Outside The Frame

See these film: The Trial + Lolita @ the Brattle

Peter Keough — Sun, 27 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Lolita (1962)

The ongoing "Reunion Weekend" series at the Brattle Theatre might convince you that they really don't make them the way they used to. Fifty years ago, instead of lining up to see The Avengers, you could see films by two of the greatest directors of all time. Like Orson Welles's The Trial (1962; Monday, May 28 @ 1:30 + 7 pm), an adaptation of Franz Kafka's inscrutable black comedy about inescapable bureaucracy and persecution that might be one of the most brilliant uses of architecture - and Anthony Perkins - in a film. And Stanley Kubrick's tart, melancholy, and very funny adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's naughty novel Lolita (1962; Monday, May 29 @ 4 pm + 9:30 pm), featuring James Mason and Peter Sellers at their sardonic best. The Brattle is at 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge | $7.75; $6.75 seniors; $12 double feature | 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org.

See this film: Nana @ ArtsEmerson at the Paramount Center

Peter Keough — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

There's a whole world of great movies out there that we'll probably never see, not even in a cinema-savvy town like Boston, unless we have the means to go to, say, the Locarno Film Festival or the Istanbul International Independent Film Festival. French director Valérie Massadian won top prizes at both of those events for her debut film Nana (2011), and thanks to ArtsEmerson's "Festival Focus" series you can see why. The story of the sturdy four-year-old of the title, an urchin with an absentee mother who fends for herself in the ruggedly beautiful Perche region, accomplishes one of cinema's most difficult and exquisite tasks: capturing the point of view of a child. It screens Friday, May 25 at 6:45 pm and Saturday, May 26 at 8 pm at the Paramount Center, 559 Washington St, Boston | $10; $7.50 seniors; $5 students | artsemerson.org or 617.824.8400.

See these films: The Princess Bride + Spaceballs @ the Brattle

Peter Keough — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

It seems like only yesterday that film fans first got a look at both The Princess Bride (1987; Thursday, May 24 at 7:30 pm, Friday, May 25 at 5:30 + 9:30 pm), the now beloved meta-fairy tale directed by Rob Reiner and written by William Goldman; and Mel Brooks's now classic Star Wars parody Spaceballs (1987 | Thursday, May 4 at 5:30 + 9:30 pm, Friday, May 25 at 7:30 pm). Nonetheless they are both celebrating their 25th anniversary as part of the Brattle Theatre's "Reunion Weekend." Which memory is more precious and nostalgic: Billy Crystal as the wizard Miracle Max applying CPR with a bellows, or Brooks playing Yogurt, "the Master of the Schwartz," making a spiel for Spaceballs merchandising? You can enjoy both at 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge | $9.75; $7.75 students; $6.75 seniors | 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org.

See this documentary film: The Dhamma Brothers @ the Brattle

Peter Keough — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

The billions spent warehousing convicts in soul-destroying prisons don't seem to make much of an impact on recidivism or crime rates. Maybe the solution is as simple as the word "om"? Documentarians Andrew Kukura, Jenny Phillips, and Anne Marie Stein's The Dhamma Brothers (2008) takes a look at a program at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Alabama, where the resident psychologist brought in teachers to instruct volunteers in Vipassana Buddhist meditation. Their training involved perching on a cushion for 10 hours at a time in utter silence for 10 days. Sounds like a stint in the cooler might be preferable, but the program worked so well that the jealous prison chaplain insisted on shutting it down. The film screens at the Brattle Theatre as a presentation of the Massachusetts Campaign for a US Department of Peace & Nonviolence. The filmmakers will be attending in person for a discussion. The Brattle is at 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge | May 21 @ 7:30 pm | $9.75; $7.75 students; $6.75 seniors | 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org.

