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Jake MeaneyFeatures
Independent Film Festival of Boston 2009A perfect occasion to get drunk on film, to fall in love with the movies, to reassert the primacy of film as the last central universal art form. [28 May 2009] Independent Film Festival of Boston 2008The Independent Film Festival of Boston brought a slew of new features, documentaries, and shorts to Beantown for the sixth year. PopMatters has all the highlights (and lowlights) from films that tackled everything from vanishing languages to fashion design. [16 May 2008] Non-sequitursThese films share connecting tendrils of a strident defiance of convention, of this total faith in the surface non-sequitur; a seeming senselessness that really only masks the deeper connections and traditions flowing beneath their surfaces. [1 June 2007] Closing NightAn audience decked out in full Boston Red Sox gear waits, in vain, for the appearance of star slugger, David Ortiz -- the film, it seems, was incidental. Meanwhile, Scott Caan, son of the enigmatic James Caan, gives a possible starmaking performance as a wiseguy wannabe. Preservation and PerseveranceAway from Her grasps at that which can't be held and kept: the white of snow, the white of the winter sky, the white of the lacunae of memory. The Paper tires desperately to hold on to the Romantic ideals of journalism at its best, while watching it fade into obsolescence. [31 May 2007] ProvocationsWild-eyed zealotry and borderline sociopathic behavior make for good cinema. Less spectactularly but no less effective, though, is forcing viewers to take a good, hard look at their own moral make-up, and leaving them contemplating explicitly just where and why boundaries must be drawn. The IllusionistsA grandiose, delusional pastor turned filmmaker thinks he may have Mel Gibson beat. Elsewhere, a theatre full of delighted LARPers testify to the power of imagination and play. [25 May 2007] Black MirrorsThese two films reflect our fears of terror and violence through a glass darkly What looks back at us in Day Night Day Night is teetering on the verge of a dark, dark void, and in The Killer Within is but cravenly hiding itself behind its impartial, reflected veneer. Opening NightFay Grim gives newcomers a lesson in Hal Hartleyisms: repetitious totemic dialogue, revolving jokes that cycle through characters, and his wry, winking treatment of genre. Whereas On Broadway, a middling film about an amateur play, is only hopelessly or maybe semi-cleverly "amateurish". [18 May 2007] Independent Film Festival of Boston 2007PopMatters took a seat in dark spaces to explore the shadowy places of the human mind, as brought to light via the filmmakers at the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Reviews
Natalee HollowayThis is a surprisingly respectful and touchingly mournful drama that operates as a cautionary tale, a true crime recreation, and a tribute to a loved and missed daughter. [22 January 2010] 
That Was the GDRFor many, the communist ideal was a real and vibrant thing;for others, I imagine the rather sudden dissolution of a binary, black and white world was still rather shocking. [13 January 2010] 
Every Little StepThere’s something reassuring and refreshing about the indomitable optimism and tenacity of these dancers who are able to endure the constant rejection and Darwinian ruthlessness of the audition process. [17 December 2009] 
The L Word: The Final SeasonShowtime's long running lesbian drama/comedy/soap opera transforms itself for its last season into a murder mystery... And then abruptly terminates in one of TV history's most unsatisfying series finales. [25 November 2009] 
Drag Me to HellSam Raimi’s attempted return to the horror/comedy genre that was his stock in trade for the early part of his career is neither particularly horrific nor all that funny. [30 October 2009] 
Crank 2: High VoltageJason Statham returns in this completely gonzo, totally unhinged and off the rails sequel to the completely gonzo, totally unhinged and off the rails Crank [22 September 2009] 
Nights and WeekendsEighty minutes of tangential conversations and romantic fumbling finds the profound hidden in moments of excessive banality. Just don't dare call it mumblecore. [1 September 2009] 
Prison Break: Season 4Hitting the ground running, the show charges forward recklessly and heedlessly, it’s sole concern to maintain forward momentum, even at the expense of continuity and consistency [20 August 2009] 
Nursery UniversityIf you think the nursery school admissions process is tough, just wait until kindergarten rolls around. [3 August 2009] 
Little DorritPrimarily set in the institution of debtor’s prison, this shouldn’t resonate so deeply but it does, because these days it feels like the entire world has become a debtor’s prison. [15 July 2009] 
The Adventure of EnglishThis series is restless, supremely inventive, and endlessly entertaining – just like the language it explores [13 July 2009] 
