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The parts of Anne Perry: Interiors that I liked best concerned Perry’s career as a best-selling mystery novelist. They provide some insight into her creative process, and a lot of detail on the operational process of producing books. (A scene with Perry and her transcriber both puzzling over an unclear word was perhaps my favorite.)
But […]

Confession: by the time I saw Drones, I was really tired. I had high expectations from the nerd dream-team cast and crew, including directors Amber Benson and Adam Busch (a.k.a. Tara and Warren from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and actors Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks) and James Urbaniak (The Venture Bros., American Splendor, and assorted […]

It’s tricky to summarize Lovers of Hate in a way that indicates some of what makes it so interesting while avoiding spoilers. It’s fundamentally a story of two brothers’ sibling rivalry. Paul (Alex Karpovsky) is the very successful author of a Harry Potter-like children’s book series. Rudy (Chris Doubek) is, well, not doing so hot: […]

The big shocker for me in the Q&A following The Freebie was when writer/director/co-star Katie Aselton revealed that the script (about a couple who decide that both of them having a one-night-stand will renew the erotic spark of their marriage) was almost completely improvised from a 6-page outline. I’m very impressed by Aselton and her […]

Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell’s documentary about the modern bee industry has an unusual structure: there’s some get-you-up-to-speed background info (the money is not in honey, in but in trucking hives around the country to pollinate seasonal crops), and then the picture is roughly split between the struggles of the Seppi family — who describe […]

Lemmy delivers almost exactly what’d you expect from a documentary about Motörhead’s legendary bassist, vocalist, and all-round heavy metal icon Lemmy Kilmister: there are interviews with a score or so of the many musicians inspired by him, interview footage with Lemmy himself (including a protracted tour of his somewhat scary crib), a bit of background […]

At IFF Boston you get these ballots that ask you to rate each film from one to five, with five being best. These get counted up for the audience choice awards, and presumably factor into what is considered for next year’s lineup.
I am really bad at rating things from one to five. The numbers fill […]

Everyone once in a while I want to urge people to avoid previews, ads, and reviews and just go see a movie with no expectations. I feel that way about Cyrus, not because I don’t think it can stand up to repeat viewings — in fact I’m eager to see it again so I can […]