Film
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Oscar Bound American Sniper Takes Hits
Doves and Hawks Debate Clint Eastwood Film
By: - Jan 21st, 2015From rodeo rider in Texas to sniper Bradley Cooper is superb in depicting the nuances of Chris Kyle who holds the record with 160 confirmed kills as an American Sniper. After 9/11 there was a rush to take the battle to the terrorists who attacked America. As the war dragged on with staggering cost and loss of life it grew ever less acceptable to the American people. Director Clint Eastwood again polarizes a nation divided into hawks and doves. Was Kyle a hero and defender of freedom or, as Michael Moore has stated, a "coward" and sanctioned serial killer?
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Kurmanjan Datka Queen of the Mountains
Emering Films from Kyrgzstan
By: - Jan 18th, 2015Following a two-year post graduate course in screenwriting and directing in Moscow, Sher-Niyaz returned to his native Kyrgzstan, and founded the film production company Aitysh Film in 2006. For his debut as a director he chose to film the epic story of his country’s most iconic citizen, Kurmanjan Datka.
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Tangerines an Estonian Film
Directed by Zaza Urushadze
By: - Jan 18th, 2015It’s safe to say that the anti-war message of “Tangerines†will not diminish the impact of an intense, well-crafted war movie that, no doubt, will resonate with audiences everywhere.
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Lucky Stiff a Cute Musical Farce
Directed by Chistopher Ashley of La Jolla Playthouse
By: - Jan 18th, 2015The newly adapted movie version of the theatre piece, Lucky Stiff, revolves, in short, around a young down-and-out, mousey British shoe salesman Harry Witherspoon (a winning performance by Dominic Marsh) who takes his dead American Uncle (a sedated (?) live actor who mustn’t make a false move played by Don Amendola) – a murdered Vegas casino manager to Monte Carlo – for the best time of his life, even though he’s dead. Shades of “Weekend at Bernie’sâ€.
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Mark Titus Documentary Fire in the Water
Alaskan King Salmon Endangered Species
By: - Jan 17th, 2015The documentary film Fire in the Water by Mark Titus is a dire warning of the threat to an American culinary staple The Alaskan King Salmon and other marine species. Fishing Alaska salmon is a $ billion dollar plus industry that appears to be headed for a financial tsunami.
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Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Film on Divorce Israeli Style
By: - Jan 17th, 2015The melodrama cleverly written and directed by the brother-sister team of Ronit Elkabertz and Shlomi Elkabertz introduces to non-Israeli audiences the complicated nature of its legal system concerning marriage and divorce. In theocracies, religious law trumps all varieties of civil law procedures that are common in most other countries.
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Leviathan by Director Andrei Zvyagintsev
Oscar Nominated Foreign Film
By: - Jan 16th, 2015Leviathan directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev is a film about a mayor who is evicting a man from his property against his will and a masterful plot ensues from this premise. It won a 2014 Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Film and is nominated for an Oscar.
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Inherent Vice Is Unclassifiable
'Paul Thomas Anderson's New Film
By: - Jan 11th, 2015Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice" details the mystery that Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) must solve that keeps getting more complicated as the film goes along.
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Michael Keaton in Birdman
Is Riff of Holywood on Broadway Oscar Bound
By: - Jan 11th, 2015“Birdmanâ€, like last years’ Oscar Winner “Dallas Buyers Club†features a character I didn’t much care for, but I sure did enjoy and admire the performance of its star Matthew McConaughey, who walked off with a much deserved Oscar statuette by playing a flawed character. It’s a strong possibility that Michael Keaton, another flawed character-study, will do the same?
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The Circle and Difret
Two Foreign Films
By: - Jan 06th, 2015“The Circle†(Der Kreisâ€), is Switzerland’s Official submission for the 87th Academy Awards, come February 2015. “Difretâ€, an Ethiopian film dealing with the vexing ancient tribal custom of child-bride abduction in its rural areas, is executive produced by Angelina Jolie whose celebrity raises the stakes in drawing attention to the issue.
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Boyhood: Film of the Year
Talking with Director Richard Linklater
By: - Dec 27th, 2014The technical feat of filming a boy's life for twelve years is staggering to contemplate. But what the auteur Richard Linklater is able to achieve in film is a masterpiece whose structure only enhances the experience. We spoke with him after a recent screening. He liked our comparison to Proust.
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Rosewater Could Have Been a Great Movie
Happy Ending Mar Jon Stewart's Directorial Debut
By: - Dec 19th, 2014Jon Stewart's film detailing to imprisonment and interrogation of Maziar Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal) in Iran during the 2009-2010 presidential election. In his debut as a director Stewart has a ways to go.
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Documentary Film Code Black
Dr. Ryan McGarry Reveals Real Life Drama of an ER
By: - Dec 16th, 2014Over the years countless TV series have focused on the life and death drama of hospital ER units. In the compelling documentary film, Code Black, Dr. Ryan McGarry focues on what actually happens day to day in LA County Hospital. In addition to saving lives for the severely injured the ER is also a defacto outpatient clinic for the urban poor. That equates to endless and unavoidable long waits in a national health care system struggling to cope and provide care for all.