The Universe: The Complete Season ThreeOne episode skirts the knife’s edge of cosmology, threatening to tip over completely into sci-fi loopiness and suck the whole show down with it into a wormhole of insanity. [10 June 2009] 
Winter of Frozen DreamsThis has all the makings of a tawdry, seamy, sensationalistic piece of B grade filmmaking: sex, greed, desperation, money, mystery, and murder -- the whole schmeer. [28 May 2009] 
The UninvitedThis remake of the much better South Korean original just lumbers along like a Frankenstein’s monster that’s cobbled out of parts that never seem to work together. [19 May 2009] 
Tell No OneSmartly written, cleverly constructed, and frantically paced, this is an old school thriller. [28 April 2009] 
Confessions of an Action StarPainfully unclever, aggressively unfunny, and occasionally unsubtly racist. [21 April 2009] 
Transporter 3There’s a certain purity of movement and lunacy at work here, where context ceases to matter, and the action becomes ecstatic and transcendent. [15 April 2009] 
Killer at LargeWe are faced with the rather withering possibility that the current generation of children will be the first to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. [6 April 2009] 
Hell on WheelsThis is good stuff: heated rivalries are cultivated; bouts take on a circus-like atmosphere; skaters lose themselves in character, skating under aliases of almost universal excellence and cleverness. [30 March 2009] 
FireproofIt is somewhat reassuring to know that a film can succeed on wide-eyed amateurish idealism alone -- as long as God is on your side. [12 March 2009] 
Woman on the BeachA tedious yak-fest that confuses navel gazing with soul searching and buries its fundamental infantilism beneath a veneer of auteuristic integrity. [5 March 2009] 
SounderThis film skirts heavy handedness with grace and subtly, insinuating itself into your subconscious and lighting things up from deep within. [11 February 2009] 
Reaper: Season 1Is the casting of Ray Wise as the Devil so obvious that it’s brilliant, or so obvious that it’s banal? [9 February 2009] 
Righteous KillThis movie boasts a tired and generic script and achieves a weird sort of harmonic convergence of forgetablilty. [5 February 2009] 
Life with Derek: The Complete First SeasonThis is chaotic, messy, loud and hewing close to a semblance of recognizable real world family life. [20 January 2009] 
The Donna Reed Show: The Complete First SeasonIf we are able to find a flicker of optimism and decency within, then this show satisfies. [4 January 2009] 
24: RedemptionRedemption manages to locate an emotional center than had been missing from 24 since…well, if not ever, since at least the first season. [8 December 2008] 
The Universe: The Complete Season TwoThis series does a great job of educating viewers and inspiring us to grab a telescope and do some serious stargazing. [3 December 2008] 
The HappeningWatching this is rather like watching the grass grow. And blow in the wind. And trees. Bushes. Hedges. Blowing. You get the idea. [10 November 2008] 
NoiseThe droning of a self-righteous windbag whom everyone has long since tuned out, rather like an annoying car alarm. [6 November 2008] 
Life: Season 1Without Lewis, Life is a solid if mostly unremarkable program, somewhere between willfully quirky and gruesome for gruesome’s sake. [29 October 2008] 
Water LiliesA disagreeable little French film which is too short to truly offend, but just terrible enough to fascinate with its awfulness. [22 October 2008] 
Life in Cold BloodUnderestimate the crocodile and other reptiles, and underestimate the amphibians at your own peril. [13 October 2008] 
Days That Shook the World: The Complete First SeasonPopular history tends to fetishize specific dates and the events they denote at the expense of a larger historical context and its cultural significance. [9 October 2008] 
Prison Break: Season 3The great thing about watching this show on DVD, rather than on TV, is that it doesn’t allow you a chance to actually sit and think about it. [22 September 2008] 
Train on the BrainRiding the rails ain't as simple as running along side a slow moving train and jumping into a box car full of hay. [2 September 2008] 
Picture ThisPicture skipping this sorry excuse for a film and going straight to the really cool extras on the DVD. [19 August 2008] 
Shutter (2008)Something is exposed, the same thing is avenged, there’s a final gotcha moment, and then credits roll, as do eyes. [5 August 2008] 
Vantage PointIt’s almost rather brilliant the way the film betrays and sabotages itself as it comes down the home stretch. [21 July 2008] 
How the Earth Was MadeDeath from without, death from within? Death by ice, by fire, by a massive intergalactic gamma ray burst? Fascinating stuff. [18 June 2008] 
The British Empire in ColorWhere this program succeeds is in providing an alternate, non-Euro/UK-centric view of the British Empire and its colonial and territorial holdings . [6 June 2008] 