See this film: Neighboring Sounds at the Paramount Center

Peter Keough — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

The issues of class and racial conflict revealed in the Trayvon Martin case also surface in Neighboring Sounds (2012), a highly-lauded slice-of-life crime drama by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho. When a well-to-do neighborhood in Recife experiences a crime surge, the residents hire a private security company, a move that has unexpected consequences, revealing the city's social divisions as well as the oppressiveness and everyday annoyances of urban living. Let's just say that corruption, vigilantism, and a barking dog figure prominently. Part of ArtsEmerson's outstanding "Festival Focus" series showcasing great but hard to find films from the festival circuit, Neighboring Sounds screens Friday, May 18- for free, courtesy of the Consulate-General of Brazil in Boston - at 8:15 pm and Saturday, May 18 at 6 pm at the Paramount Center, 559 Washington St, Boston | $10; $7.50 seniors; $5 students | artsemerson.org or 617.824.8400.

Free Fun Shit: May 17-24: Porchfest, "Algorythyms" @ Fourth Wall, scavenger photo hunt, 'Zine party, "Freak Flag" upstart alt paper benefit show, Third Eye Blind at EarthFest + more

Alexandra Cavallo — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Porchfest

Buzz Bissinger | The Friday Night Lights author discusses his new book Father's Day: A Journey into the Mind and Heart of My Extraordinary Son at the Brookline Booksmith on Thursday, May 17 @ 7 pm | brooklinebooksmith.com

MWM and JURNE: Algorhythms | New exhibit featuring a series of canvas paintings juxtaposing abstract compositions with calligraphy, representative of conversations between Bay Area graffiti artist Jurne and Portland designer/illustrator Matt W. Moore. Reception at the Fourth Wall Project on Friday, May 18 from 8-10 pm | fourthwallproject.com/flog

Neighboring Sounds screening | Screening of Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho's crime drama about a well-to-do neighborhood in Recife that experiences a crime surge, thus causing the residents hire a private security company, revealing the city's social divisions at the Paramount Center on Friday, May 18 @ 8:15 pm | artsemerson.org

Pretty Ugly: Deviant Materialism | Exhibit using painting, sculpture, photography, and video to create art both beautiful and hideous, to elicit visceral reactions of attraction and repulsion. The reception tonight is followed by a live art performance from Charmaine Wheatley, who'll serve chocolate casts of her ass to visitors at Mills Gallery on Friday, May 18 @ 6 pm | bcaonline.org

Porchfest | More than 95 acts in countless genres performing on porches around Somerville on Saturday, May 19 from noon-6 pm | somervilleartscouncil.org

"Banditos Misteriofotos" | Scavenger hunt in which teams (or individuals) race across the city to snap pics of events, stunts, or objects from a Banditos Misteriosos approved list. Players post the day's shots online, to be judged the next day by the Banditos, who will deem one team a winner. Judging based upon most artistic, funniest, and largest amount of photos collected. Meet to get your scavenger list on the Boston Common on Saturday, May 19 @ 11 am | misteriosos.org

Papercut Zine Library 7 Year Anniversary Party | With live music from The Low Tide, snacks, and brand new 'zines! Guests can expect to check out new editions of High 5!, Bay State Badass, Today Belongs to You, and Nothing Mattress, plus more TBA at Lorem Ipsum Books on Saturday, May 19 @ 8 pm | papercutzinelibrary.org/wordpress

Earthfest 2012 | This year's performers include Third Eye Blind, the Spin Doctors, Eve 6, and Switchfoot at the DCR Hatch Memorial Shell along the Charles River on Saturday, May 19 @ 11:30 am | earthfest.com

The DMC Swag Poetry Slam | Student poetry slam, presented by Citizen Schools and Dever McCormack Middle School at the Middle East upstairs on Saturday, May 19 @ 1 pm | mideastclub.com

Freak Flag Benefit Show | Party to fund (donations gladly accepted) the new up-start alt paper with music by Fat History Month and Hyena (and DJ sets by Freak Flag staff) at Zuzu on Monday, May 21 @ 10 pm | freakflagboston.tumblr.com

Rory O'Connor | The Huffington Post contributor discusses his new book Friends, Followers, And The Future: How Social Media Are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, And Killing Traditional Media about the effect of social media in our world at the Brookline Booksmith on Tuesday, May 22 @ 7 pm | brooklinebooksmith.com

Jasper JohnS/In Press: The Crosshatch Works and the Logic of Print | Opening of exhibit exploring Johns's lesser known experiments in printmaking and use of newsprint collage, with lecture from exhibition curator Jennifer L. Roberts at the Harvard Art Museums, 485 Broadway, Cambridge on Wednesday, May 23 from 5-8 pm | harvardartmuseums.org

