Movie Westerns

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Appaloosa (2008)

A revisionist Western in the vein of Unforgiven
From its shaky start, you’d think Appaloosa a first-time effort, but director/star Ed Harris already has Pollock to his credit.
By TOM MEEK | October 02, 2008

Appaloosa

Unexpected and rewarding despite conventional scenarios
A revisionist Western in the vein of Unforgiven , it plumbs the gray areas in black-and-white frontier justice.
By TOM MEEK | September 09, 2008

When men were men

Sam Peckinpah at the Harvard Film Archive
Since Sam Peckinpah’s untimely death at the age of 59, he has acquired such legendary status that it’s startling to remember that he made only 14 films over a period of 22 years.
By STEVE VINEBERG | September 03, 2008

Hell Ride

Spaghetti western and Hell's Angels turf war
Bishop the director loses touch with Bishop the actor, and then, as scriptwriter, he sails overboard with inane cunnilingus cockamamie.
By TOM MEEK | August 05, 2008

The Boston Phoenix–Alumni Film Critics’ Poll

Our first-ever round-up of the past year’s best movies, with a little help from our friends
It’s true, the Boston Phoenix has never won an Oscar.
By PHOENIX STAFF | February 13, 2008

Are we grading on a curve?

Peter Keough’s Oscar Scorecard
It’s a solid B, which isn’t bad considering the vagaries of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
By PHOENIX STAFF | January 23, 2008

The Oscars go to Hell

The Devil knows what the nominations will be for this year’s Oscars
Maybe it’s just as well if the writers’ strike forces a cancellation of the Oscars show.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 18, 2008

Bodysong

The perfect fusion of sound and vision
From more than 400 sources, he’s created an operatic narrative of a single human life.
By BRETT MICHEL | December 31, 2007

Silver linings on a dark screen

Film: 2007 in review
The best films of 2007 hold their own when it comes to despair, evil, and treachery.
By PETER KEOUGH | December 18, 2007

Auteur land?

‘Film Culture’ in 2007
Granted, Sweeney Todd is a grim, violent, misanthropic musical.
By GERALD PEARY | December 17, 2007

Rare birds

Maria Schneider and John Stein
Maria Schneider didn’t necessarily know what “The ‘Pretty’ Road” was about when she started writing it.
By JON GARELICK | November 06, 2007

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

One of the year's best movies
In Andrew Dominik’s revisionist Western, Jesse James is not a character.
By RICHARD BECK | October 05, 2007

3:10 to Yuma

Claustrophobia
It seeped like a cancer into his modestly expanded take on Elmore Leonard’s short two-hander set within the confined time and space of a hotel room.
By BRETT MICHEL | September 05, 2007

God Grew Tired of Us

A devastating and uplifting documentary
Back in the ’80s, long before Darfur became a word linked with genocide in the Western media, the Islamic north waged a bloody campaign against the Christian farmers. Before there was darfur: Around the world. By Tom Meek.
By TOM MEEK | January 17, 2007

13 Tzameti

Winner takes all until he loses everything
In the Western world today, where an infantilized culture contends with suicide bombing, it was perhaps inevitable that somebody would combine musical chairs with Russian roulette. Watch the trailer for 13 Tzameti (QuickTime)
By A.S. HAMRAH | August 23, 2006

Flashbacks, May 12, 2006

The Boston Phoenix has been covering the trends and events that shape our times since 1966.
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Chris Brook and Ian Sands.
By EDITORIAL | May 11, 2006