David Attenborough Wildlife SpecialsMoments of surprise, moments of awe, moments of the unbelievable. Please, leave the vaults open and keep the goodness coming, BBC. [30 May 2008] 
The Cats of MirikitaniMirikitani's present parallels with his past; the profiling and targeting of Arab-Americans and Japanese-Americans, the World Trade Center and the bombing of his hometown of Hiroshima . [6 May 2008] 
The Final SeasonThis is a well-intentioned little film with its heart in the right place, and everything else out of whack. [2 May 2008] 
Abel Raises CainAbel's target is not the general public specifically, but rather a point somewhere between the public and the media where lines of believability, responsibility and truth, are confused and always shifting. [23 April 2008] 
The Unknown SoldierVerhoeven's shows, through this history of the Wehrmacht, just how true the "banality of Evil" philosophy is, and how it happens with such seeming ease. [21 April 2008] 
ChaosThis film's attempts at clever misdirection are by the book and glaringly obvious. There is nothing remotely "chaotic" about anything that happens. [10 April 2008] 
Christina Aguilera: Back to Basics Live and Down Under [DVD]How can that voice be contained in such a petite, compact woman? And how does she not just blow apart every time she unleashes it? [31 March 2008] 
SilkA beautiful movie. So very, very beautiful. Achingly beautiful, excruciatingly beautiful, tear-inducingly beautiful. [26 March 2008] 
The Mamas & The Papas: Straight Shooter [DVD]The program suffers from over chattiness and navel gazing, always at the expense of group’s soaring, era defining music. [7 March 2008] 
ShatteredCome for the Brash Young Ad Exec getting his come-uppance from Mysterious Sinister Stranger, but stay for the extras. [28 February 2008] 
DarkonA war fought on the open rolling plains (soccer fields), deep in the mysterious woods (state parks), within the walls of a great castle (school gymnasiums). [25 February 2008] 
Dragon Wars: D-WarI strained to find a seed of brilliance beneath the schlock, then quickly disabused myself of this foolishness, and got back to clutching my head in disbelief/anguish. [6 February 2008] 
Angel: Complete Series Collectors SetThis show of moral quandaries, ramifications of choice, and consequences of indifference is one of the great unsung and underappreciated series of the turn of the century. [11 January 2008] 
Ice Road Truckers: The Complete Season OneWith hopes of raking in a year’s worth of pay in two months, perhaps these drivers are ridiculously brave, perhaps just foolhardy and stupid, probably a combination of both. [8 January 2008] 
TimeKim Ki-Duk's best films achieve that rare feat of making the mysterious and inchoate universal longings visually manifest on the screen. [2 January 2008] 
Close Encounters of the Third KindThis is a young man's film, a film with its arms and eyes wide open, with none of the paranoia and xenophobia which plague us today. [17 December 2007] 
The Universe: The Complete Season OneThe thing I enjoyed most about this alarmist and sensationalistic, but still very informative, series is how each episode, regardless of the ostensible topic, wastes very little time either devolving into doomsday scenarios, or highlighting the violent tendencies of heavenly bodies. [14 December 2007] 
Talk to MeVibrant, exuberant, colorful and irresistibly alive, Talk to Me is a celebration of a lifestyle as much as a life -- the thumping funk, soul and R&B of the late '60s, early '70s. [29 November 2007] 
BreathlessIt's hard to see the revolutionary aspects of Breathless is part thriller, part noir, and part romance. It’s stylish and sexy and tres cool. It's Hollywood, reimagined via Paris. [21 November 2007] 
BugBug does what it sets out to do, which is to burrow under your skin and fester there, goading you to dig it out with something sharp. [25 October 2007] 
GracieGracie, a modest, likable little soccer movie that came and went quickly and quietly in theaters this past spring, plays to just about every sports movie cliché in the book. [11 October 2007] 
ChalkChalk's whole raison d'etre is bent on correcting the lack of honest cinematic portrayals of the teaching profession, and in its own modest way, it is a success. [1 October 2007] 
ClosureEven if you are a die hard Gillian Anderson fan, you can find better ways to occupy 80 minutes of your time than watching this. [18 September 2007] 
LOLBorn out of ideas batted back and forth via computer, Blackberry, cellphone, video, etc., and then filmed in the same sort of manner that people use webcams or their cellphones, LOL emerges. [13 September 2007] 
The MormonsThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is partially illuminated in this documentary; yet the shadows of Mormonism remain, dark and mysterious. [31 August 2007] 
NeverwasHow did a first time writer/ director manage to nab even one of these big guns, let alone a whole gaggle of them? Would that Neverwas never were… [29 August 2007] 