"Shakespeare and Leadership" | Reading of Shakespeare's Coriolanus followed by a discussion on corporate leadership skills in the 21st century with local business leaders at the Cutler Majestic Theater on Thursday, May 24 @ 6 pm | commshakes.org

Interview with Richard Linklater

Peter Keough — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:45:00 GMT

Any list of top indie filmmakers would include Richard Linklater. But maybe because he has proven such a stylistic chameleon, shifting from the scruffy, seeming verité of his iconic "Slacker" (1991) the glitz and gloss of mainstream studio films like "School of Rock" (2003) and "Bad News Bears" (2005) he doesn't have the more recognizable profile of such more recognized auteurs as Quentin Tarantino, Stephen Soderbergh, etc. His new movie "Bernie" is the true story about an undertaker (Jack Black) in a small Texas town who's loved by everyone and then has one bad day, when he shoots his millionaire companion and benefactress Marjorie Nugent, and puts her in a freezer. Maybe the film will remind people what a great director Linklater is. Anyway, it's a lot of fun.

Linklater spoke with me recently over the phone. Here's what he had to say.

Q: Texas has inspired a lot of your films. What makes it so cinematically appealing?

RL: Gosh, for me, it's just home. I grew up in East Texas, for instance, where this movie is set. Whenever I read a story like this it kind of resonates personally. I felt I knew that milieu, those people. I felt pretty close to all the people there. It sort of attracted me. But if I grew up in Ohio I would be attracted to stories from around there. Something natural about that, I would say.

Q: Blue state people like myself have this notion of Texas as this big, red state monolith. I found the geography lesson in the film very helpful. It's actually almost a small country in itself.

RL: That's an extension of the same rap I've been giving people my whole adult life, when I try to explain Texas. People have no idea. It's so big. It's a lot of different places. You've got different politics, very different looks, you know. So that was kind of a fun riff on things I've been saying for a while.

Q: You've been interested in the case for quite a while, since 1998. You attended the trial?

RL: Yeah, I read the article in January of '98, attended the trial I think the next year, had the script pretty early on and it was just the passage of time to finally get the movie made. It ended up being a long haul.

Q: Do you go to trials, like John Waters?

RL: Not really. I grew up around the criminal justice system having grown up in Huntsville Texas, which is where the state prison is, which is where they do the executions. My mom was involved in criminal justice reform. I'd visit guys in prison and stuff. She was kind of an activist. In her own way. When guys got out of prison, she heard that the first time you're out prison you have drug dealers and hookers waiting for you because they know that you have $200. So, welcome back to society. So she created this thing where people could have a donut and just talk with someone for a little while before they were shipped out of town and attacked by vultures. She came up with this 30 minute transitional period where this group of people just talked to him.

Q: It seems to me that Bernie might have had hard time making the transition to prison life.

RL: Yeah. Jack [Black] talks about it. He goes to these maximum security prisons and he talks to these pretty rough customers and then there's Bernie, this kind of a sweet guy. So he was very incongruous to those surroundings. But the truth is we got to know Bernie's friends in the craft shop. They were really a good bunch of guys. You don't know what everyone is in for or what the circumstances are but just like with Bernie himself, things happen. I feel better having seen his life there, that he's made a life for himself. He teaches. He's in the church. He does a lot of good. I think he was the same guy inside that he was outside. I felt better about his day-to-day life having visited him there than I imagined. People imagine the worst about prison. And for good reason; it's not a place you want to be. It's horrible. Yet he's taken a horrible environment and made it as good as he possibly could be for him.

Q: You interviewed him for the movie.

RL: Yeah. That footage at the end of movie is Jack talking to Bernie. We got a couple of hours talking to him.

Q: Did he shed insight?

RL: Oh yeah. It was very important. Because I had seen him at the trial. I'd been writing him but it was great to be actually meeting him. Talk, and stuff. It kind of solidified the last little pieces of the puzzle in my mind. For me as a director and Jack as an actor it was very essential. Jack kind of absorbed Bernie like a sponge. The walk, the accent, kind of his general demeanor. His sweetness.

