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.

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Arts Feature: Best Movies (With Some Disappointments) of 2022

December 16, 2022
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Our demanding critics choose the best films (along with some disappointments) of the year. And there is plenty of disagreement.

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Arts Remembrance: Lucia Small, 1963-2022

November 21, 2022
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This is a profound loss to cinema and to Boston’s filmmaking community in particular, a close-knit group in which Lucia Small enjoyed many friendships and engaged in fruitful collaborations.

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November Short Fuses — Materia Critica

November 3, 2022
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Book Review: “The Swells” — Expertly Cruising Through Satiric Waters

February 22, 2022
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Is it possible that adventurous readers have a better feel for the virtues of this zany, demanding satire than fuddy-duddy critics?

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February Short Fuses – Materia Critica

February 1, 2022
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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