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BRETT MICHEL

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Review: Killing Them Softly

Though Andrew Dominik shot his follow-up to 2007's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in N'awlins, it's a Boston movie through-and-through.

By: BRETT MICHEL | December 05, 2012

Review: The Collection

Marcus Dunstan's second outing brings back Arkin (Josh Stewart), the only man to have escaped the masked figure's meat grinders.

By: BRETT MICHEL | December 05, 2012

DVD Review
The new transfer of Gilliam's 142-minute final cut is stunning, and the two-disc set includes all of the content from the earlier release, including his original commentary track, plus buffed-up, hi-def versions of a video "production notebook."

By: BRETT MICHEL | December 03, 2012

Review: The Waiting Room

If people believe Mitt Romney's assertion that emergency rooms are a solution for the uninsured, this is a powerful rebuke.

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 27, 2012

Review: Rise of the Guardians

A true surprise, this feature directing debut from storyboard artist Peter Ramsey isn't the lump of coal I expected. Instead it's a computer-animated crowd pleaser featuring unique interpretations of mythical childhood characters reinvented as the kiddie equivalent (well, kiddie-er) of The Avengers .

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 23, 2012

Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

As vampire/teen heartthrob Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) embraces his bride, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), for the first time since she died (and awoke as a new member of the bloodsucking Cullen clan) while giving birth to the rapidly aging Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy), he smiles and says, "We're the same temperature finally."

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 21, 2012

Review: Hitchcock

At his lowest, Hitch refers to an early edit of Psycho as "stillborn." That description also applies to this film.

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 21, 2012

Funny business: Funny Ha Ha, Ten Years Later

A lot has happened to Boston-born, Harvard-educated filmmaker Andrew Bujalski in the decade since he filmed his breakthrough debut, the acclaimed indie feature, Funny Ha Ha (2002).

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 16, 2012

Ross McElwee and son look back

Time machine
The films of Harvard professor Ross McElwee serve as an intimate, ongoing first-person document of his life, so I was somewhat surprised when he preferred answering questions about Photographic Memory , his ninth feature-length documentary, via email.

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 16, 2012

Review: Photographic Memory

Near the conclusion of Ross McElwee's 1993 film, Time Indefinite , we witnessed the birth of his son, Adrian.

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 12, 2012

Review: Ichiro Kataoka, Benshi

Sounds of silents
During their 2004 centennial celebration of Yasujiro Ozu, the Harvard Film Archive hosted Midori Sawato, one of a handful of silent-film narrators, or benshi, still active in Japan.

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 12, 2012

Review: Tales of the Night

In an abandoned cinema, an old technician assists a young couple in acting out stories spanning cultures and centuries: from medieval Europe, across the African plains, to Tibet, through an Aztec kingdom, and even a Caribbean-flavored Land of the Dead.

By: BRETT MICHEL | November 08, 2012

Review: Wreck-It Ralph

John C. Reilly gives a terrific vocal performance in this computer-animated look at the secret lives of video game arcade characters (like Tron by way of Toy Story ), directed by Rich Moore, a veteran helmer of The Simpsons and Futurama .

By: BRETT MICHEL | October 31, 2012

Review: Silent Hill: Revelations 3D

Silent Hill fans are gluttons for punishment.

By: BRETT MICHEL | October 31, 2012

Review: Conned (2010)

"What is this, some kinda' fuckin' joke?" These are the first words uttered in writer/director Arthur Luhn's homegrown comedy.

By: BRETT MICHEL | October 18, 2012

Review: Taken 2

Retired CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is still trying to remain an active part of the lives of his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).

By: BRETT MICHEL | October 10, 2012

Review: Butter

Any real-world comparisons between the Sarah Palin-like Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner) and her African-American opponent, Destiny (Yara Shahidi), are encouraged in this over-churned movie that presents itself as a "cutthroat story of greed, blackmail, sex, and butter."

By: BRETT MICHEL | October 11, 2012

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