Film
By Jard Craig Going to Pieces, a new made-for-cable documentary (which airs this Halloween on Starz at 11 p.m.), charts the history of slasher films. The film starts off strong, but falls apart once the initial shock value of cinematic cut-and-slash overkill wears off. The film strings together the best scenes from new and classic…
Read MoreBy Adrienne LaFrance, Regardless of your political affiliation, you have to admit that it’s good to see Al Gore beardless and moving on with his life, six years after the 2000 presidential election. Gore is pursuing what he’s called his life’s calling; spreading the word about global warming and its threats to civilization. Last night,…
Read More“Superman Returns” fails to take off the ground in Warner Brother’s attempt to revive the legendary franchise. Although Brandon Routh believably portrays the Man of Steel, unmistakably similar in his bold facial features and baritone voice to the man (Christopher Reeve) who made the role famous, the predictable plot and too much one-dimensional acting by…
Read MoreThe new movie, “The Lake House,” which is inspired by the South Korean sci-fi romance “Siworae,” reunites “Speed” co-stars Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in considerably more mellow and mature roles.
Read MoreA prickly woman’s survival depends on her ability to soften her edges in this riveting drama by Olivier Assayas, for which Maggie Cheung won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. Assayas began his career by making incisive and unsentimental character studies. His technique became freer in his first collaboration with…
Read MoreA gorgeous documentary examines the 1990 heist of priceless art from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. By Betsy Sherman It must be hard to decide at what point to undertake a documentary about an ongoing investigation. What if events conspire to make the film you’ve shot seem half-baked, or even irrelevant? Rebecca Dreyfus’ “Stolen,” about…
Read MoreFull disclosure: my mother died of lung cancer, brought on by a decades-long addiction to the product satirized in the new film “Thank You for Smoking,” directed by Jason Reitman (son of Ivan Reitman) from a novel by Christopher Buckley (son of William F. Buckley). So maybe I’m not the right person to be reviewing…
Read MoreTwo new films explore the provocative premise that slavery in America didn’t end after the Civil War.
Read MoreBy Thomas Garvey Michael Haneke may be the only living director who really matters, but you might not guess that from “Cache” (“Hidden”), the new film that has finally brought the brilliant Austrian auteur some serious media attention. It’s far easier, actually, to guess from “Cache” why he’s suddenly a press darling: the film treats…
Read MoreWoody Allen’s big comeback? His best work in a decade? Genius rivaling “Annie Hall”!? What potent, absorbing, and thoroughly compelling version of “Match Point” were these critics watching? Look, it’s set in London, not New York! Listen, that crackling soundtrack is opera, not jazz! And wait a minute, there is no would-be Woody character in…
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Jazz Perspective: Zev Feldman – A Sherlock of a Producer with an Impressive Portfolio