Boston Globe movie stories
Social climbers
The Reel Rock Film Tour , a traveling showcase of extreme climbing footage, stops in Arlington tonight. It's basically a chance for you to see people hanging off mountains and icy Arctic walls. Better them than you, right? These stories of daring climbs look brilliant on the big screen, and if you're into the outdoors, you're bound to meet some ... (By Meredith Goldstein, Globe Staff)
A five-letter word spells trouble
LOS ANGELES - Kevin Smith made a movie with such a bothersome title he cannot even place ads for it in some places. (By David Germain, Associated Press)
Grieving the personal and political losses of a revolution
Many a man has spent a movie searching for a lost love. Few have wound up telling the story of revolutionary South America in the process. But when Juan Mandelbaum went looking for an old college girlfriend back in Buenos Aires, he came back with "Our Disappeared," a tender documentary that recalls how a decade of political upheaval wrecked families, ... (By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff)
'Twentieth Century'
Oct. 19 Warning: The dizzying pace and rapid-fire banter of this hysterical 1934 screwball comedy may cause whiplash. John Barrymore's megalomaniacal producer transforms lingerie model Mildred Plotka (the luminous Carole Lombard) into diva supreme Lily Garland. Director Howard Hawks keeps this moving faster than the speeding locomotive of the title. 5:30 and 9:30 pm. $9.50. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., ... (By Mark Griffin, Boston Globe)
It all ads up
File this under "We don't get it, but it's funny." Here are two 2007 TV ads that will screen at British Advertising Films - see if you can guess the products. One is a man in a gorilla suit drumming to "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. The tagline is "pure enjoyment." The other ad features pieces of Play-Doh ... (By June Wulff, Globe Staff)
Gil Kenan jumps from film school to select company
Five years ago, Gil Kenan was an unknown university student with a video camera; today he is an Oscar-nominated director strolling around one of the largest indoor film sets ever made. And it's his. (By Karla Adam, The Washington Post)
Making room for art
Thanks to the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, you can get a sneak-preview tonight of a film about women who are driven to make art even though they're busy doing (and paying for) other things. Pamela Tanner Boll, who produced "Born Into Brothels," made the documentary "Who Does She Think She Is?" to show how women across the country have ... (Boston Globe)
Taking a 'Risk'
Navigating the business and arts world can be hard enough on its own. But when you're a gender fluid individual like Océan Leroy , a Parisian born performance artist and drag king living in Berlin, it can be even harder to balance to pressure. The film "Risk, Stretch, or Die" looks at what it takes to maintain this precarious balance ... (Boston Globe)
Film' collection of British television ads has many bright spots
Think of it as reverse TiVo : Instead of skipping past the commercials to get to the programming, the 90-minute evening of "British Advertising Films of 2008" starting tomorrow at the Museum of Fine Arts offers commercials as programming. (By Ty Burr, Globe Staff)
'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is the second installment in the Indiana Jones series, but since it's a prequel, it's really where Indy's adventures began. You can see the hatted hero in "Doom" tonight at the Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library, which is showing the entire Jones series on Tuesdays throughout the month. Next week, it's ... (Boston Globe)
Hobbit forming
The Brattle Theatre, which has been screening films about Middle Earth all weekend, shows the director's cut of the last film in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy twice today. "The Return of the King" puts a moderate amount of closure on the tale of the hobbits and a crazy ring. Just be sure to hit the bathroom first - ... (Boston Globe)
'The Secret Life of Bees'
The Boston Public Library is giving free passes to young adults for a Thursday afternoon sneak-preview screening of "The Secret Life of Bees," a film adaptation of the popular book that's set to open Friday. All teens have to do is pick up a pass in the Young Adult Room at the Central Branch of the Boston Public Library. The ... (Boston Globe)
New releases
DVD - TV/ANIMATION Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States, season 2 A few may remember that President George W. Bush and his family first got the Comedy Central treatment in the short-lived sitcom "That's My Bush," which aired from April to June 2001. Its satire, however cheeky about the commander in chief, was mild compared to the insolent, scatological, ... (By Stephanie Schorow, Globe Correspondent)
Globe writers on the one thing you must do, see, or hear this week
THE 1 WELCOME USE FOR SPAM Gratuitous junk mail usually leads to cursing and mass deletion. But for British illustrator Linzie Hunter, the bizarro subject lines of these offending e-mails inspire letter art prints. In Hunter's hands, "No girls laugh at me now. Ha-ha. I laugh at them." becomes a graphic pink-and-black speech bubble. I guess one man's spam is ... (Boston Globe)
