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In writer-director Sophia Takal’s feature, Brooklynite couple Sebastian and Genevieve (played by Takal’s real-life fiancé Lawrence Michael Levine and real-life room-mate Kate Lyn Shiel) sublet a property in West Virginia so Sebastian can blog about his experience trying to farm. Their relationship, already a bit rocky, is strained by the the intrusion of their neighbor […]

Color Me Obsessed is markedly different from most rock documentaries. No band members are interviewed, and none of their music is heard. Instead, the film is entirely composed of interviews with people affected by The Replacements, some of them famous, many of them less so. The film’s structure is linear and loosely organized around the […]

Yet again, I’m going to try to do capsule reviews of all the films I see as part of Independent Film Festival Boston. Here’s the first.
I unabashedly loved Being Elmo, but it’s tough to write about — I don’t know how to convey the sheer joy of it without making it sound treacly. It reminds […]

The new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, more formally known as Micmacs à tire-larigot, was a last-minute closing night substitution at IFF Boston. To quote Brad Searles, “upgrade.”
From the outset, Micmacs is classic Jeunet, set in a world just a bit off-kilter from ours. Like Amélie, Micmacs stacks improbable coincidences as part of its plot. Like City […]

Gil Reyes’ biography of doomed indie rocker Smith is very interesting in how it embraces constraints: there’s not much film footage of Smith, and much of what there is isn’t technically good — so Reyes embraces the slacker aesthetic, using techniques like deliberately awkward cuts and mildly obnoxious microphone pops to make his footage match […]

If you’re a fan of The Magnetic Fields, you’re going to love Strange Powers, directors Kerthy Fix and Gail O’Hara’s love-letter to the singular genius of Stephin Merritt (not to mention his longtime manager/collaborator Claudia Gonson). The film’s decade-long gestation means that viewers are treated to footage of Merritt and his merry crew working on […]

I’m a little baffled at my reaction to Orgasm Inc. It’s specifically about the creation of the medical condition “Female Sexual Dysfunction,” a.k.a. FSD, and the pharmaceutical quest for the “female Viagra” to treat it. (This theoretical elixir — or snake oil, if you prefer — would enable women to climax without clitoral stimulation.) More […]

I love this movie so much, it’s a struggle to write about it coherently. The many thoughts it provokes are stumbling over each other between my head and my keyboard. What’s the best way to convince you that you should see 9500 Liberty? (You can significant chunks of it on the 9500 Liberty YouTube channel, […]