In Debt We TrustThis film is worth the cost (you can charge it on Amazon.com), as it will get you thinking about your personal budget – and you should be thinking about your personal budget. [17 August 2007] 
La Sierra (2005)In this film the politics behind the Colombian civil wars are negligible; what matters are these lives, these kids, kids with guns, kids giving birth to kids, kids living in a ceaseless wheel of unending, senseless violence. [23 July 2007] 
Free Zone (2005)After the initial early promise of its opening 15 minutes or so, the film resorts to spinning its wheels, then driving down dead-end alleys, and then plowing head-long into exactly the sort of heavy-handed didactic symbolism that gives me fits and has me reaching for the remote. [9 July 2007] 
Arang (2006)Once it gets rolling this film manages a valiant if unsuccessful effort to avoid self-parody. [7 June 2007] 
The Queen (2006)When acting the part of a living icon, the aim is to achieve "likeness" rather than the "like", to interpret rather than replicate. [30 April 2007] 
Marie Antoinette (2006)Marie Antoinette's veneer is so impregnably varnished, so buffed to such an imposing sheen, that any attempt at critical ingress either bounces off of or slides down its glossy façade. [19 April 2007] 
Casino Royale (2006)Casino Royale feels sleek, lean, shorn of fat, lithely running freely along that relentless but perilous path from point A to point B in classic parkourfashion. [13 April 2007] 
Origins of the MafiaA tepid and almost unintelligible period costume drama that only tangentially touches upon the secret history of an organization and culture that valued secrecy and silence above all else. [26 March 2007] 
Mutual Appreciation (2005)It's like there's a very tight, but infinite, space where essence is found, and Bujalski knows that it's impossible to catch it on film, that it can only be truly seen by revealing its invisibility. [16 March 2007] 
Bloody Ties (2006)In some ways, I guess, this film’s lack of depth is deliberate, and that is, in some ways, refreshing. [5 March 2007] 
After Innocence (2005)After Innocence, on paper, should be an infuriating and depressing film, and indeed, it often is. And yet, the main current coursing underneath it all is one of indestructible hope. [19 February 2007] 
Hail Mary (1985)A totally confounding and disappointing film, coupled with another that finds depth in its relative economy. [8 February 2007] 
Welcome to Durham (2006)This is both a love letter and a plea to the citizens of Durham, North Carolina. [26 January 2007] 
Sahara: The Forgotten History of the Worlds Harshest DesertHow do you write a history of a place where history goes to die? [11 January 2007] 
Magma: Volcanic Disaster (2006)As a lifelong connoisseur of bad disaster movies, my enjoyment always rises in direct proportion to the innocent awfulness of its production values and the lunacy of its plot. [9 January 2007] 
I Trust You to Kill Me (2006)Rocco DeLuca has sound that, at its best moments, seems hewed from the heart. The rest of the time, though, it's bloodless and dull. [8 January 2007] 
The Movie Hero (2003)Both eulogy and cautionary tale, The Movie Hero is a glimpse into that unfortunate space where a labor of love curdles into spite. [8 December 2006] 
Pixies: Loudquietloud: A Film About the Pixies [DVD]The unbridgeable quiet between friends now drifted apart, and the noise that cannot reunite them. [16 November 2006] 
Little Man (2006)Little Man requires a heroic (or myopic) suspension of disbelief on the part of all the adults in the film that is truly fantastic, if not a little miraculous, to keep it all going. [13 November 2006] 
Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players [DVD]The Trachtenburg Family has carved a small but hope-filled niche out for themselves in a music scene that seems immune, at present, to such originality. [9 November 2006] 
The Education of Shelby Knox (2005)Fighting the good fight against her high school's myopic abstinence-only sex ed policy leads to Shelby’s political and social awakening, giving birth to the hope that common sense and tolerance can prevail deep in the heart of Lubbock, Texas. [29 September 2006] 
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005)Johnston, with his outsized continuously overflowing personality, coupled with the sheer mass of his output, seems to exert a strong gravitational pull, luring everything into his own orbit, making it his own. [25 September 2006] 
Prison Break - Season OneFox's preposterous prison serial cranks the lunacy and thrills up to 11 in its oversized and rollicking inaugural season. [6 September 2006] 
The Sentinel (2006)A woefully timid, allegedly paranoid, political thriller short on thrills, shorter on paranoia, and shortest on politics. [1 September 2006] 
Shakespeare Behind Bars (2005)Hard truths, hard times. Prisoners find revelation, redemption, and forgiveness in the words and wisdom of Shakespeare. [11 August 2006] |
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