New England local politics are American national politics in microcosm: loud, drawn-out, vicious and needlessly complicated. However, the interpersonal aspect is unique: nowhere else will you know your representatives as neighbors — with all the good and bad that implies — before you see them as political figures. I was raised by small-town politicos, who, [...]
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This double feature might not distract you from the news, but it might give you a new perspective on it. This is the third in a series intended to highlight lesser-known films available to stream. Grey Gardens (1975) Available on the Criterion Channel. “It’s very difficult to keep the line between the past and the [...]
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How naive my first article of this column — talking about the “few long, lonely weeks” of quarantine — seems now. It looks like it’s going to be a long, anxious summer, and I intend to spend it watching weird little movies that I normally don’t have time for. In this column, I will highlight [...]
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As we all settle in for a few long, lonely weeks, it’s difficult to find something to help pass the time. For those hard at work on a new literary masterpiece — ignore this. For the rest of us, here are a few movie recommendations that go beyond “Outbreak” and “Pandemic.” This is the first [...]
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Few movies have wormed their way into the American subconscious the way Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979) has. The movie has been discussed, quoted and parodied to no end, and its seemingly endless number of new cuts (which are matched only by the “Blade Runner” editions in plurality and pointlessness) keep it in the [...]
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