Jonathan Demme gets back to his basics with 'Rachel Getting Married'
Welcome home, Jonathan Demme. We've missed you. "Rachel Getting Married" is the 64-year-old director's 22d theatrical release, give or take, and his seventh in a decade. Yet it's the first movie in years to showcase his vision of America as a lovely but fraught emotional playground. Demme didn't go anywhere but his sensibility did, and only with this new work ... (By Ty Burr, Globe Staff)
This week's DVD Report (October 12)
New Releases | Tom Russo 'Indiana Jones' and the last DVD (for now...) As producer Frank Marshall reminds us at the start of the video production diary accompanying "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008), "Steven [Spielberg] really wanted this movie to be a surprise for the audience when they got to the movie theater." But now ... (Boston Globe)
N.H. film festival offers some prime viewing
If you're looking for an excuse to head out for some leaf-peeping, consider a swing along the coast north of Boston. That's where you'll also find the New Hampshire Film Festival, which opens on Thursday for its eighth annual outing. (By Leslie Brokaw, Boston Globe)
Family filmgoer
Kids 8 and older "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (PG, 90 min.) Stereotypical ethnic humor and trite doggie poop jokes intermingle with genuinely funny bits in this very uneven live-action (well, mostly) family comedy from Disney. The live dogs talk to one another, their lips forming words (thanks to computer animation), though humans can't hear them. The movie features a bit of ... (By Jane Horwitz, Washington Post Writers Group)
On screen, Muslims in a new light
When political activist Nasser Weddady moved from Florence, Ky., to Brookline in January 2007, he said he expected to find "the bluest corner of the bluest of states." (By Jeannie M. Nuss, Globe Correspondent)
International Experimental Cinema Exposition
After spending some quality time with the most popular boy wizard, you can see experimental shorts by muggles at the Institute of Contemporary Art. The International Experimental Cinema Exposition , a national group that highlights innovative, experimental films, will be showing works by local filmmakers, who will be on hand for a Q&A. Also attending will be Christopher May, Exposition ... (Boston Globe)
Zombies, rocky camerawork infect 'Quarantine'
"Quarantine" begins with television reporter Angela (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman Scott (Steve Harris) tagging along with a crew of Los Angeles firemen on a 911 call about a mentally disturbed old woman. They arrive at a creepy apartment complex, camera rolling, only to discover that, instead of making a human-interest feature for the 6 o'clock news, they've been drafted ... (By Michael Hardy, Globe Correspondent)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Daniel Radcliffe may be spending his fall on Broadway, but in Salem he's still Harry Potter. CinemaSalem has dedicated Saturday and Sunday mornings this fall to screenings of all of the Potter flicks. Today and tomorrow morning, you can see "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," the second installment in the series, and the one with the notorious Tom ... (Boston Globe)
'Rachel Getting Married' benefits from expert planning
You might leave "Rachel Getting Married" moved by its tale of two sisters squabbling through the weekend of one of their weddings. Or maybe you'll leave thinking that in director Jonathan Demme you just found your wedding planner. (By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff)
Film critic Ty Burr took your questions
Heading to the theater this weekend? Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr was online Oct. 10 at 1 p.m. to field your questions and comments about new and upcoming releases, and more. Miss the chat? Catch up here. (Boston Globe)
Italian romance tugs at the apron strings
Silvio Soldini's "Days and Clouds" snagged a bunch of Donatello Awards last spring not simply because it's a well-made, elegantly acted drama about a marriage falling apart but because it seriously captures how the Italian social epidemic of the "mammoni" can strain a marriage. Ah, yes, the mammoni: the Italian man so devoted to his mother that he can't function ... (By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff)
'Express' doesn't stray from safe playbook
If we continue to need tales of improbably successful athletics programs and life stories of professional athletes to lift us up (and surely we've had enough already), we also need the movies themselves to be distinguishable from each other. But Hollywood has a way of working its magic in reverse so that all the triumph in a story (an over-the-hill ... (By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff)
'The Greatest' show of Earth
Given the price of fuel these days, "The Greatest Places" is at minimum one of the cheapest ways to hop around the planet, stopping for brief interludes with exotic wildlife, crashing waterfalls, towering icebergs, and pristine desert sands. (By Janice Page, Globe Correspondent)
