Willem Dafoe

Latest Articles

When traders equal traitors

Turncoats on Wall Street. Plus, ecori, celebrating Susan, and Rock ’n’ Roll
It is about time someone pointed out that the vile crooks of Wall Street aren’t just greedy, thieving bastards. They are, in fact, traitors to this country and its citizens.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | April 28, 2010

Review: My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

Herzog, Lynch, dwarves, and an ostrich
Not so much Werner Herzog's return to his former persnickety, off-the-wall, idiosyncratic feature-film-making self as a reprise of his greatest hits, the overloaded My Son, My Son staggers and sometimes comes to a complete halt.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 09, 2010

Review: Daybreakers

Vampires, weakened
For evidence of the breakdown of the capitalist system, look no farther than the proliferation of vampire and zombie movies.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 06, 2010

Lite at the end of the tunnel?

Fun and games in post-apocalyptic Hollywood
If you had enough of the end of the world with 2012 , you might be relieved when it comes to 2010.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 04, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Interview: Lars von Trier of Antichrist

The director on the redeeming qualities of Antichrist
Maybe it’s the blurring effect of the Skype technology through which I’m interviewing him as he sits worried and Buddha-like in his headquarters in Denmark (he has a phobia about airplanes, among other things), but Lars von Trier seems like an okay guy.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 02, 2009

Review: Antichrist

Lars von Trier’s screams from a marriage
Lars von Trier’s controversial freak-out is Saw VI as told by Carl Dreyer. Is that a good thing? It certainly has grabbed everybody’s attention. I’m torn between dismissing the film as gross-out juvenilia and regarding it as raw religious mythmaking.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 21, 2009

October lite

The outlook is still gloomy, but film finds time for childish things
We expected the vampires, the werewolves, the zombies, and the homicidal maniacs. Same thing with the android doubles, the alien abductors, the sexually abused pregnant teenager, the Apocalypse, and the post-Apocalypse. But kids' movies?
By PETER KEOUGH | September 17, 2009

White-knuckle thrill rites

Bigelow puts the art into action
Kathryn Bigelow's art-packed action movies
By PETER KEOUGH | July 09, 2009

Cannes goods

Tarantino, Antichrist , and a well-lit genitalia show; why the French film festival is like no other
Quick — name a world-class film-festival administrator willing to reveal that at age 12 he was titillated by the sight of clodhopper-shod Minnie Mouse stomping on Mickey's tail in a French comic book.
By LISA NESSELSON | May 27, 2009

Paul Schrader at the HFA

American contradictions
"I'm not sure what happened to me," says Paul Schrader's Patty Hearst, one of the least reliable of the director's succession of unreliable narrators, in the film named for her.
By CHRIS FUJIWARA | January 29, 2009

Putting up W’s

Screen depictions beat around the Bush
How is it that the least popular and possibly worst chief executive in American history has inspired no lasting impersonations?
By PETER KEOUGH | October 15, 2008

Smoke screens

Does a surge of stoner movies mean America is going to pot?
What does it say about America that marijuana movies are a hot genre right now, perhaps hotter even than in the heyday of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong’s 1978 Up in Smoke ?
By PETER KEOUGH | August 18, 2008

Sad and lonely

Aliens in America’s bracing look at high-school misery
Not all varieties of teen angst are created equal.
By ADAM REILLY | October 16, 2007

Mr. Bean's Holiday

An uncalled-for sequel
He appears to be on a holiday of his own — from any faintly realistic notion about his audience.
By CHRIS WANGLER | August 22, 2007

Paris je t'aime

A whirlwind tour of 18 arrondissements in 120 minutes
The concept for this anthology was a short film representing each of Paris’s 20 arrondissements, from the Jardins des Tuileries (#1) to the Cimitière du Père Lachaise (#20).
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 23, 2007

Perversion, introversion

Slavoj Zizek at Harvard, Bergman on Fårö
Slavoj Zizek, the fuzzy-bearded Slovenian philosopher, seems a fun guy.
By GERALD PEARY | April 03, 2007

Off with their heads

Recent polls are giving the GOP the willies. So should the movies.
The signs are getting bleak for the man in the White House and the party in power.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 20, 2006

Ground zero

Platoon gets down to too little
This article originally ran in the January 13, 1987 issue of the Boston Phoenix .
By OWEN GLIEBERMAN | August 10, 2006

Oliver's army

History gets Stoned
While he refers to himself as a “dramatist” rather than a historian, Stone has positioned himself as Hollywood’s gatekeeper to America’s post-war past. Feel-good movie of the summer: Oliver Stone: from the Hollywood crackpot of JFK to the Republican sellout of World Trade Center. By Peter Keough Off-Center: Oliver Stone's trite take on 9/11. By Peter Keough
By PAUL BABIN | August 09, 2006

Pie-eyed optimists

American Dreamz needs more nightmare
We’ve come a long way from Dr. Strangelove when softballs like Thank You for Smoking and V for Vendetta pose as political satire.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 19, 2006

Grow jobs

Why penis enlargement is poised to become the next big thing
Until a few years ago, Tom Hubbard didn't put much stock in penis enlargement.
By CHRIS WRIGHT | October 27, 2008

Seasonal adjustment

Hollywood springs back
After weeks of tormenting audiences with gems like Failure To Launch and The Shaggy Dog , Hollywood seems ready to shake off the Oscar doldrums and unveil its spring collection.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 07, 2006

Manderlay

Von Trier's trilogy continues, sans Nicole Kidman.
Lars von Trier’s Manderlay has something to offend everyone: blacks, whites, conservatives, liberals, and those who, like myself, found Dogville a bold if flawed experiment.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 16, 2006