Marlon Brando

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Review: Great Directors

Documentary about filmmakers nearly derailed by its own not-so-great director
The chore is to blank out Greek filmmaker Angela Ismailos's clueless, indulgent voiceover and moony on-camera presence and enjoy the commentary of the filmmakers she's tracked down in Europe and America.
By GERALD PEARY | July 28, 2010

Have whiskey, will swim

Martin Strel’s insane swim down the Amazon in Big River Man
Filling this year’s slot in SPACE Gallery’s annual “Outlandishly Entertaining Documentary” hole is Big River Man , John Maringouin’s take on the greatest adventure yet embarked upon by Martin Strel.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | April 14, 2010

Review: City Island

Bronx jeer
In this harmless indie comedy, Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a macho patriarch with two mouthy kids and acting aspirations he conceals from his wife (Julianna Margulies) for fear of sullying his manly image.
By MICHAEL C. WALSH | March 31, 2010

The faded Follies

The thrill is gone at the ProJo shindig; there’s something about Cumberland; and more
As regular readers of the Cool, Cool World well know, one of the social highlights of the year at Casa Diablo is the Providence Newspaper Guild Follies.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | March 03, 2010

Prince of darkness

Gordon Willis at the Harvard Film Archive
Gordon Willis, the master cinematographer to whom the Harvard Film Archive pays tribute in a seven-film retrospective beginning this Friday,
By STEVE VINEBERG | November 18, 2009

Rolling stoned

Jonathan Lethem’s freewheeling Chronic City
Every new gambit is just another log on the roaring bonfire of Jonathan Lethem's eighth novel.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | November 04, 2009

Splendor on the screen

Elia Kazan at the HFA
The arc of Elia Kazan's professional life has its origins in the Group Theatre, where he was trained as an actor and performed in the original 1930s productions of Clifford Odets's Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy .
By STEVE VINEBERG | July 29, 2009

Newman's own

Mainstream life, good read
Among Shawn Levy's books is one of my favorite film bios, King of Comedy , with crazy-guy Jerry Lewis, so show-off goofy and schmaltzy, spilling all on every exuberant, excessive page.
By GERALD PEARY | June 24, 2009

Review: Two Lovers

Joaquin Phoenix's reported last film not interesting enough or deep enough
In what's bruited to be his last screen appearance, Joaquin Phoenix goes Marlon Brando mumbly.
By GERALD PEARY | February 25, 2009

EXCERPT: The Conversation

Peter Keough discusses how The Conversation is a B List movie.
Peter Keough discusses how The Conversation is a B List movie.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 31, 2008

'Cue Culture

All up in your grill
This pulpy, fiery-sweet sauce is a mélange of tongue-tingling flavors.
By PHIL AMARA | May 21, 2008

American original

Arthur Penn at the Harvard Film Archive
During the great American renaissance period in movies, Hollywood was in the hands of the counterculture.
By STEVE VINEBERG | January 29, 2008

Ang time

Lee approaches Lust with Caution
“Yeah, it’s very hard,” says Ang Lee — with no apparent double entendre in mind — about shooting the sex scenes in his NC-17-rated Lust, Caution .
By PETER KEOUGH | October 03, 2007

The witching hour

Wicked , plus The Atheist , A Streetcar Named Desire , Zanna, Don’t!
WICKED is a very different witch hunt from the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel on which it is based.
By CAROLYN CLAY | September 18, 2007

All but the wank

Is Deep Throat sexier than the 1934 Tarzan and His Mate?
The image of Marlon Brando demanding that Maria Schneider stick two fingers up his ass, now seems the reductio ad absurdum of improvised acting.
By JAMES PARKER | July 24, 2007

Smoking hot

Cigarettes on the silver screen
In honor of May 31, International No Tabacco Day, we’re listing the some of the most seminal smoking scenes on the silver screen.
By PHOENIX STAFF | June 01, 2007

Feel-bad cinema

Gerald Peary's year in movies
This critic's been carping for decades about feel-good cinema, how lousy it makes me feel, and this year I got the misery I begged for.
By GERALD PEARY | December 21, 2006

Loose Ends

Growing young with rock and roll
It’s four in the morning and raining. I’m 27 today, feeling old, listening to my records, and remembering that things were different a decade ago.
By JON LANDAU | May 19, 2006

Banana republic

East (Germany) meets least in ‘Rebels with a Cause’
East Germany graced international screens most recently in the Euro-blockbuster Good Bye, Lenin! (2003).
By MATTIAS FREY | February 09, 2006

Drifting

Claire Denis’s L’intrus
French filmmaker Claire Denis has acknowledged that a host of sources inspired L’intrus|The Intruder (January 25–February 9 at the MFA), the tale of a sickly, reclusive Frenchman, Louis Trebor (Michel Subor), who after paying hard cash and buying a new heart sails for the South Seas, vaguely in search of a lost illegitimate son.
By GERALD PEARY | January 19, 2006