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GERALD PEARY

Latest Articles

Religulous

Unabashedly agnostic and skeptical
He’s as cocky and smarmy as Michael Moore, but somehow Bill Maher is also more endearing and credible, as he prances about the globe making jest of sanctimonious true believers.

By: GERALD PEARY | October 02, 2008

Allah Made Me Funny

But not that funny.
Muslim comedy is still a work-in-progress, to judge by this videotaped rendition of a three-man stand-up comedy show of Muslim-American jokesters.

By: GERALD PEARY | October 01, 2008

Blindness

An old-fashioned disaster-movie yarn
The Fernando Meirelles–directed film is, of necessity, less literary and philosophical.

By: GERALD PEARY | October 01, 2008

To Hell and Harry

Hell Girl, The IT Crowd
American hetero pornography is, most often, a fantasy celebration of exhibitionist sluttiness, itchy whores on their knees, opening their legs, without a moment’s hesitation or a flicker of shame.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 24, 2008

Making us stronger

Boston’s What Doesn’t Kill You scores at Toronto
I’m back from the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival, where the unexpected hit among discerning critics was a Boston-made crime melodrama.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 17, 2008

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women

A darker-than-usual take on the author
As always with Porter, you can expect intelligence in the writing and insights into the bio subject.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 09, 2008

Enlighten Up!

A human and profound yoga documentary
How to make a yoga documentary that will satisfy devotees but also entice those who balk at getting down with “downward dog”?

By: GERALD PEARY | September 09, 2008

I Served the King of England

Ambitious but old-fashioned and sluggish
I Served the King of England , though an arresting story, is the least successful of Czech filmmaker Jiří Menzel's film adaptations.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 03, 2008

The Grocer's Son

Nothing much happens here
Le fils de l’épicier is a dull title, but appropriate for Eric Guirado’s competently made, unexciting movie.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 03, 2008

Trumbo

An epistolary embarrassment
Peter Askin’s movie about the left-wing Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is fine when it’s in standard-bio-documentary mode.

By: GERALD PEARY | August 13, 2008

Elegy of Life. Rostropovich. Visnevskaya

A great and lasting love story
Sokurov makes his position clear: these are true Russian patriots.

By: GERALD PEARY | August 13, 2008

As Tears Go By

Violence and moony romance
Deliriously good-looking Hong Kong actors posture as iconic Hollywood movie stars, with the most gorgeously lustrous lighting and imaginatively off-kilter editing on the planet.

By: GERALD PEARY | August 13, 2008

Man on Wire

Enthralling, exciting, and deeply beautiful
His little venture was not only death-defying but highly illegal.

By: GERALD PEARY | August 05, 2008

Avant que j'oublie|Before I Forget

Smart and unusual gay movie goes on too long
Director Jacques Nolot stars in this semi-autobiographical tale of Pierre, a one-time gigolo who, now past 60.

By: GERALD PEARY | August 05, 2008

Girls Rock!

An irresistable, haphazard jumble
The effort was valiant, but the documentary is often a jumble of haphazardly shot footage, with too many interview bites, and sketchy sequences.

By: GERALD PEARY | July 23, 2008

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

An engrossing documentary of the filmmaker's celebrity trial
A 1977 afternoon of drugs and intercourse with a 13-year-old led to Polanski's arrest in California, and to his celebrity trial, the subject of Marina Zenovich’s engrossing HBO tabloid documentary.

By: GERALD PEARY | July 16, 2008