfortable in the world. You can feel the acute pain as he speaks.

Film Commentary: The Books That Shaped My Film Aesthetic

March 8, 2023
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Here’s a personal list of the 25 most important, influential books about American cinema. Only one book per author.

Book Review: “Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running”

March 3, 2023
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Anyone who cares deeply about cinema owes Jonas Mekas an abiding debt for all that he did for independent American filmmaking.

Film Review: “The Menu” — Killer Cuisine

November 28, 2022
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The Menu serves up a ghoulish and madly entertaining two hours of prime cinema.

Film Review: “God’s Country” — Who is to Blame?

September 30, 2022
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In our politically correct times, the temptation would be to make a simplistic film in which Sandra, the good Black woman, is beset by bad white people.

Book Review: “Ghost of the Hardy Boys” — The Man Behind America’s Favorite Teenage Sleuths

September 8, 2022
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In this genial, colorful memoir, Leslie McFarlane reveals the long path to how, anonymously, he became author of the most best-selling series of boys’ books in publishing history, twenty million volumes and counting.

Film Review: “A Love Song” — A Marvel of Humanity

August 6, 2022
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Max Walker-Silverman’s first feature, A Love Song, is a character-driven, humanist, and deeply ecological present to someone of my generation.

Film Review: At the 2022 Provincetown Film Festival

July 4, 2022
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This year, I decided to skip gay films altogether. I got tickets instead for two promising lesbian-themed feature documentaries. An excellent decision.

Film Review: “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” — Close to an Infomercial

May 29, 2022
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If the filmmakers are going to delve into the Jazz Fest vaults, how is it possible to show only a few seconds of Professor Longhair and nothing of James Booker, the Meters, the Neville Brothers? Not good.

Film Review: The Documentary “The Will to See” — Muckraking, Fierce and Absorbing

May 10, 2022
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Again and again, we are taken in The Will to See to places where regular reporters never venture, and certainly not filmgoers.

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