Kings Row

“Where’s the rest of me?” cries the newly amputated Drake McHugh, which was easily Ronald Reagan’s finest performance (that is if you don’t count those sixteen years he spent as a figurehead for California and the U.S.). Based on a scandalous potboiler, Kings Row is the story of “the town they talk about in whispers.” … Read more

Scoop

Faith in Woody Allen was restored for many with last winter’s steamy British thriller Match Point; now the director is reviving his comedic antics with a playful murder mystery. As Allen once again sets his story across the pond, Scarlett Johansson, his muse of the moment, plays an American journalism student in London who telepathically … Read more

Quinceañera

The Quinceañera is the traditional Mexican celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday and subsequent graduation into womanhood, but one young lady has beaten the party to the punch. Magdalena gets kicked out of the house when her Catholic parents learn she is pregnant; forced to turn her attentions from party dresses and limousines, she finds … Read more

World Trade Center

As we draw closer to the five-year mark, filmmakers have grown less shy about portraying the tragedy that, as many people say, felt like a big-budget, special-effects movie in the first place. With World Trade Center, Oliver Stone focuses on two Port Authority officers (played by Nicholas Cage and Michael Peña) who found themselves trapped … Read more

Idlewild

In the hands of Outkast video director Bryan Barber, this unusual musical boasts gorgeous cinematography, the kind of rich detail that recalls The Sting, and songs that mix hip-hop with the spirit of Cab Calloway. Set in the Prohibition-era South, Outkasters Antwan A. Patton (that’s Big Boi to his fans), and André Benjamin (aka André … Read more

Sound Unseen Festival

Celebrating its seventh year of mixing music with film, our little Sound Unseen is all grown up now. This month, it will spare nothing to entertain: Dance-partying, rock ’n’ bowling, and fifteen or so films are all on the docket, with a whole lot more. Among our top picks is My Name is Albert Ayler, … Read more

Bob Dylan

As teenagers, we used to drive past Bob Dylan’s rural Minnesota country home and marvel at all the security lighting. Why, we wondered, was he so paranoid? Who’d want to bother an old washed-up folksinger? Now, at sixty-five, Dylan is a rock ’n’ roll star reborn, making some of the most vibrant and relevant music … Read more

Ween

Those who don’t know any better think of Dean and Gene Ween as those stoners who refuse to outgrow their adolescent stage antics. But the fact is—all sweat, grease, and fart noises aside—Ween is as innovative as Radiohead, as tuneful as the Beatles, and as complex as Mozart. Over more than two decades, this duo … Read more

Crooked Still

Just when it seemed like the bluegrass revival was about to expire, Boston-based Crooked Still unpacked the cello. This young quartet plays bluegrass with traditional spirit, but they also bring unconventional stylings—and unconventional strings—to their songs. What’s more, the band’s silvery-voiced singer, Aoife O’Donovan, even sounds like a less formal Alison Krauss. But their darker, … Read more