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The new ‘Star Trek’ is all about ‘ensemble’

 May 17, 2013; Updated: 5:36 pm

Say this much for the new films in the long-running "Star Trek" franchise. They're real "share the wealth" exercises. It's not just about Kirk, Spock and Bones and a couple of red shirts boldly going while everybody else sits idly by.

Movie tip: "The Great Gatsby"

 May 16, 2013; Updated: 2:28 pm

Don't think of this as an F. Scott Fitzgerald story. Think of it instead as a Baz Luhrmann flick. Because this is a total Baz extravaganza: the razzle-dazzle! the quick-cuts! the over-the-topness of it all! The party scenes in Gatsby's...

Film tip: "Iron Man 3"

 May 9, 2013; Updated: 1:40 pm

Robert Downey Jr. IS Iron Man! And I don't just mean that he plays Iron Man. I also mean that he is what makes this franchise spark. Without Downey - his wit, his irreverence, his tortured soul - the whole Iron Man film series would have...

Film review: 'Girl Rising' sends message of empowerment

 May 4, 2013; Updated: 11:39 pm

At the heart of the documentary “Girl Rising” is this idea: educating a girl is a powerful force for change. At a Friday screening of the film at the Garde Arts Center, a panel discussed that notion on a global scale — the movie...

Review: ‘Iron Man 3’ loaded down by heavy metal

 May 3, 2013; Updated: 6:00 pm

In the galaxy of big-screen superheros - a rather glum lot - Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is the snappy one.
He's the sarcastic, motor-mouthed, preening, self-referential do-gooder, as opposed to all...

Movie tip: "The Big Wedding"

 May 2, 2013; Updated: 1:26 pm

Well, at least it's short. I went into this movie thinking, "The critics must be wrong. How bad could something be if it stars Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon?" The answer: pretty bad. This 90-minute piece is based on a...

DVD tip: "A Late Quartet"

 May 2, 2013; Updated: 1:22 pm

It's not often that the dynamics of a classical music ensemble, as opposed to, say, a bunch of old rockers on the road, is the core of a feature film. But in "A Late Quartet," the tensions of musicians in a decades' long collaboration...

"Girl Rising" to be screened, with panel discussion, at the Garde

 May 2, 2013; Updated: 1:05 pm

The lives and dreams of nine girls born into what's described as "unforgiving circumstances" around the world are the focus of a new documentary.

"Girl Rising" is directed by Oscar nominee Richard E. Robbins and features narration by...

Review: Bay’s latest a bit ‘Pain’-ful

 April 26, 2013; Updated: 5:07 pm

There's a siege mentality about Michael Bay's movies, as though viewers are the enemy holed up in a bunker and he's the guy ordering heavy-metal music around the clock to wear down our morale and force us to surrender.

DVD tip: "Django Unchained"

 April 25, 2013; Updated: 2:24 pm

Caveats first: Yes, Quentin Tarantino's latest feels a bit like his "Inglourious Basterds," with slavery subbing in for Nazism. And, yes, "Django" goes on 15 minutes too long (maybe so Tarantino could save his own cameo?). But this film...

Review: Elegant if familiar, ‘Oblivion’ mesmerizes

 April 19, 2013; Updated: 5:14 pm

Early in the sleek sci-fi thriller "Oblivion," Tom Cruise, as a flyboy repairman living a removed, Jetsons-like existence above an invaded and deserted Earth, intones his home sickness.
"I can't shake...

DVD tip: "The Impossible"

 April 18, 2013; Updated: 1:55 pm

To be released April 23
Let's hope you have a big-screen TV. And high-def would help, too. This film - about a family swept up in the 2004 tsunami while they are visiting Thailand -...

Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher previews new film locally

 April 16, 2013; Updated: 6:35 pm

Winning an Oscar doesn't just mean a trophy - it also means opportunity.
For Geoffrey Fletcher, who won a 2010 Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for "Precious," he has gotten the chance to...

New film boosts immigration fight

 April 15, 2013; Updated: 6:04 pm

The immigration overhaul pending before Congress is picking up more high-profile support as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, bankrolls a new documentary to promote the effort, directed by Academy Award-winner Davis...

Biopic '42' is classy but tame Robinson tale

 April 12, 2013; Updated: 3:15 pm

Jackie Robinson was the ideal class act to break the barrier and become the first black player in Major League Baseball.
Writer-director Brian Helgeland's Robinson biopic "42" is a class act itself,...

Campbell tells fans not to prejudge the new ‘Evil Dead’

 April 5, 2013; Updated: 5:59 pm

More than 30 years after its release, there remains something delightfully transgressive about "The Evil Dead," the low-budget horror flick that launched one of horror cinema's most oddball franchises and the directing career of Sam...

The Jewish Film Festival expands its reach

 April 4, 2013; Updated: 1:32 pm

SIDEBAR SCHEDULE
The 19th annual International Jewish Film Festival of Eastern Connecticut runs April 6 to 25 at various locations. For more information, call the Jewish Federation of Eastern...

DVD tip: "Anna Karenina"

 March 21, 2013; Updated: 3:13 pm

Director Joe Wright and writer Tom Stoppard have worked up a very different "Karenina," one percolating with stylized staging and waggish humor. At the beginning, it seems too clever for its own good - particularly the self-conscious...

A view inside Vietnam: Rolf Jensen films

 March 21, 2013; Updated: 2:23 pm

"Street Vendors" is the collective name given to three short films made by Rolf Jensen, a professor of ecomomics at Connecticut College in New London. The works explore a form of migration in Vietnam wherein rural women leave their families to...

Autism documentary premieres at Grace Curtis Conference

 March 19, 2013; Updated: 5:50 pm

In the documentary "Colored My Mind," Tisha Campbell-Martin emotionally recalls learning that her son had been diagnosed as autistic.
"I kept screaming and screaming and screaming," she says tearfully.

Locally shot film ‘Wisp!’ premieres in Niantic

 March 18, 2013; Updated: 9:47 am

Feminine spirits may be the centerpiece of Nick Checker's new film "Wisp!," but it is the late John Kelley - former Boston Marathon winner and longtime coach and columnist from Mystic - whose gentle earnestness provided the inspiration...

Park finds the right subject, and his muse, in ‘Stoker’

 March 15, 2013; Updated: 4:42 pm

"Stoker" begins and ends with an 18-year-old girl. That is the film's allure - and not just for audiences. It's what drew Korean director Chan-wook Park ("Oldboy") to make this his Hollywood debut.
"My...

DVD tip: "Hitchcock"

 March 14, 2013; Updated: 11:52 am

This isn't a great film by any means, but it is an enjoyable one. It focuses on Alfred Hitchcock's making of "Psycho" and his fraught relationship with his wife, who was also his behind-the-scenes collaborator. The movie tosses in some...

Garde breaks film festival attendance record

 March 9, 2013; Updated: 11:49 pm

Attendance has gone over the 6,000 mark for the 15-movie series - the biggest turn-out ever for a Garde film festival.

No place like Oz? Disney bets audiences are ready to return

 March 8, 2013; Updated: 4:52 pm

Barely a mile from where James Franco, the wizard in Disney's new "Oz: The Great and Powerful," was recently giving interviews sat a billboard touting a middle-school stage production. "'The Wizard of Oz' is coming!" it proclaimed, an...

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