Film
Cinemadope: Foreign Affair, films from abroad that feel familiar
It’s long been a cliché that film buffs love foreign film. As a stereotype, it’s up there with the Frenchman’s baguette or a private detective’s desk-drawer bottle of scotch. (I defy anyone to show me a scene where a hard-boiled P.I. pulls anything else out of that...
Cinemadope: Ant-Man joins the growing cast of super(human) stars
Way, way back in 2008, a little film was making the rounds, sneaking into the global subconscious in a way no film of its kind had done to date. It went on to gross billions in box office over the course of a multi-film run, but its more lasting legacy is measured...
Cinemadope: Waste Not, Want Not, Hollywood’s recycling program
Remakes, reboots, and reinventions have a long history in the world of Hollywood. It’s one of those things, like dubbed foreign films, that film lovers love to complain about. But the truth is probably a bit more complicated than we like to think. To be sure, there...
Cinemadope: English Channels, the life and death of Amy Winehouse
Director Asif Kapadia’s 2010 documentary Senna managed to do what many might have considered impossible: it got the art-house crowd interested in the life of a race car driver. Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian driver at the heart of the story, lived to push the envelope —...
Cinemadope: Then and now, a look at how we used to watch movies
It can be hard to remember, in these days of shared links and 900-channel cable subscriptions, just how big a role the movie theater used to play in the American cultural landscape. It was especially so during Hollywood’s Golden Age, when television was still in its...
Cinemadope: Cello and Goodbye, a portrait of Arthur Russell
If you go online to track down recordings of musician Arthur Russell, you’ll quickly realize that the late composer is a divisive figure. An avant-garde artist whose cello-and-voice works still seem like something from the near future (despite the fact that their...
Cinemadope: A Moving Picture, a film aims to help Nepal
It’s been almost two months since a devastating earthquake struck Nepal, and while the story of that terrible event — thousands dead, many more injured and homeless, and continuing damage done by some strong aftershocks — has slowly faded from the day-to-day...
Summer Arts Preview: The Best Up-coming Concerts, Shows, and Events of the Season
Summertime, and the livin’ is greatly enhanced by a calendar ripe with performances. In a Valley that comes alive with music, theater, and every other incarnation of the arts, it can be tough to know where to turn. We’ve compiled a short list of highlights from the...
Cinemadope: ‘Love & Mercy’
We Americans have always seemed, to me, to be a nostalgic people. Maybe my thinking has something to do with the long line of Irish storytellers in my family — even today, the smallest of family events rarely passes without reference to the outlandish history of some...
Cinemadope: Keys to Success, a piano prodigy takes lessons
Jazz and film have a great history together. In the early days, jazz was a boon to the young film industry, providing a seemingly endless collection of tunes for hit musicals. Indeed, in those days a great soundtrack was not merely something to sing; in many cases the...
Cinemadope: Screen Time, breakfast with Curtis
Nobody in their right mind would suggest that making a movie is easy. There are so many levels to moviemaking — the writing, the casting, the shooting and editing and sound and music and so on — that it’s a wonder any of them ever come off decently, never mind...
Cinemadope: Outside Chance, screenings under the summer stars
Even as they fade from our landscape, there is something quintessentially American about drive-in theaters. They seem, somehow, to contain all the great stages of our lives in one place; in one car, the reckless romance of youth; in another — probably a station wagon...
Cinemadope: He Shoots, He Scores!
So often when we talk about film, we talk about the people on either side of the camera. We talk about the great actors and actresses whose performances touch some deep part of our secret selves, revealing surprising truths we didn’t know we knew. We talk about the...
Cinemadope: Rise and Shine, undocumented workers unionize
When we talk about unions, the images that are usually called to mind are those of the Rust Belt —a ging steel mills and auto plants whose unionized workforces were long considered the backbone of American industry. And while the allure of collective bargaining may...
CinemaDope: Just Dropping In, Films in limited screenings
One of the great benefits of the digital revolution is that it has opened up our movie screens in ways the old paradigm could never have allowed. Under the old system, screening a film was always a pricey endeavor, even if it ran for a few weeks. To show a film for a...
