“The droll Ward siblings dish dirt and take us for a tour around the grounds to see stuff like the room in which Freddie Mercury spent weeks noodling around with what eventually became ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ It’s fine, but any documentary that begins with Black Sabbath and ends with Coldplay kinda can’t help but be a little deflating, you know?” – North Shore Movies, 05/13/2021
Monthly Archives: May 2021
IFFBOSTON 2021 VIRTUAL PANEL DISCUSSION: STATE OF LOCAL CINEMAS
Honored I was asked to moderate this IFFBoston panel discussion about the state of local arthouse cinemas featuring friends Ian Judge from the Somerville Theatre, Ned Hinkle from the Brattle and Katherine Tallman from the Coolidge Corner Theatre. We discussed Covid-19 closures and coping methods, as well as what audiences can expect from the New Normal. – IFFBoston, 05/08/2021
WRATH OF MAN
“It’s really a whole mood, this picture. Men sit quietly and brood in the chiaroscuro cinematography, with an omnipresent cello score by Christopher Benstead that sounds like he’s scraping the bottom of the instrument. I’m an easy lay for this kind of thing, when a filmmaker marries a visual idea to a storytelling conceit. They used to call it directing.” – North Shore Movies, 05/06/2021
FILMS OF ENDEARMENT
“That our parents existed before we arrived is a source of endless mystery and fascination, a curiosity that only intensifies as one moves into middle age. Koresky gets this better than most writers, and his wonderful new book is about how the movies we share with our loved ones can help us better understand people we’ve known our entire lives.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 05/05/2021
IFFBOSTON 2021
“The festival kicks off with a powerful portrait of a political moment and one of the most rousing concert films you’ll ever see, featuring peak performances by Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight and the Pips, B.B. King and Nina Simone. I guess the next best thing to an opening night party is all of us dancing in our living rooms.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 05/04/2021
CRISIS
“Well-researched and even more well-meaning, Crisis provides plenty of sobering statistics but the drama is stilted and schematic. Traffic suffered from some similar screenwriting woes that were transcended by its killer cast and Soderbergh’s alchemical camera savvy. The characters here feel as muted and colorless as the gunmetal grey cinematography.” – North Shore Movies, 05/04/2021





