Bobcat Goldthwait is funny.
As with any entertainer, people may differ on their assessment of his comedic persona. In person, however - whether one-on-one or in front of a Q&A crowd - he has this natural, relaxed comedic pattern to his speech that can make even what should be a sad, dark story draw random chuckles and occasional outright laughter. This is a laughter born not from watching a clown perform, but from an appreciation for an experience shared with another human being.
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Tonight, fittingly, the screenings are at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art auditorium. It is a great space with a striking view overlooking downtown Boston and the night-lit waterfront. It is a great space to see two films about two fields not always thought of as art, but that are certainly contemporary.
The first, For the Love of Movies, chronicles the craft of film critique. Breaking that history out into distinct eras and styles and sometimes dominant personalities, direct...
Marco Bechis’ Birdwatchers could have gone horribly awry. Surficially an extinction survival story, pitting a dwindling indigenous people against the encroachment of the outside world that encircles and threatens to strangle, it could have been a treacly morality tale espousing the nobility of the native against the evils of modernity and our collective lost way. But it is not.
What it is, is a take on competing interests making a place for themselves that has echoes of Israel and ...
Geralyn Pezanoski’s Mine begins with a simple premise: What happened to the pets displaced by Hurricane Katrina?
Once you begin there, however, every question answered gives rise to another unanswered. Where are they displaced to? Where will they go once they are delivered to safety? Who will feed them, house them, give them medical care? Does anyone remember where this pet came from? Or that one? Can you find the original owners? Should you? Or are the pets better off in ne...
500 Days of Summer takes an unusual approach to a love story in that it isn’t one – and it tells you so up front. What it is instead is an honest look at the course of a relationship when only seen from one person’s point of view, however skewed that might be. From heart-warmingly fun and flirty, to heart-crushingly panicked and confused, anyone who has been half of a couple will relive the emotions of first dates and first fights and much of what lies between the two - and perhaps w...
Hunger. Fear. Deprivation. Death.
These are the realities that seep into your pores while watching Kimjongilia – which is also the first in our Forbidden trilogy, spotlighting three documentaries that explore the places that we cannot go. Today’s topic - North Korea: See No Evil.
Through the eyes of witnesses, and perhaps mercifully not through our own, director NC Heiken shows us a glimpse of a world most of us will never see behind the veil of secrecy that has become ...
The seventh annual Independent Film Festival Boston kicked off on Wednesday night with Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom, a romance tucked inside a comedy couched within a confidence scheme (a rom-com-con?). The romance, predictably, grows between a mark and one of the con men. The comedy is unexpected and liberally sprinkled throughout. While not integral to the plot, the humor is always welcome, never off mark and adds appreciably to the appeal of the film. The cons begin when the ...
Director Rian Johnson explains how he incorporated the destruction of some very nice buildings in Prague on a limited budget for his film, The Brothers Bloom - the Opening Night feature for IFFBoston 2009 - thereby "completely ruining the magic".
During Q&A on Opening Night at IFFBoston 2009, director Rian Johnson gives some background on Ricky Jay and his involvement in the evening's film, The Brothers Bloom.
After screening his newest feature, The Brothers Bloom, on Opening Night at IFFBoston 2009, director Rian Johnson discusses costume and production design during Q&A.
Following the IFFBoston 2009 Opening Night feature, The Brothers Bloom, Program Director Adam Roffman introduces the film's director, Rian Johnson, to an appreciative crowd.
Before the Opening Night feature for IFFBoston 2009, Program director Adam Roffman introduces Manging Directors Brian Tamm, Christine Harbaugh, Nancy Campbell and Dan McCallum and Volunteer Director Tania Lemos Eskin.
For IFFBoston's 2009 Opening Night, Program Director Adam Roffman welcomes the crowd.
IFFBoston's Opening Night at the Somerville Theater. The festival runs from April 22-28, but Somerville is done as of Sunday.
IFFBoston 2009 has begun!