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Interview: Daniel Ellsberg

Courage under fire
"By ordinary standards of presidents, Obama is a decent man. But those standards aren't good enough."

By CHRIS FARAONE | February 09, 2010

In Memoriam
Karen Schmeer, the brilliant local film editor whose work on Errol Morris's documentary The Fog of War helped win it the Best Documentary Oscar in 2004, died January 29 in a tragic accident, struck by a getaway car as she was crossing a street in Manhattan. She would have turned 40 on February 20.

By PETER KEOUGH | February 02, 2010

Video: 2010 horror movie previews

Hollywood Splat Pics and Horrific Indies
Will 2010 be a festive romp of eye-gouging, throat-slitting, and disemboweling?

By MICHAEL NEEL | January 28, 2010

Rainbow Nation

The US isn't the only country exploring its complex racial history. South Africa prepares for its moment in the sun.
After a torturous history of being treated like second-class citizens, the black population in this country stunned the world by pulling off the unimaginable: voting a black man in as president.

By LANCE GOULD | January 28, 2010

Is there 'hope' in Hollywood?

Three controversial (and sure to be Oscar-nominated) films tackle race in the age of Obama
Buoyed by President Barack Obama's campaign slogan, many had hopes for change after his election.

By PETER KEOUGH | January 29, 2010

Oscar predictions 2010

With 10 Best Picture noms, is Oscar up in the air? Our critic predicts.
After years of shrinking audiences and low-grossing Best Picture nominees, the Academy this year is hedging its bets.

By PETER KEOUGH | January 29, 2010

The rules of his game

'Celebrating Chekhov' at the Museum of Fine Arts
Given that every theater season seems to bring a new production of a Chekhov play, it's surprising that so few movies have been made of his dramas, or of his short stories. Or maybe not so surprising: Chekhov is perilously difficult for filmmakers.

By STEVE VINEBERG | January 20, 2010

Interview: Corneliu Porumboiu

Misplaced modifier: the director defines Police, Adjective
"I chose to focus on the waiting parts — the things you're not used to seeing in classic movies. I cut out all the action."

By PETER KEOUGH | January 21, 2010

Eric Rohmer 1920 - 2010

In Memoriam
No other filmmaker mined precisely the same territory as the French director Eric Rohmer, who died Monday at the age of 89.

By STEVE VINEBERG | January 13, 2010

Persian miniatures

Films from Iran choose indirect confrontation
You can see what is probably the most significant filmmaking right now in Iran by going to YouTube and viewing the artless images of brutality in the streets of Tehran captured by scores of average Iranian citizens armed with cell-phone cameras.

By PETER KEOUGH | January 06, 2010

Lite at the end of the tunnel?

Fun and games in post-apocalyptic Hollywood
If you had enough of the end of the world with 2012 , you might be relieved when it comes to 2010.

By PETER KEOUGH | January 04, 2010

2009: The year in movies

Men behaving badly
As I looked over my list of the best movies of 2009, it suddenly struck me: where are all the women on screen?

By PETER KEOUGH | December 28, 2009

Let's Get Raw

Do It Clean Dept.
Couldn't score a seat at the Climate Change Conference underway in Copenhagen, but still want to reduce your carbon footprint? Perhaps you need to eat it raw.

By TOM MEEK | December 16, 2009

Blu Christmas . . . without DVD

Kick your films into hi-def this season with those other shiny silver discs
Ah, yes: the most wonderful time of the year, tinged with muddy snow and the creeping darkness of our most recent Depression.

By BRETT MICHEL | December 18, 2009

Documentary Man

An interview with Frederick Wiseman
If you think the polemic salvos Michael Moore churns out define the modern documentary, you've either succumbed to Moore's manipulative shenanigans or are unfamiliar with the works of Frederick Wiseman. No disrespect to the Roger & Me director, he is what he is — a man with a camera and a handful of pixie dust.

By TOM MEEK | December 09, 2009

Interview: Nicolas Cage

Xtreme acting
"When people like to label any kind of performance as over the top, I suggest that if you were to go to the Guggenheim and look at a Francis Bacon, would you call that over the top?"

By PETER KEOUGH | November 24, 2009

Interview: Gabourey Sidibe

A hidden gem discovered in Harlem
"While reading the book, I realized that I knew this girl in so many different people. Not just girls but boys, and not just black people but white and Asian and Indian."

By BRETT MICHEL | November 18, 2009

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

Totally clips of the heart

Foraging with the Found Footage Festival’s Nick Prueher
Nick Prueher and fellow video crate digger Joe Pickett sift through untold hours of lunatic cable-access shows, home movies, and dubious self-help videos to pluck out breathtakingly bad gems for their touring Found Footage Festival.

By SHAULA CLARK | November 12, 2009

Interview: Lone Scherfig

An Educated Lady
Born in Denmark in 1959, Lone Scherfig first gained international attention in 2000 with Italian for Beginners, a charming little film that won her the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. A couple of years later, she followed up with Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, her first English-language effort, filmed in Scotland and starring Adrian Rawlins and Shirley Henderson.

By BRETT MICHEL | November 16, 2009