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Review: The Darkness II

The heart of the matter
Have you ever felt a rage so powerful and consuming that it seemed to be operating under its own control? That's the Darkness.
By MITCH KRPATA | February 15, 2012

Review: Declaration of War

A puzzler of a cancer drama
A baby with a brain tumor is no laughing matter.
By ALICIA POTTER | February 15, 2012

Cameron Crowe's film version of Benjamin Mee's memoir
Matt Damon plays Mee, a journalist who decides that he and his daughter (a precocious Maggie Elizabeth Jones) and sullen teenage son (Colin Ford) need a new start after the death of his wife, so he spends his life savings on a house in the country.
By BRETT MICHEL | December 20, 2011

Review: The Descendants

For Clooney, it's all Payne, all gain
George Clooney puts in what may be his best performance as Matt King, scion of a wealthy Hawaiian family that can trace its pedigree back to the 19th century Princess Margaret Ke'alohilani, descendant of King Kamehameha, and bride of Matt's great, great, etc., grandfather, the haole lawyer Edward King.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 16, 2011

Review: The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby

Carl Colby documents his father's life
"My father lived in shadows," says filmmaker Carl Colby in voiceover. "He liked being invisible." His documentary is a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to understand William Colby, the ex-CIA head who died in 1996.
By GERALD PEARY | November 15, 2011

Review: The Other F Word

The original devil-may-care rebels enforce bedtime
Filmmaker Andrea Blaugrund Nevins spent intimate time on the road and at home with some prominent male punk rockers.
By GERALD PEARY | November 08, 2011

Of Farms and Fables shows beauty, struggle of family farming

Speaking from the fields
From the bean patch, Lily calls her husband Walker: Pests in the beans. Walker is over in the chard patch, which he says looks like Swiss cheese.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 26, 2011

Review: Johnny English Reborn

A small improvement
Like 2007's underrated Mr. Bean's Holiday, Johnny English Reborn, directed by Oliver Parker, improves on its unwatchable predecessor.
By ANN LEWINSON | October 18, 2011

Review: Trespass

Home invasion
If Rod Lurie's errant remake of Straw Dogs didn't tickle your morbid fear of home invasion, then perhaps the latest from Joel Schumacher ( Falling Down ) might do the job.
By TOM MEEK | October 13, 2011

Review: The Women on the 6th Floor

A kind of European version of The Help
Philippe Le Guay's '60s-set Parisian upstairs/downstairs, a kind of European version of The Help , has all the ingredients necessary for US consumption: political correctness, platitudes, saucy comedy; and a romance between a middle-aged bourgeois reactionary and a life-affirming, left-leaning babe 30 years his junior.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 11, 2011

SpeakEasy's heart-wrenching Next Fall

Revelations
It's a story you've heard before: a young gay man, raised by Bible-thumping Southern parents who would disown him if he were to come out, moves to New York City.
By MADDY MYERS | October 05, 2011

Photos: The Life Is Good Festival at the Prowse Farm

Canton MA | September 24-25, 2011
The Life Is Good Festival takes over Prowse Farm in Canton MA on September 24-25, 2011.
By MILES WEAVER | September 30, 2011

Review: Happy, Happy

A familiar tale of adultery
First time filmmaker Anne Sewitsky finds a compassionate way to tell a familiar tale of adultery, and she's helped immeasurably by a first-rate acting ensemble, especially the two superlative actresses, whom you could imagine cast in films of the late Ingmar Bergman.
By GERALD PEARY | September 20, 2011

Tasting Iraqi hospitality in Westbrook

A feast for a guest
At Mona's house in Westbrook, when a guest comes to visit, this is what she makes: a platter of yellow rice topped with golden bone-in chicken pieces, tomato-and chili-flake soup, a platter of beef dolmas, flatbread, pickled vegetables, fresh salad, watermelon, and a lemon-yogurt drink.
By LINDSAY STERLING | September 21, 2011

Review: Circumstance

Schoolgirls in hijabs
Circumstance begins like an early Kiarostami film, but with schoolgirls in hijabs instead of schoolboys in sweaters.
By ANN LEWINSON | September 06, 2011

Running in the Family

Balls, Pucks, and Monster Trucks
As a kid, I always knew I had been adopted. It was no big deal, but being adopted meant I had no information about my biological family's medical history, which is a double-edged sword.
By RICK WORMWOOD | August 10, 2011

A friend in need

Community comes together to support Aliza Shapiro
For the last 15 years, Aliza Shapiro has been the heart and brains of Truth Serum Productions, the rabble-rousing outfit behind the irreverent TraniWreck cabaret.
By THOMAS PAGE MCBEE | August 05, 2011

Review: A Little Help

Jenna Fischer plays a long-suffering mom
Playing one of the few "normal" people on The Office , Jenna Fischer evinces a quiet sweetness with a tart edge that sustains her amongst the misfits; she's long-suffering, but her rueful irony spares her from victimization.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 26, 2011

Review: The Tree

Adjusting to loss
In a less drastic take on grief than her role in Lars von Trier's Antichrist, Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Dawn, a wife and mother of four children whose idyllic life on a farm in the Australian outback shatters when her husband drops dead.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 19, 2011

Review: Arlene Violet's The Family

Wiseguys (and dolls)
If anybody not under potential indictment is qualified to write something titled The Family , subtitled "A Musical About the Mob," it's Arlene Violet.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 10, 2011

Review: Win Win

FIlm critic Peter Keough gives Win Win three stars.
Back in the '30s, with directors like Frank Capra and John Ford, Hollywood showed great sympathy for the forgotten men and women laid low by the economy.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 25, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Family feud

Politeness and politics
Republican Governor Paul LePage is a remarkably consistent guy. LePage doesn't just do stupid things in public. He can be just as big an idiot in private.
By AL DIAMON | February 02, 2011

Scott Alario, Angela Ruo, and David Wojnarowicz at AS220

Realism and rituals
Two years ago, when his daughter Elska was born, Scott Alario of Providence began making her the star of a series of photos he calls Our Fable . "I wanted to tell her stories. I wanted to pass something down to her," he says. "It's my attempt to build a folk tale for my daughter."
By GREG COOK | January 18, 2011

By | January 01, 0001