Cinemadope: Going the distance, The Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival turns 10
In any field, a decade is a milestone — one of those moments when one can stop to look back and reflect on all the hard work that has gone into getting to that point in the journey. For a film festival, it’s particularly remarkable. There is just so much that goes...
Cinemadope: The Art of War
All of us, at some point or another, have a teacher who makes a difference. Maybe it’s just that we cross paths at the right moment, or maybe it’s just that he or she is that damn good at what they do, but the right teacher at the right time can change a person’s path...
Cinemadope: Sweet and Hot, Three stories of Asian flavors
Everyone with a go-to Chinese take-out joint is sure of one thing: theirs is the best. It’s a partisan game on a par with Left vs. Right or The Beatles vs. The Stones — I once witnessed, on a Brooklyn street corner, a heated argument about the neighborhood’s best...
Cinemadope: French Twist, A surprisingly resilient piece of sci-fi
During the waves of police brutality protests that rolled across the nation this last half-year, there were any number of arresting images: protestors pouring milk in their eyes to counteract the tear gas used to disperse crowds; a highway patrolman leading a peaceful...
Cinemadope
At long, long, last, I can finally announce: this is the last Cinemadope column of this long, long winter. Next week, spring will be upon us, at least by the calendar, and we can all begin to forget the frigid and snowbound Sartre play that this winter has been. To...
Cinemadope: HerStory, Early feminism and UFOs
I’m not sure exactly when it was that I realized that my mom wasn’t quite like most of the other moms in our neighborhood. And from the outside, at least when I was still a boy, maybe she didn’t strike others as different, either: husband, two kids, house, a station...
Cinemadope: Colorizing Winter, Saturday morning cartoons and a ’60s era gem
As we turn the corner into March, the kids have headed back to school, leaving the rest of New England to get back to the important business of shoveling out parking spaces and shoring up roofs creaking under the weight of ice dams. But if this long winter is starting...
Cinemadope: Old Masters, New Looks
Ask just about anyone to name a famous painting, and it’s a good bet that “The Mona Lisa” will be the first thing to jump to most people’s lips. Da Vinci’s most famous work — and bear in mind, this is from the guy who also painted “The Last Supper” — may be on the...
Cinemadope: Just Kidding, youth movies and cat cartoons
For parents of school-age children, February break can be a trying time. Personal days at work have likely been put to use to cope with blizzards that never appeared, and the winter wind that creeps in during the middle of the month means that our energetic kids are...
The Arts: Music, shadows and gongs
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Cinemadope: Beg, Borrow, and Steal; movies and adaption
It’s no secret that, more than just about any other medium, cinema has relied on — and thrived on — adapting material from other art forms. Whether it is as traditional as a new production of an old classic (see any number of period piece dramas) or as unusual as...
Between the Lines: The Vagina Dialogues
The show must go on, as they say — until it’s gone on long enough. On Jan. 14, the student-run Project Theatre group at Mount Holyoke College canceled its annual production of Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues, opting instead to write and produce a new show of...
Cinemadope: Cracking the Enigma
As a young and nerdish boy, I was obsessed with words. I collected them the way a lepidopterist might collect moths, catching them on the wing and pinning them down to puzzle out their origins, oddities, and family ties to other words. It all felt like a marvelously...
CinemaDope: Southern Exposure, an immigrant’s dangerous journey
The people who run the show over at Amherst Cinema have never been content with the idea that their venue is a mere movie theater. From the start, the vision of the theater encompassed not just great film, but also community enrichment, education, and more. As the...
Cinemadope: Don’t Mess with Dad
Any career that lasts long enough is sure to have its share of ups, downs, and surprises. Sometimes we come out on top, sometimes we fall flat on our face. Most of us, though, have the blessing of soaring or falling with a bit more privacy than the actors and...