The players
If you're a film major or a fan of dark, smart cinema, you should be required to spend this weekend in Northampton for "A Tribute to Robert Altman." The four-day celebration of Altman films kicks off today with a 6 p.m. screening of "M*A*S*H" (left), and continues through Monday with lineups that include "3 Women," "The Player," "A Wedding," and ... (By Meredith Goldstein, Globe Staff)
A tale of spies, cells, and pulp thrills
In "Body of Lies," Leonardo DiCaprio sports an undergrowth of facial hair so mossy and unkempt I thought I'd stumbled into an early screening of Steven Soderbergh's "Che." The star is playing Roger Ferris, our CIA agent on the ground in the Middle East, and the scruff is supposed to help him blend in with the locals. It's also meant, ... (By Ty Burr, Globe Staff)
In 'City of Ember,' doomsday has a ray of hope
The city in "City of Ember" is about what you'd expect from a place where Bill Murray has been elected mayor. It's run-down and cheerfully sodden, a testament to the way things fall apart and time wounds all heels. City of Entropy, more like it. Oh, and it's miles underground and far in the future -- a final outpost of ... (By Ty Burr, Globe Staff)
'The Kite'
Oct. 12 Betrothed to a relative she's never met, Lamia (Flavia Bechara, below) leaves her home in Lebanon and crosses the border into Israel. Political and personal conflicts ignite when Lamia falls for an Israeli checkpoint guard. The most memorable sequences from this 2003 feature involve families separated by the border sharing gossip by shouting into megaphones. 1 p.m. $5. ... (By Mark Griffin, Globe Correspondent)
'Flash of Genius' subject was both brilliant and brusque
It's too bad that Greg Kinnear couldn't have played Robert Kearns in real life. That thought went through my mind while watching Kinnear's performance in "Flash of Genius," a new drama based on the story of the cantankerous Detroit engineer who successfully sued Ford and Chrysler for a combined $30 million for infringing on his patent designs for the intermittent ... (By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times)
New releases
DVDS - TV 30 Rock, Season 2 Tina Fey is riding so high off her too-close-for-comfort Sarah Palin impressions on "Saturday Night Live" that it's way too easy to forget that she also stars in "30 Rock," the spoof of a sketch comedy show that will begin its third season on Oct. 30 on NBC (and Oct. 23 online). The ... (By Stephanie Schorow, Globe Correspondent)
Globe writers on the one thing you must do, see, or hear this week
THE 1 DIVA AT THE MEGAPLEX Craving big-league opera but can't make it to New York? The Met's popular series of high-definition simulcasts to movie theaters around the world (including several in Greater Boston) starts in earnest Saturday with a performance of Strauss's "Salome," featuring the exhilarating soprano Karita Mattila in the title role. Expect a voice of cool Nordic ... (Boston Globe)
City picks
Reveling in song Monday, 10/6: Sing loud and sing proud with the Revels as the group celebrates the launch of its new website at Tommy Doyle's in Cambridge. Its music director will lead the singing, with selections coming from a pocket pub-sing songbook, which is included in the price of admission. 96 Winthrop St., Cambridge, 6 p.m. $15. 617-972-8300. (Boston Globe)
Ridley Scott's war on terror
In the 30-plus years Ridley Scott has been making films, he's covered all manner of subjects, from fencing to replicants, the Crusades to the drug trade. In his new film "Body of Lies," Scott examines the role of the CIA in the war on terrorism. (By Rebecca DiLiberto, Globe Correspondent)
A week of eclectic film screenings
Some weeks the Boston film scene serves up loads of what can best be described as "quirk" - international works that tilt to the avant-garde, festival concepts that are clever and weird, and programs of short films that are long on creativity if short on narrative structure. (By Leslie Brokaw, Globe Correspondent)
DVD Report: This week's new releases (Oct. 5)
New Releases | Tom Russo Together in one, a trinity of 'Evil' When didn't Orson Welles clash with the system? While Welles's wunderkind reputation won him uncommon creative freedom in his filmmaking debut on "Citizen Kane," his subsequent career was rife with projects turned contentious, among them "The Magnificent Ambersons," the unfinished Brazil documentary glimpsed in "It's All True," and ... (Boston Globe)
The movie before the movie: Website gives credit to credit sequences
If you happened to catch Matthew McConaughey goofing off in "Sahara," a 2005 made-for-matinee treasure hunt, you might have noted the opening credit sequence : The camera pans the fictional office where maps, photographs, and news clippings introduce the film's main characters, provide a back story, and set a tone of adventure in one continuous, masterful shot. (By Erin Trahan, Globe Correspondent)
Jenny Lumet is upfront about leaving race in background
NEW YORK - You'd think an interracial wedding in a staid Connecticut suburb might be noted in conversations there. Discussed, even. In "Rachel Getting Married," which opens Friday, it doesn't muster a mention. (By Judy Abel, Globe Correspondent)