Film
-
Nail Biting Captain Phillips
Tom Hanks and Unknowns Battle on the High Seas
By: - Nov 11th, 2013As good as Tom Hanks is, and he’s very good, he shares the screen with first time actors: Barkhad Abdi as Muse, the leader of the pirates; Barkhad Abdirahman as Bilal, the loose cannon of the four, Faysal Ahmed as Najee, and Mahat M. Ali as Elmi, the teenaged pirate. This high seas thriller will be a likely Oscar contender.
-
12 Years a Slave
Film a Sure Oscar Contender
By: - Nov 09th, 2013The film is not the tale of the Old South that your grandparents remember when viewing “Gone With the Windâ€. This is an unflinchingly brutal, cruel story told from the point of view of the thousands of black slaves who have endured two hundred and fifty years of living lives devoid of basic humanity and denied the dignity that all humans deserve.
-
The Fifth Estate Flops
Julian Assange Drama Under House Arrest
By: - Oct 21st, 2013On the upside: The acting is splendid. The performances are first rate, with a possible Oscar nomination in 2014 for Benedict Cumberbatch for his eerily accurate portrayal of mysterious, conflicted, and idiosyncratic computer genius-with-an-obsession, Julian Assange.
-
Wild Girl Waltz by Mark Lewis
Indy Film Shot in Pioneer Valley
By: - Sep 13th, 2013With just $10,000 and an eight day shooting schedule in Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts Mark Lewis created Wild Girl Waltz a charming and goofy film. It will be screened on October 12 at the annual Filmshift Film Festival in Somerville, Mass.
-
Is Cate Blanchett a Lock for an Oscar
Stars in Blue Jasmine Woody Allen's 44th Film
By: - Sep 04th, 2013Based on a stunning performance in Woody Allen's 44th film, Blue Jasmine, odds are that the 44-year-old Australian born actress, Cate Blanchett, is a strong contender for her second Oscar. In his cost effective, low key, Indy manner it seems that Allen just turned on the camera and with little or no direction she dug deeply to reveal her heart and soul as a fallen woman of a certain age.
-
Palm Springs International Film Festival
19th Annual Event
By: - Jun 24th, 2013ShortFest, as it is known in the movie industry, is the largest short film festival in North America. It’s a must stop for filmmakers, movie producers, directors, writers, and film distributors looking for short movies to represent. Those distributors that do attend, will have a veritable feast of films and deals from which to select what they hope will go on to attract worldwide audiences.
-
2012 Film Mighty Fine
Written and Directed by Debbie Goodstein Rosenfeld
By: - Jun 10th, 2013The 2012 film “Mighty Fineâ€, written and directed by Debbie Goodstein Rosenfeld, stars Academy Award-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri, Andie McDowell of “Groundhog Dayâ€; beautiful, new-comer Rainey Qualley, and Jodelle Ferland. The story revolves around the Jewish family, the Fine’s, who have just moved from Brooklyn to New Orleans in the 1970s.
-
Tiny: A Story About Living Small
BIFF Screening by Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith
By: - Jun 04th, 2013In a era of staggering average student debt and few substantial job options for graduates is living small the best revenge? For just $28,000 Christopher and Marete built their dream house with spectacular views of the western landscape. With an amusingly miniscule 120 square feet of home sweet home.
-
2013 BIFF and That
8th Annual Berkshire International Film Festival
By: - Jun 03rd, 2013During the four day festival with 75 screenings we managed three days with seven films and one short film. So we review only a slice of the 8th annual Berkshire International Film Festival. Even with limited exposure it was an intense and absorbing experience.
-
Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival
13th Annual in Palm Springs California
By: - May 31st, 2013The 13th Annual Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, California that just concluded its most successful festival to date. Producer and Festival Host Alan K. Rode, kept beaming to full houses for four days in the Camelot’s 500-seat theatre as he welcomed and thanked new and old noir aficionados for coming to year “lucky thirteenâ€. Some came from as far away as the East coast and Canada.
-
Berkshire International Film Festival
Documentary Highlights May 30 to June 2
By: - May 21st, 2013From May 30 to June 2 the Berkshire International Film Festival will be simultaneously be screened with many additional special events at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington and The Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield, The festival combines feature fikms and documentaries. There will be some 15 documentaries in the categories of Celebrity and Politics.
-
The Sweetest Embrace: Return to Afghanistan
Second Film: Herders’ Calling
By: - May 21st, 2013Najeeb Mirza has filmed, directed and produced a series of documentaries set in Central Asian countries of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgystan. They tell stories of lives well lived in cultures and landscapes so different from our own, yet the human condition of yearnings for love and a meaning of life remain the same.
-
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Poignant Documentary Conflates Pain and Comedy
By: - May 14th, 2013Seeing Joan Rivers on stage at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield prompted us to check out the video documentary. It was featured a couple of years ago in the Berkshire International Film Festival. With an appearance by the star at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington. Missed it. Having seen the bitch in heat we were curious to learn more about the insecure, fragile little girl from Brooklyn lurking behind that ferocious, grotesque, surgically altered mask. If you think you know Joan Rivers see this documentary and think again.