Cinemadope: Death Valley
For all its sun, California has never lacked for shadows. Before their books were made into genre-defining films, writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett — authors who essentially invented hard-boiled detective fiction with books like The Big Sleep and The...
On the Outs with God
The secular political discord that currently plagues the country is playing itself out on a much smaller scale in many American families, including Markie Hancock's. Raised by devout, born again Christian parents, Hancock spent much of her childhood worshipping...
Cinemadope: Cock of the Walk
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (3 stars)Directed by Nicholas Stoller. Written by Jason Segel. With Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Russell Brand. (R)It's hard to believe that so much has been made of a single scene of male nudity, but the publicity...
Cinemadope: The Man in the Iron Mask
Iron Man (3 1/2 stars)Directed by Jon Favreau. Written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, based on the comic book. With Robert Downey, Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges. (PG-13)There can't be any question that the...
Pick of the Week: A Bumper Crop
Easthampton’s Touchstone Farm grows more than vegetables. This multi-faceted entity has sprouted a vibrant community, which has grown up around the farm’s recording studio, meditation garden, Sacred Circle dances and celebrations. Likewise, seeds for an...
Cinema Dope: Martial Arthouse
Redbelt (2 stars)Written and directed by David Mamet. With Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alice Braga, Joe Mantegna, Rebecca Pidgeon, Emily Mortimer, and Tim Allen. (R)Writer/director David Mamet has built his career on a deep curiosity about the inner life of the human male and a...
Cinemadope: Baby Talk
Then She Found Me (3 1/2 stars)Directed by Helen Hunt. Written by Alice Arlen, Victor Levin, and Helen Hunt, based on the novel by Elinor Lipman. With Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, and Matthew Broderick. (R)It's been a long road to the silver screen for...
Cinema Dope: Fedora the Explorer
Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (2 1/2 stars)Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by David Koepp. With Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, and Shia LaBeouf. (PG-13)It beggars belief to think that almost two decades have passed since the...
Cinema Dope: Changing Tides
Up The Yangtze (3 1/2 stars)Written and directed by Yung Chang. With Cindy Shui Yu, Campbell Ping He, and Jerry Bo Yu Chen. (NR)At the start of Up The Yangtze, a quote attributed to Confucius details the three ways of learning wisdom: by reflection (the noblest), by...
Cinema Dope: Going Commando
You Don't Mess With The Zohan (2 1/2 stars)Directed by Dennis Dugan. Written by Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, and Judd Apatow. With Adam Sandler, John Turturro, and Emmanuelle Chriqui. (R)You Don't Mess With The Zohan is gross-out comedy with a message....
Cinema Dope: Persian Ruckus
The Fall (4 1/2 stars)Directed by Tarsem. Written by Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, and Tarsem Singh. With Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Kim Uylenbroek, Robin Smith, Jeetu Verma, Leo Bill, and Marcus Wesley. (R)Tarsem Singh Dhabdwar, the Indian-born...
It Ain't Easy Being Green
The Incredible Hulk (2 1/2 stars)Directed by Louis Leterrier. Written by Zak Penn. With Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt and Tim Blake Nelson. (PG-13)The advertising blitz accompanying The Incredible Hulk makes a point of riding another superhero's...
Cinemadope: Army Brats
Standard Operating Procedure (3 1/2 stars)Directed by Errol Morris. With Lynndie England, Javel Davis, Janis Karpinski, Joshua Feinman, Zhubin Rahbar, Merry Grissom, and Cyrus King. (R)Errol Morris, the visionary documentary filmmaker who finally won the Oscar for his...
Cinemadope: Devil's Advocate
Journey To The Center of The Earth (1 star)Directed by Eric Brevig. Written by Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin, based on the book by Jules Verne. With Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem and Seth Meyers. (PG)Hellboy II: The Golden Army (3 1/2...
Cinemadope: The Real Lama
The Unwinking Gaze (3 stars)Produced and directed by Joshua Dugdale. With the Dalai Lama. (PG)If there's a surprise in The Unwinking Gaze—at least, it was a surprise to me—it's that the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and the head of its...
