Susan Seidelman’s Smithereens (1982) and Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell (2019), which play back-to-back at the Brattle Theatre next week (Aug. 15) as a punk rock double feature, are films made in completely different keys. One, Smithereens, is a snapshot of a 1980s New York City that no longer exists, captured in its gritty, natural […]
LOOK AND SEE: “WANDA” AT THE BRATTLE
Barbara Loden’s Wanda [1970], her sole feature-length film, depicts the drifting life of its title character, played by Loden herself. She has to convince a friend to loan her money needed to get to her appearance in divorce court, but then shows up late anyway, only to laconically tell the judge that if her husband […]
IT WENT TO 11: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BOSTON INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF WOMEN’S CINEMA
The Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema was founded in 1993 by Marianne Lampke, Connie White, and Anne Marie Stein. At the time, Lampke and White were the owners and operators of the Brattle Theatre, and Stein was the executive director of the Boston Film/Video Foundation. The festival continued until its 11th and final […]
FAMILY PHOTOS: AN INTERVIEW WITH YANCE FORD, DIRECTOR OF “STRONG ISLAND”
Images from Strong Island, courtesy Netflix Yance Ford is an American nonfiction filmmaker whose first feature-length film, Strong Island [2017], was recently released by Netflix. Strong Island follows three generations of the Ford family, with the central focus being the 1992 killing of Yance’s brother William Ford, by a 19-year-old man who never faced charges […]
TRASHING THE THEATER
What sets Trash Night further apart from similar “B movie + commentary” screenings is its welcoming, egalitarian nature.
UPCOMING FILM + DISCUSSION: GATTACA 2017
When Andrew Niccol’s stylish futuristic thriller Gattaca hit theatres in 1997, it raised deep hypothetical questions regarding genetic supremacy that made for enjoyable parlor conversation.
OPEN HAUS: “GRRL HAUS CINEMA” TAKES OVER THE BRATTLE ONCE AGAIN
In the coming weeks we’ll be publishing often about our “highlights of 2016”, but there’s one event I can add to the list ahead of time. Last year we attended an evening of screenings hosted by Grrl Haus Cinema at the Brattle Theatre—and the program is back at that same location tonight, just over a year later, […]
WATCH THE THRONE: ON PRINCE’S RAREST FEATURE
When we lose one of our most beloved artists, the nature of popular culture demands that we collectively pick one work to define them. Unfortunately we’ve experienced this multiple times in recent months: With Bowie, we heard “Starman” in the streets and on the stump, then with Cohen, it was “Hallelujah” late on Saturday […]
CONFLICT OF INTEREST: ON “SONITA”, WHEREIN THE DIRECTOR IS THE CO-STAR
The two shots that bookend the title card of Sonita [2016] tell entirely different stories. First, before we see the film’s name, we see its namesake: Sonita Alizadeh, a teenage Afghani refugee living in Iran and receiving an education on behalf of a NGO. She’s rapping her own lyrics to a captivated audience of […]
AS RED AS THE DEVIL’S… : “BELLADONNA OF SADNESS” AT THE BRATTLE THEATRE
Belladonna of Sadness gets revived at the Brattle
