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Fans of indie-rock act Bishop Allen, whose lead singer Justin Rice stars as Harmony*, or anyone who likes to watch off-the-cuff footage of songwriters working on material should run, not walk to any chance to catch Harmony and Me. I would have gone home happy if hearing Rice run through Jonathan Richman’s “Government Center” was […]

Once 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.
A remark in the entertaining and informative post-screening Q&A by co-writer/co-director Robert Pulcini (along with Shari Springer Berman, half of the husband-and-wife writer/director team behind the terrific Harvey Pekar flick […]

There’s a time-honored tradition of sitcom stars (Mystery Team features Community’s Donald Glover, Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza, and 30 Rock’s John Lutz and Kevin Brown) making feature films to emphasize the stuff they can’t do on TV. Mystery Team delivers on that score: it’s not for anyone too squeamish about assorted bodily functions, or […]

Two we caught recently –
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Surprising, thought-provoking documentary about anabolic steroids and other performance enhancers, in and out of pro sports, from a medical, ethical, and personal perspective — director/narrator/co-writer Chris Bell is himself a former professional wrestler, but his instincts for engaging storytelling and incisive interviewing both seem sharp. (His structural approach and […]

. . .in time to contribute at least a little something:
Do It Again: One Man’s Quest to Reunite the Kinks.
Sounds like a very interesting project — hope it gets finished, is accepted into some festivals, lands a distribution deal and plays somewhere I can catch it, and ultimately gets a DVD release I can get my hands […]

With the screening of Welcome to Academia at the Brattle we got a survey from the film-makers full of stock intro-course questions, like “Which character did you find easiest to relate to? Why?”*
It was so hard to be constructive.
Kirk Davis and Elzbieta Szoka seem to have concocted their dark comedy** of sexual and power dynamics […]

Two more from the Fall 2009 Eye-Opener at The Brattle (. . . and my wonderful fiancée already ably covered American Casino, our most recent screening.)
I didn’t hate Summerhood, Jacob Medjuck’s distillation of summer camp experiences, and I didn’t think it was terrible, but so many aspects of it were seriously flawed that it’s difficult […]

Good golly, it’s been a while.
My wonderful girlfriend and I are attending the current Eye-Opener series at The Brattle. We’ve been to 2 screenings so far.
I appreciate Voy a explotar (I’m Going to Explode) a little more after thinking about it post-screening, which is not to say I enjoyed it, or that I thought […]