Cinemadope: Pen vs. Sword
Reprise (4 1/2 stars)Directed by Joachim Trier. Written by Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt. With Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman-Hoiner, Viktoria Winge. (R)Danish writer/director Joachim Trier hits it out of the park with Reprise, his first feature-length work. Part...
Cinema Dope: Degrees of Difference
Encounters At The End of The World (4 stars)Directed by Werner Herzog. With Ryan Andrew Evans, Werner Herzog. (G)Director Werner Herzog wants to make one thing clear: Encounters At The End of The World is not another film about "fluffy penguins." That's...
Cinema Dope: The Bong Show
Pineapple Express (3 1/2 stars)Directed by David Gordon Green. Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. With Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny R. McBride, Gary Cole, and Rosie Perez. (R)A jar of pickles—that's just one of the many things that makes Pineapple...
Cinema Dope: Cable Ready
Man On Wire (4 stars)Directed by James Marsh. With Philippe Petit, Annie Allix, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Barry Greenhouse, Jim Moore, and Alan Welner. (PG-13)Man On Wire, which draws its succinct title from a police complaint form, is quite possibly the most poetic caper...
Jailhouse Schlock
Death Race HHWritten and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. With Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Ian McShane, Tyrese Gibson, and Natalie Martinez. (R)There's something about British actor and Death Race star Jason Statham that's hard not to like. There's also much...
Cinema Dope: Raising the Bard
Hamlet 2 (2 1/2 stars)Directed by Andy Fleming. Written by Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady. Starring Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Joseph Julian Soria, Amy Poehler, David Arquette, and Elizabeth Shue. (R)British comedian Steve Coogan, whose long-running satirical turn...
Cinema Dope: On Thin Ice
Frozen River ★★★★Written and directed by Courtney Hunt. With Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Michael O’Keefe, Charlie McDermott, and John Canoe. (R)With our nation’s financial system circling the drain in the aftermath of the sub-prime...
Cinema Dope: Divine Comedy
ReligulousDirected by Larry Charles. Written by Bill Maher. With Bill Maher, Steve Burg, Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda, and Andrew Newberg. (R)God bless Bill Maher. Not that it would mean much to him; after watching Religulous, his acerbic new film made with Borat...
Old Mackie's Back
The Threepenny Opera (4 stars)Directed by G.W. Pabst. Written by Bertolt Brecht; adapted by B?la Bal?zs, L?o Lania, and Ladislaus Vajda. With Rudolf Forster, Lotte Lenya, Carola Neher, Reinhold Sch?nzel, and Fritz Rasp. (NR)I'll be the first to admit that G.W....
Cinema Dope: Bee Minus
The Secret Life of Bees (2 1/2 stars)Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Written by Gina Prince-Bythewood, based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd. With Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, and Paul Bettany. (PG-13)One of the first...
Tarnished Badges
Pride and GloryDirected by Gavin O'Connor. Written by Joe Carnahan and Gavin O'Connor. With Colin Farrell, Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich, Jennifer Ehle, and Lake Bell. (R)Pride and Glory is the cinematic equivalent of an airport paperback, one of...
Behind the Beat: Banking on Kryptonite
"Although it would never fly here in the States, we were professors for a short while [in Guatemala]," said Andrew Huckins of himself and his brother, Galen, in a recent interview with the Advocate. While living in the Central American country, the Huckins...
Identity Crisis
ChangelingDirected by Clint Eastwood. Written by J. Michael Straczynski. With Angelina Jolie, Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Gattlin Griffith, Amy Ryan, and Colm Feore. (R)Changeling, the new film from director Clint Eastwood, is based on a true story—the...
Cinema Dope: Reel Life
What Just HappenedDirected by Barry Levinson. Written by Art Linson. With Robert De Niro, Robin Wright Penn, Catherine Keener, Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci, Sean Penn, Michael Wincott, and John Turturro. (R)What Just Happened, based on writer Art Linson's tell-all...E-Edition
Best Of 2024
Readers Choice 2024
