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Movies

So Low, So Evil

Thu, 10/01/2015 - 9:36am
Movies: ‘Black Mass’
By
Patrick L. Sullivan

If you want to read something interesting after watching Scott Cooper's “Black Mass,” a film about the life and times of Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, check out Howie Carr's Sept. 22 column in the Boston Herald. It gives the reader an idea of the reach of Bulger's Winter Hill Gang, and of the caliber of the individuals involved.

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Messages Delivered Tenderly

Thu, 09/24/2015 - 9:46am
Movies: ‘Grandma’
By
Leon Graham

“Grandma” has been marketed as a comedy. Yet this small movie, only 80 minutes long, is so much more: a bittersweet, aching meditation on aging, loss, self-knowledge and, finally, acceptance. It's also a remarkable character study and a subtle bildungsroman (a type of novel concerned with the education, development and maturing of a young protagonist) delivered with care and tenderness.

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At-Your-Throat Political Coverage

Thu, 09/17/2015 - 10:13am
Movies: ‘Best of Enemies’
By
Patrick L. Sullivan

Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s “Best of Enemies” is a hugely entertaining look at the televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. during the Republican and Democratic conventions in 1968. 

In the three-network era, CBS and NBC were vying for the top spot in the national news ratings. ABC was a distant third. One person interviewed says ABC was only in third place because there were only three networks.

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Comic, Zany but Unsettling, Too

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 9:47am
Movies: ‘Mistress America’
By
Leon Graham

Noah Baumbach has changed, at least a little. The man who made the acidic but insightful “The Squid and the Whale,” who gave us “Greenberg,” a character so unlikable that we almost wanted him to fail, now gives us what, for him, passes as comedy. And to be sure, there is a mindless, zany streak running through his newest film, “Mistress America.” But there is also a palpable anxiety.

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Good Idea, Entertaining Flick

Thu, 09/03/2015 - 9:44am
Movies: ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E’
By
Patrick L. Sullivan

ne way to get a 1960s vibe from a remake of a 1960s TV program is to set it in 1963. That is what Guy Ritchie and company have done with “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” which has the right clothes and hairdos and soundtrack and cars and Cold War stuff.

Well, almost the right clothes. Illya Kuryakin, the Soviet agent (played with excellent deadpan humor by Armie Hammer) passes muster with items from the Large KGB Agent clothing line popular at the time, and the supporting cast looks present and correct.

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The Pleasure Is In The Dueling

Thu, 08/27/2015 - 9:59am
Movie: ‘The End of the Tour’
By
Leon Graham

The book “Infinite Jest” is more talked about and admired than read, and, alas, so is its author, David Foster Wallace. Wallace was a wonderfully perceptive writer with a head full of information and ideas and concerns, all bursting out and landing on the pages of his most famous book. 

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Absurd, Clichéd, Highly Diverting

Thu, 08/20/2015 - 9:52am
Movies: ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’
By
Patrick L. Sullivan

Here we go again with Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, and the various impossible missions he (and only he) can complete.

In Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” we get the usual features — electronic devices that always work, guns that never run out of bullets and so on.

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Streep’s Terrific, but the Rest . . .

Thu, 08/13/2015 - 1:43pm
Movies: ‘Ricki and the Flash’
By
Leon Graham

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All the Sadness Preserved

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 9:50am
Movies: ‘Amy’
By
Patrick L. Sullivan

Asif Kapadia’s “Amy,” about British pop singer Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011 of alcohol poisoning, illustrates one thing about the digital age — primary source material, in the form of home and camera videos, will be everywhere, should someone decide to make a documentary.

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A Teen and Her Mom Go to the Movies

Thu, 07/30/2015 - 9:57am
Movies: ‘Trainwreck’
By
Jenny Hansell & Abbey Hansell-Baumgarten

I went to see the new Amy Schumer film, “Trainwreck,” with my 16- year-old daughter Abbey, and then we discussed the film via Facebook instant message. This is a lightly edited transcript of our chat.
Jenny: In “Trainwreck,” comedian Amy Schumer plays “Amy,” a writer for a lad magazine who has taken to heart the lesson her dad taught her as a child: “monogamy is unrealistic.” 

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