Q: Do you think that having to wait until now to make the film was a good thing, that it might be more relevant today?

RL: Yeah, yeah. I think it's a better film now than it would have been back then. A lot's gone on. We set the film in contemporary setting; it's not like it's a period film. Just people who know the real-life case know it was the late 90s. You just have to think of it from Bernie's perspective. When you think of all that's gone on in the world you can't help but think of the President's support of gay marriage, Lawrence v. Texas, there's so much that has gone on that it's a different world from the one Bernie was operating in.

Q: So you didn't have to make sure you had period cars and other details.

RL: You almost don't have to. East Texas is the land that time forgot. I thought, this is going to have a period feel no matter what. But we're not going to have Apple products and things like that.

Q: One aspect of the film that rings a bell today was how the prosecutor Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey) tried to label Bernie as "elitist" or "other" by accusing him of seeing "Les Miserables."

RL: Yeah. It worked. That's the best thing you can do politically whether you're on a trial, where someone's on the stand, or in the political arena. Just paint them as not like you and me. And in that case Danny Buck did a really clever thing by moving the trial to a place [another small Texas town called San Augustine] where he had no context, nobody knew him, they didn't know what kind of guy he was. They only knew he was a confessed murderer and they saw these awful crime photos and once you can paint someone as elitist, that they think they're better than you... Southerners really -- that's the hot button with Southerners. Nixon knew it, with the Southern Strategy, Reagan really knew it, and it's always worked. It's always worked. That, you know, that there are these hoity-toity people who live better than you who think they're better than you and they want to run your life and tell you what to do, to drink white wine with fish. Good old resentment. And it works. Lee Atwater. It's always a successful strategy to take away somebody's humanity and replace it with this kind of.. because there's some truth to elitism everywhere. It's a real human phenomenon. When you can pin it on someone. But who's more elitist than some of these commentators? Sean Hannity's not elitist? How much is that guy making a year?

Q: Mrs. Nugent is the real elitist in the movie, having inherited millions made in the oil industry. Do you see this as kind of a Robin Hood story?

RL: That was part of the appeal of the story that Bernie really didn't have any greed in himself. He admits to enjoying all that part, once he was spending time with Miss Nugent he enjoyed all that. But he never really had that on his own. Once he had more of her money he didn't really spend it on himself he was just giving it to others. He really did.

Q: Like the Newton Boys.

RL: My kind of criminals.

Q: Steal from the rich, give to the poor, maybe keep a little bit.

RL: Yeah, a little bit for yourself. But you don't have a problem taking it from the rich. And in Bernie's case Miss Nugent really didn't want her relatives to have it. And she was getting old and didn't mind Bernie, you know, it kind of went through her to him, and to causes he supported, while she was alive. And Bernie just kind of continued after she was gone. He was the sole beneficiary of her estate.

Q: Not anymore, though, I assume.So this is basically a socialist movie, then

RL: Yeah, socialist, pro-gay, everything you can imagine.

Q: Have you shown it to the people in Carthage?

RL: It just played last weekend, it just showed a couple of times last weekend and it has its run coming up. But I heard from a couple of people up there that it was raining and there was this huge line. some of the local churches were kind of against the idea of the movie or making fun of murder and all that. But I think the word got out .. it's playing in Austin, so people are driving in five hours from East Texas to see the movie. The word trickled back that it was respectful of the locals and doesn't make them look like hicks. I think everyone is loosening up as far as seeing the movie.

Q: The people in San Augustine don't come off too well, however..

RL: That's what Danny Buck told me personally. He said, "You'll be fine in Carthage. But I don't know about San Augustine." I said, I don't even think they have a movie theater, so that's okay.

Q: Are they as backward as that local Carthage guy says, that they have more tattoos than teeth?

RL: I was at that trial. It was actually... That jury would gladly have given him the death penalty had it been a capital murder trial. It was a little scary. I talked to judges since then, and I said, my eyes couldn't be deceiving me? They had Big Gulps, drinks, chewing tobacco. They said it's at the judge's discretion. Other judges might say you need a coat and tie to come into my courtroom. But there it was such small town southern life you wouldn't believe it.

