Film
Futures in flux at MIT and Harvard documentary film centers as founding leaders step down
The 2020s have been hard on Boston’s documentary film scene. In 2022, the LEF Foundation’s DocYard screening series went on indefinite hiatus; in 2024, the Bright Lights Cinema Series was cancelled after its curator, Anna Feder, was let go in what appeared to be a politically motivated dismissal. In comparison, last month’s leadership transitions at […]
Art horror, serial killer nonchiller, espionage comedy and a gorefest
“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 4. In this latest art-horror curio from Jane Schoenbrun, the alt-indie hand behind psycho-chillers “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” (2021) and “I Saw the TV Glow” (2024), the “Friday the 13th” film franchise and gender politics get skewered with bloody orgasmic […]
Two roads, one driven by survival, the other by friendship
“The Dog Stars” ⭐⭐ Rating: 2 out of 4. Ridley Scott has been down apocalyptic-ish roads before, notably with game changing sci-fi classics “Alien” (1979) and “Blade Runner” (1982). In “The Dog Stars,” adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, we trek through uneven end-of-times terrain. A virus has wiped out most of humanity, leaving Hig […]
In these films, creatures and cartoon characters live among us
“Hope” ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 2.5 out of 4. For those who relish Korean creature-feature flicks laced with social commentary — think “The Host” (2006) or the gonzo zombie blast “Train to Busan” (2016) — “Hope” may scratch your itch. But be advised, you’ll be nearly an hour in before the first beastie rears its ugly head […]
This week in Cambridge and Somerville: Outdoor screenings, Grooversity and free bike tune-ups
For a searchable calendar of events with your choice of list or map view, or to submit an event of your own, go to the main calendar. Read more Graham Greene honors and mid-century sci-fi continue, retro series kicks off Thursday, Aug. 27 7 p.m.Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Ali Barthwell presents “Reality TV […]
Graham Greene honors and mid-century sci-fi continue, retro series kicks off
Starting Friday, local moviegoers will have their pick of two brand new restorations of occasionally overlooked classics. Jane Campion’s Palme d’Or-winning “The Piano” (1993), which screens Friday through Monday at the Brattle Theatre, is a landmark of ’90s arthouse cinema, featuring timeless performances by Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin (both of whom took home Oscars) […]
‘Tony’ gives us an appetizing look at Anthony Bourdain’s bildungsroman
“Late Fame” ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 2.5 out of 4. Director Kent Jones (“Diane“ (2018)) works with a killer cast in this reset of a novella by Arthur Schnitzler, with 1890s Vienna transposed to modern day New York City (the script’s by Samy Burch, “May December” and the upcoming “Coyote vs Acme”). The esteemed Willem Dafoe stars […]
In these movies, home is where the hell is
It’s family survival week in a pair of punchy sci-fi thrillers, where death lurks just beyond the mailbox. “The Last House,” on Netflix, finds a Pacific Northwest family sealed inside their house due to mysterious forces at play. Over at the “End of Oak Street,” a big-screen undertaking with Spielberg-ian overtones, dinosaurs move into a […]
Gregg Araki’s latest, an erotic comedy thriller
“I Want Your Sex” ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 4. And keeping with the sex theme: It’s been 12 years since Gregg Araki made his last film, “White Bird in a Blizzard,” a competently done mystery and something of a restrained effort compared to his gloriously gonzo, queer-leaning, desperado films of the 1990s (“Totally F***ed […]
A devastating drama and a near-future rom-com
“Blue Heron” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3.5 out of 4. In case you missed the best film of the year (so far) — it didn’t play a Cambridge or Somerville theater — you can now catch the devastating picture digitally. In Sophy Romvari’s semi-autobiographical film, a Hungarian family relocates to Vancouver Island, Canada in the 1990s. She […]