Boston Society of Film Critics 2013
We are now in the Carver Ballroom in the Revere Hotel. There is a Christmas tree in the corner, and a conference table with some twenty odd film critics gathered around it eating muffins and drinking...
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Joyce on propaganda and porn — part one: 12 Years a Slave
“ – The feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to possess, to go to something; loathing urges us to abandon, to go from something. These are kinetic...
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Joyce on propaganda and porn — part two: Blue Is the Warmest Color
[A version of this previously appeared in the Artsfuse web site. Also, beware of spoilers.] While 12 Years a Slave, according to Stephen Dedalus’s Thomistic formulation referred to in the previous...
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Some Christmas Coal.
“Christmas comes but once a year” is beginning to sound more like a promise from the major Hollywood studios than an expression of seasonal joy. There were some good films worth discussing; some bad...
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PK’s 2013 top 10. And bottom 10
[An earlier version appeared on Artsfuse.org] Ten Best 1.Her – Any film that includes the disembodied mind of Alan Watts deserves top billing. Spike Jonze engages in a visually stunning, superbly...
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HS’s 2013 Top 10. And a few we could have done without.
As you can see, there is some overlap with Mr. Keough’s list, best and worst. That is a good thing. 1. Nebraska — From the very first shot of an old man shuffling along the side of an urban highway –...
View ArticleThe NSFC votes: Llewyn Davis, a loser no more
The National Society of Film Critics (of which I am a member) might be the last group to vote, but it is usually the most interesting. Composed of some 60 critics nationwide, suspected of arcane...
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Why I want 12 Years a Slave to win the Best Picture Oscar
Yesterday I did a two minute sound bite on a local cable news station following the Oscar nominations. During this discussion, in addition to forgetting Robert Redford’s name, I said that I thought...
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“Never trust the first fox you meet.”
A 2009 interview with Lars von Trier on Antichrist Writing a preview of a Lars von Trier retrospective (there is one scheduled for Feb. 1 at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, in preparation no doubt for...
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Trying to get “Under the Skin”
Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin,” released on Blu-ray yesterday (July 15) might be the best film in a year with many candidates. In it Scarlett Johansson (who’s proven to be adept at portrayng...
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