Woody Allen

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Review: The Names of Love

Softcore sex and politics
Child abuse, genocide — those French have a way with romantic comedies.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 16, 2011

Jesse Eisenberg and Nick Swardson get to work

Teen dreams
Following his star turn as a ruthless, if socially awkward, billionaire in David Fincher's The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg returns to the screen as a downtrodden pizza delivery boy-man in Ruben Fleischer's 30 Minutes or Less. Nick Swardson plays Eisenberg's tormentor.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | August 12, 2011

Review: Midnight in Paris

The Modernist playground of '20s Paris
Yet this tartly ironic tour of the Modernist playground of '20s Paris is his funniest movie since Deconstructing Harry (1997), the last time he indulged in such a playful conceit.
By PETER KEOUGH | May 26, 2011

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Review: My Name Is Asher Lev at the Lyric

DOA
As the late Chaim Potok might have said, "Oy!"
By ED SIEGEL | February 16, 2011

Review: Mad Horse's Dark Night series returns

A pleasing menu
For three years now, on the midweek evenings when their main stage show is off and the theater is normally "dark," Mad Horse has staged a whole second batch of theatrical diversions.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 13, 2010

Review: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Woody or won't he? Allen's films get darker and stranger
Can films be mellow and bitter at the same time?
By A.S. HAMRAH | September 28, 2010

Make yourself uncomfortable

Xiu Xiu bloom on Dear God
In the past month, Sandra Bullock’s husband betrayed her by screwing a white supremacist with a face tattoo, a Georgia teenager was granted the right to take his boyfriend to prom, and Ricky Martin declared himself a “fortunate homosexual man.”
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | April 06, 2010

Review: Greenberg

A spurious man
Why does she put up with him? Why, for that matter, should anyone in the audience?
By PETER KEOUGH | March 24, 2010

The quest for the ultimate female orgasm

How far will women go for an orgasm?
Let's talk about the female orgasm, and how for some women, it can be difficult to come by.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 22, 2010

Prince of darkness

Gordon Willis at the Harvard Film Archive
Gordon Willis, the master cinematographer to whom the Harvard Film Archive pays tribute in a seven-film retrospective beginning this Friday,
By STEVE VINEBERG | November 18, 2009

Review: (Untitled)

Jonathan Parker's a little too comfortably bourgeois
Woody Allen might have passed on making this film 35 years ago because it was too dated and middlebrow.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 11, 2009

Review: New York, I Love You

A collection of acting and screenwriting exercises
The multi-episode portmanteau movie is usually less than the sum of its parts.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 14, 2009

The Pythons' Gonzo Gospel

Jesus never had a chance
The scene is familiar: the vast blue sky, the expanses of sand, and, atop a distant hill, Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount to a rapt throng. But on the fringes of the crowd, His listeners behave like rowdies at a rock concert, yelling at one another and brawling until no one can hear the Savior's words. What's that He said? Blessed are the cheesemakers?
By STEPHEN SCHIFF | October 05, 2009

Review: Cold Souls

Paul Giamatti can't heat up Cold Souls
What if human souls were as interchangeable as hearts, kidneys, movie concepts, and auto parts? Writer/director Sophie Barthes's feature debut toys with the notion, but instead of breaking new ground, Cold Souls settles for rehashing elements from other films.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 17, 2009

Review: Whatever Works

Look on Works and despair
It happens to everyone: getting old means getting more annoying. Those endearing little quirks degenerate into insufferable pathologies, the funny stories become less funny with repetition, and in general the same old self-depreciating ironies and obsessive-compulsive hedges against mortality stop working.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 23, 2009

Festival atmosphere

Between the Blockbuster and the beach there are the film festivals of New England
Summer traditionally has been the happy hunting ground for Hollywood studios — the time when they unleash their big-budgeted, f/x-heavy warhorses on armies of newly freed schoolchildren and frazzled adults trying to beat the heat.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 09, 2009

Soundtrack of her life

St. Vincent's latest album, Actor , goes deep
"I think that I secretly wish I was a filmmaker." Annie Clark may consider this some real hush-hush info, but even a cursory listen to Actor , her latest album (as St. Vincent), makes clear her cinematic aspirations.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 13, 2009

Life lessons

Coming of age in Education of Charlie Banks
There are schoolyard bullies and there are schoolyard bullies. Likewise, some stories about them rise above the predictable. The title character of The Education of Charlie Banks isn't even given a noogie — confrontation is not his route to coming of age.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 06, 2009

Review: Shall We Kiss?

Is a kiss ever without consequence?
Writer/director Emmanuel Mouret fancies himself Éric Rohmer, Woody Allen, or maybe both in this talky romantic trifle.
By ALICIA POTTER | April 15, 2009

Chazz Palminteri tells the tale

The Bronx is up
You may not recognize actor/writer Chazz Palminteri by name, but you definitely know his face.
By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN | March 26, 2009

Oscar predictions: Liberal gilt

Oscar wants to be a Millionaire
It's like a fairy tale for Hollywood liberals.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 18, 2009

What kind of Trosexual are you?

33 newly discovered sexual sub-species uncovered by the truly exhausted Phoenix staff
Sexual deviants
By PHOENIX STAFF | January 26, 2009

2009 Oscar predictions

Martyr complex
This year the Oscars will honor the men who suffer for our sins and the women who don't wear make-up.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 11, 2009

Chilly scenes in winter

The year ahead on Boston stages
The drama of the holidays (and I don’t mean A Christmas Carol) may be behind us, but there’s plenty more drama — and comedy and musicals — ahead to light up long winter nights.
By LIZA WEISSTUCH | October 27, 2008

Kino pravda

‘Envisioning Russia’ at the MFA
Because Mosfilm, the subject of the Museum of Fine Arts’ “Envisioning Russia” retrospective, was the Soviet state production studio, any cross-section of its history lays out the entirety of Soviet film history.
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | August 26, 2008

Cheese Danish

Hamlet variations we'd like to see
Hamlet variations we'd like to see
By PETER KEOUGH | August 19, 2008

No Spain, no gain

Woody takes a siesta in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Many are hailing Woody Allen’s new film, claiming it to be a “return to form.” I agree: he’s returned to the earliest form of his career, the monologue.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 14, 2008

Kiss off

In search of an indie hit
It plays like a glossary of alternative stereotypes.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 05, 2008

Cinematic

Empirical go to the movies, plus the Hot 8
Talking with Nathaniel Facey, the alto-saxophonist in the London band Empirical, you find it difficult at first to pin down where and how the quintet developed their unusual compositional style.
By JON GARELICK | July 28, 2008