Film
It’s easy, and popular, to write director Wes Anderson off as a hipster who offers nothing beyond quirk and the occasional funny line. But his films are really American versions of the French New Wave. by Justin Marble “He redeemed himself.” “Redemption? Sure. But in the end, he’s just another dead rat in a garbage…
Filled with great insights, musical and other, Phil Grabsky’s wonderful documentary on Beethoven depicts “a man of huge intellect and huge heart.” In Search of Beethoven, a documentary by Phil Grabsky (UK, 2009, 139 min). At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Wednesday Jan. 13 at 3:05 pm, Thursday January 14 at 5:10 pm.,…
By Helen Epstein “Broken Embraces” at Kendall Square and Embassy Cinemas 1: Pedro Almodovar, one of the most interesting directorial sensibilities of our time, whose films probe our infinite varieties of experience in love and work 2: Penelope Cruz, an original who also incarnates the best of the many movie stars — American and European…
By Justin Marble
The thrilling visuals in this documentary about skydiving get some things right, but the film ends up sensationalizing the sport rather than illuminating it. “Adrenaline Rush: The Science of Risk” at the Museum of Science, IMAX, through January 23, 2010. Reviewed by Kate Vander Wiede I started skydiving for a few reasons. The first was…
By Justin Marble Various Films at Stuart Street Playhouse This isn’t so much a ringing endorsement of the current offerings, the biopic Coco Before Chanel or the British comedy Pirate Radio, as much as it is a plug for the brand-new Stuart Street Playhouse. Located in the heart of the city, the fantastic new venue…
By Justin Marble “If its Halloween, it must be “‘Saw,’” claims the trailer for the latest iteration of the tired torture-horror franchise surviving more on its audience’s predilection for gooey and gruesome death scenes than coherent storytelling. “Oh yes, there will be blood,” echoes the creepy “Saw” antagonist Jigsaw, a psychotic old man who creates…
Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber. Edited by Robert Polito. Library of America, 1000 pages, $40. Reviewed by Justin Marble Film critic Manny Farber’s landmark 1962 essay “White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art” champions the underground, manic, frenzied, messy “termite” films against the by-the-book, consciously significant, pompous and often critically-adored “white…
By Justin Marble “The Beaches of Agnes” At the Coolidge Corner Cinema If a motif exists in Agnes Varda’s sprawling new documentary, “The Beaches of Agnes,” it may just be the art of walking backwards. The 81-year-old director, famous among the art house crowd for French New Wave films like “Cleo from 5 to 7,”…
By Justin Marble November begins the yearly onslaught of studio-groomed Oscar bait, and the amount of coverage that these films will get will probably kill off several small forests. Yet the art house theaters in Boston have, as always, put together a varied and compelling dose of counter programming. These films probably won’t hear their…
Visual Art Commentary: Silence Is Complicity — Why Museums Must Use Their Voice to Defend Democracy