Spotlight: Breaking a Catholic Curse

Photo: Open Road Films There’s a scene near the end of the film that will get the adrenaline pumping in any journalist. That’s when the Boston Globe printing presses start…

Downton Abbey: An Empire in Change

Photo: ITV I’ve lost count of how many times various actors have come to my country to promote a new season of Downton Abbey. It hasn’t always been the biggest…

All the King’s Men: A Populist Menace

Broderick Crawford. Photo: Columbia In other reviews I’ve previously used the example of John Wayne at his most reactionary. Well, this is no exception. He was considered for the lead…

Joyeux Noël: One Night of Peace

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics 2015 has in many ways been an awful year, with heinous terrorist acts, a never-ending war in Syria, a refugee crisis in Europe, and a resurgent…

The Martian: Left Behind

Matt Damon. Photo: 20th Century Fox If you’ve ever been to Wadi Rum in Jordan, you’ve been to Mars. The valley has been Hollywood’s favorite location for movies set on…

Black Mass 

In the late 1970s, the FBI makes a deal with up-and-coming Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp); in exchange for information on his rivals, the authorities turn a blind…

The Patriot 

In 1780, South Carolina widower Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is drawn into the Revolutionary War when the British murder one of his sons and set his home on fire. When…

Intermezzo 

Famous concert violinist Holger Brandt (Gösta Ekman) falls in love with his young daughter’s gifted piano teacher (Ingrid Bergman). The director was recognized internationally for this film, which introduced Bergman…

Out of Africa 

In the 1910s, Karen (Meryl Streep) marries a Danish nobleman (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and they move to British East Africa to start a farm; she also befriends a handsome big-game…

Stand by Me 

In 1959, four Oregon boys hear about an older boy who was supposedly killed by a train somewhere in the woods, and head out to try to find the body……