Columns

Cinemadope: Home Movies

Cinemadope: Home Movies

As we all navigate our way through this new landscape of isolation and social distancing, most of us have lost the small local connections we once took for granted. The familiar hello of a barista who poured our morning coffee, the nod of the bus driver who brought us...
Cinemadope: Alone Together

Cinemadope: Alone Together

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starting to miss the world. Out of work and holed up in the house — half the week in a kind of monkish solitude, the other half with three increasingly stir-crazy kids — is exactly the opposite of what anyone wants out of...
Cinemadope: Home Theater

Cinemadope: Home Theater

It might seem silly to have a local film column this week. As I write, public schools are shutting down for a three-week hiatus, restaurants are shifting strictly to takeout service, and we’re all avoiding crowds. The long-running Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival...
Cinemadope: Dog Days

Cinemadope: Dog Days

“All it takes is one bad day,” a famous cartoon villain once said, “to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy.” And while Kelly Reichardt’s 2008 film Wendy and Lucy is about as far as one can get from the world of the Dark Knight, it takes that “one bad day” idea and...
Cinemadope: Screen Time

Cinemadope: Screen Time

I still remember that day, bright with promise, just after the new year had dawned, when my children finally had to go to school again. Don’t get me wrong, I love the little scamps more than I’ve ever loved anything on this earth, but two weeks of holidays, sugar, and...
Cinemadope: Torch Song

Cinemadope: Torch Song

Waiting is hard. Some of us skip ahead in our books, others sneak a peek at a bride before the ceremony. Some of us roar past a minivan going a perfectly reasonable 70 mph on 91 South — I’m looking at you, white Honda Civic. There’s just something about getting an...
Cinemadope: The Short List

Cinemadope: The Short List

Ever since I was first introduced to the tiny hot dog, I have been an appetizer man. Those delectable little morsels — a bite or two at most — can contain a density of flavor that many full meals can only wish to attain. And while many are served ahead of an...