-
BIFF Announces 8th Season
Berkshire International Film Festival May 30 to June 2
By: - Apr 26th, 2013The 8th Annual season of The Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) today announces the line-up to the action packed program showcasing over 75 of the latest in independent feature, documentary, short and family films from some 20 countries. The festival, which takes place from May 30 – June 2, 2013 in Great Barrington and May 31 – June 2nd in Pittsfield, MA, will bring films, filmmakers, industry professionals and film fans together for a four-day festival celebrating independent film featuring 27 documentaries, 25 narrative features and 24 short films.
-
The American Documentary Film Festival (AmDocs)
Returns to Palm Springs for a Second Season
By: - Apr 25th, 2013The Palm Springs area has added The American Documentary Film Festival (AmDocs) to its lineup. Local filmmaker Teddy Grouya who is also a working Hollywood professional, inaugurated the first AmDocs festival in April of 2012. He brought Academy Award winner Oliver Stone and his film “Comandante†to opening night audiences along with a variety of USA films and those from foreign countries. The four-day event was so highly successful it gave the festival the impetus it needed to become an ongoing festival/event.
-
Buzkashi! Shown at MASS MoCA
Final Film in Series: Compete! - The Human Tower
By: - Apr 06th, 2013Cinema Lounge at Mass MoCA screened the Canadian Indi-Film BUZKASHI! recently, which was shot in Tajikistan, Central Asia. Buzkashi, an ancient sport, is vaguely a cross between rugby and polo with few rules. The ‘ball,’ however, is a headless goat. There may be 200 riders on a huge field and slowly the film develops the game and its main characters into a fantastic tale set in a vast and fascinating landscape.
-
12th Annual Native American Film Festival
The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum
By: - Mar 03rd, 2013All of the films have a direct connection to Native American or Indigenous people and their culture. All films screened at the festival have either been made by Native American or Indigenous filmmakers, actors, writers, producers, and/or technical experts from around the world.
-
The 63rd Berlinale
February 7-17, 2013
By: - Feb 20th, 2013300,000 tickets were sold for 400 films at this year's Berlinale, the largest film festival in the world?! 19 films from 13 countries were judged in the 'Competition,' all others were screened in Berlin and are looking for distribution and an audience worldwide.
-
Sundance Award Winner Valley of Saints
Special Screening at Images Cinema on February 8
By: - Feb 04th, 2013Images Cinema is hosting an event organized by the Muslim Student Association of Williams College, a film screening of “Valley of Saints†with director Musa Syeed on Friday, 2/8 at 5pm. The film will be introduced by Syeed, and the film will be followed by a Q&A with the director..
-
Music from the Big House
Canadian Blues Singer Rita Chiarelli at Angola Prison
By: - Feb 02nd, 2013As the inmates tell us in this stunning documentary by Erin Faith Young and Tony Burgess at Louisiana's legendary, Angola Prison "Life means life." In a search for the roots of the blues Canadian musician, Rita Chiarelli, worked with the inmates to perform "Music from the Big House."
-
2013 Oscar Nominated Animation Shorts
Screened at Images Cinema February 16
By: - Feb 02nd, 2013During the Academy Awards celebration there is mostly apathy for categories like best Animation Shorts. Most of the home viewing audience have not seen the nominated shorts. On February 16 Images Cinema in Williamstown will screen all five nominated shorts. The hour and a half program on Saturday morning provides terrific family entertainment.
-
The Zincograph by Vladislav Todorov
Bulgarian Film at Palm Springs International Film Festival
By: - Jan 25th, 2013The screenplay written by Bulgarian educator and novelist Vladislav Todorov is based on his novel “The Zincographâ€. It’s a wildly inventive and whimsically directed movie by Emil Christov that stars Ruscen Vidinliev in a winning performance in how to succeed in Balkan politics without really existing.
-
Silver Linings Playbook Oscar Gold
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence As Red Hot Lovers
By: - Jan 24th, 2013Despite a fifteen year age gap, Jennifer Lawrence (22) and Bradley Cooper (37) sizzle as a romantic couple in the comedy "Silver Linings Playbook." That's true mostly because of the remarkable maturity and superb acting skills of Lawrence who is nominated for her second Oscar. The first was for "Winter Bone" and in between she starred in 'The Hunger Games." But Brad, also Oscar nominated, ain't just chopped liver.
-
ArtsEmerson February Film Orgy
The Next Thing Festival and World Cinema Classics
By: - Jan 22nd, 2013ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage continues its third season of independent and repertory films by screening classics of world cinema, plus a wide array of films to compliment The Next Thing (TNT) Festival, a 10-day mash up of live performance, film, music and workshops that explores emerging aesthetics in contemporary performance.
-
Oscar Nominated Zero Dark Thirty
The Hunt to Kill Bin Laden
By: - Jan 21st, 2013In the journalistic, nothing but the facts approach of director Kathryn Bigelow,and screenwriter Mark Boal there is a dry austerity to the tale of tracking down and killing Osama Bin Laden. The film is an Oscar nominee for Best Picture which Bigelow won in 2010 for another war themed film The Hurt Locker. As agent Maya, Jessica Chastain, is a front runner for Best Actress. She already has won a Golden Globe for her performance.
<< Previous Next >>