Looking Back: Ten Movies That Kicked Off Summer

It’s widely believed the official beginning of summer movie season is Friday, with the much-anticipated release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And everyone knows a strong summer means everything to a studio, especially if they have that special blockbuster “tentpole” movie to hold up the rest of their lineup.
So I thought it would be fun to […]

IFFB Closing and Award Winners 2009

The 2009 Independent Film Festival of Boston wrapped last night with the official Closing Night film, Bobcat Goldthwait’s World’s Greatest Dad (below), a movie both Allison and I admire. It’s an unforgiving dark comedy with some real ideas about how our culture views death and fame, with a handful of hard-working performances (most notably, Daryl […]

IN TREATMENT: Season 2, Week 4 Preview

UPDATE: Okay “couch potatoes” (my nickname for us In Treatment fans…): Here are previews for the entire week — thanks for your patience on the Monday episodes.
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 5 | Week 6
:: MIA
This woman has more mental issues than Charles Manson. First, she aggressively pushes her way into […]

Report, Photos: Independent Film Festival of Boston

Saturday night at the 2009 IFFB featured two top-flight films screening simultaneously at the celebrated Somerville Theater: Ondi Timoner’s chaotic doc We Live In Public and Jonathan Hock’s warm ode to pitcher Luis Tiant, The Lost Son of Havana.
I’d seen the latter, and planned to attend We Live In Public. But we (this intrepid moviegoer plus patient wife) got […]

IFFBoston: Sunday Picks, Trailers

If you’re in the Boston area, get out there for the final weekend day of the Independent Film Festival. Here are a few IFFB picks — with trailers — for your viewing planning.
:: The Way We Get By (Brattle Theater, 12pm)
In my filmcritic.com preview, I called this documentary the surefire lump in your throat for this […]