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Swedish Film Force Majeure (Turist)
Award Nominations for Best Foreign Film
By: - Dec 11th, 2014The upper middle class Swedish couple, Emma and Tomas, have taken their kids Vera and Harry on an expensive, five day ski vacation in the French Alps. The complacency of this seemingly perfect, bourgeois family shatters in a tragic moment when a "controlled" avalanche is anything but. They respond instinctively but differently to that life threatening event. The film by Reuben Ostlund profoundly records the seismic emotional aftershocks of the life threatening incident. The film has been monimated for a Golden Globe award and is a likely candidate for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
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The Theory of Everything
Biopic of the Amazing Stephen Hawking
By: - Dec 10th, 2014Screenwriter Anthony McCarten and director James Marsh, of the romantic drama “The Theory of Everythingâ€, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, as Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane Wlde Hawking, have fashioned, with great skill, a movie about Britain’s famous living physicist.
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Mockingjay at Best a Holiday Turkey
Jennifer Dear How Could You
By: - Nov 26th, 2014In the first two Hunger Games films we fell deeply, madly in love with Jennifer Lawrence as the archer and woman warrior Katness Everdeen. The two hour third film Mockingjay Part One is little more than a boring rip off and setup for the hopefully better final film in the series a year from now.
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‘Birdman’ is Almost Wholly Original
Hollywood Celebrity Struggles on Broadway
By: - Nov 22nd, 2014Michael Keaton is the celebrity star of a series of comic book films as the super hero Birdman. At mid career he hopes to prove himself as a director and thespian on Broadway. In what seems like doomed ambition he risks enerything. The bitchy Times critic during a bar confrontation reveals plans to write a brutal review intended to close down the show. She has a thing, truly justified, about Hollywood taking over Broadway. Keaton and supporting actor, Ed Norton, give potentially Oscar nominated performances.
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Intersteallar by Christopher Nolan
Farout Film Stars Matthew McConaughey
By: - Nov 14th, 2014While "Interstellar" is profoundly beautiful, it is lacking in some fundamental elements of story and dialogue. What is most worrisome about the film is how the dialogue almost reaches a point of realism but falls into platitudes entailing unremarkable but easily understandable sentences.
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Three Current Films
Gone Girl, St. Vincent and CitizenFour
By: - Nov 14th, 2014In today’s world of $100 and $200 million dollar budgets, filmmakers only get one or maybe two shots at it. Thus, the “safe†and less risky films are what’s being produced and screened. It’s a “Hobson’s Choice†dilemma.
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Nightcrawler by Dan Gilroy
Creepy Performance Jake Gyllenhaal
By: - Nov 12th, 2014During an evening of suspense Tony Gilroy showed a clip from Nightcrawler. It was a film wrtten and directed by his brother Dan. It was fun to see how that scene developed in the arc of a grim but fascinating film.
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Like Sunday, Like Rain by Frank Whaley
Breakout at Williamstown Film Festival
By: - Nov 10th, 2014Actor/ writer/ director Frank Whaley took seven years to develop Like Sunday, Like Rain. Screened on Sunday morning at the annual Williamstown Film Festival it proved to be the diamond in the rough, small and gleaming gem that scored big time with an appreciative audience. In this case the best film of the festival was saved for last.
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Lilli Taylor and Nick Flynn
Lunch Chat at Williams Inn
By: - Nov 10th, 2014During the recent Williamstown Film Festival Diane Pearlman and Berkshire Film & Media Collaborative hosted a lunch at the Williams Inn. It featured independent film star, Lilli Taylor, and her husband, Nick Flynn, a poet, essayist and author of three books of memoirs. Williams College professor, Jim Shepard, led the dialogue.
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Tony Gilroy Master of Suspense
Bourne Creator at Mass Moca/ WFF
By: - Nov 08th, 2014In a two hour presentation of clips from Bourne, his and other classic suspense films, Tony Gilroy presented a master’s class on state of the art filmmaking for an enthralled audience at the Hunter Center of Mass MoCA. The event which was hosted by artistic director, Steve Lawson, with the artist Stephen Hannock, an Oscar winner, as discussant, was a highlight of the 16th annual Williamstown Film Festival.
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Match with Patrick Stewart
Stephen Belber Film at WFF
By: - Nov 07th, 2014In transferring his 2005 Tony nominated play Match to screen Stephen Belber has created a dense, tight, indeed, claustraphobic film. Initially there are long shots but in the equivalence of the second act, a turning point in the drama, the camera zooms in on the iconic face of the magnificent Sir Patrick Stewart launching into a new dimension of one of his finest performances.
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Kings of the New City
WFF World Premiere Wins Reeve Award
By: - Nov 07th, 2014While an undergraduate at Williams College Nick Pugliese majored in philosophy and political science. He was also on the soccer team. During the Williamstown Film Festival he and Noah Schechter screened the twenty minute film King of the New City which was shot during some 18 months of living and playing soccer in Afghanistan. It's a corker. The film won the annual Christopher and Dana Reeve Award for best short film. The last two winners went on to win Oscars.
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