Q: No shoes?

RL: No, they definitely had shoes.

Q: Sounds kind of like the courtroom in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

RL: It was kind of close.

Q: I was surprised that the prosecution didn't point out that Bernie was gay. To enhance his otherness.

Q: You know, I think it was implied. I don't think the word "gay" or "homosexual" ever came up. And yet, I think it was the implication. I wasn't there at the very last... I saw Bernie's testimony but I didn't see this part where they had Bernie's stepmother.. who he was never close to... his dad died when he was 14 and he felt like he didn't have any parental guidance or else she didn't want kids, or want him. But she testified that he had worn girl's clothing as a little boy.

Q: Hang him!

RL: Yeah. It's a different era. I think even in our short little 12-13 years I don't think it would have flown like that. Maybe it would. It was a pretty backwards place.

Q: And now we have an African-American president who says he believes in gay marriage.

RL: That's like the worst nightmare of a certain percentage of our population. The two worst two things ever! [laughs] A black President promoting gay marriage! It's like, okay, this really isn't the country I grew up in. A socialist Muslim black president who wants your kids to have to marry someone of the same sex.

Q: You've gotten involved in other Presidential campaigns. In 2004.

RL: Yeah. That was a big one.

Q: You said you were audited by the IRS?

RL: [laughs] I mean you can never prove that shit, it seems coincidental.

Q: Are you involved in this election?

RL: Yeah. This year isn't quite as desperate as '04 because there you were the opposition. The damage was being done. An every day I'm sure that's how Republicans probably see it right now.

But you're already in the incumbency... But, equally important. But '04 was the most shameful, and for that we got Scalia, I mean Roberts and Alito for the next 30 years. From the '04 election.

Q: Do you believe the system works?

RL: Yeah, it works, as always, the structure works. It's just kind of... it's pushed to the margins, to the brink.

Q: One of the aspects of the film that apparently made it difficult to finance was how it mixed documentary-like interviews with a more-or-less conventional narrative. Why was that important for you and how difficult was it to execute?

RL: That was the weird element of the movie but it was just part and parcel with my thinking about the story telling. When I was first getting obsessed with the story and thinking how it might work as a film, Skip Hollandsworth just gave me his Bernie file, all the trial, all the local interviews, his journalistic interviews, the transcriptions, the misspellings, and I was reading that and I thought, this is perfect -- with Bernie in jail and not speaking and Miss Nugent long gone, they can't speak, so all that was left was everyone talking about them. And I was like, of course, that's how small town's are -- it's gossip. And it made me think. oh yeah, gossip, gossip. So that got me going on that.

I was thinking about my mom and her friends sitting around talking. Her friends are so funny, just how they express themselves and the things they say and I think that's so funny in real life, people saying slightly different things about one subject. and then they go off and talk about each other. And I thought, that would be a just great kind of round-robin, sewing circle gossip circle. That just got in my head. but it did look weird on the page. I think primarily because they all sounded the same. They weren't really characters. They were just gossips saying... it was hard on the page to distinguish the different characters. And there was a lot of it, too. I think it just put us in this category of not really being a movie.

Q: There's no "Rashomon" effect, either, because everyone agrees that Bernie was great and Miss Nugent was awful.

RL: If there was one 100% agreement it was that, and to this day I'm looking for a dissenting opinion. I always think it's coming around the corner, but it just doesn't. That someone would say that Miss Nugent was this really great lady and Bernie was this horrible guy. But it hasn't happened. The closer you get to Miss Nugent -- her own nephew wrote this story for the "New York Times Magazine" about three or four weeks ago -- the worse she comes off. Jack was on the plane sitting next to someone from Carthage and he thought , uh-oh, this is where they're going to tell us we're wrong. And the guy said, yeah, Rod Nugent, her husband, and her, they were the two worst people I ever met. We got letters when we started making the movie saying, we got stories about the two worst people I've ever known. It is a little sensitive. There are surviving family members, grandkids and a son, and the film is kind of neutral on them. I don't think they're bad. She had pushed them so far away -- it looks bad to be dead [nine months] that long and no one care enough to go and visit. But it's her fault -- she had pushed them so far away. They weren't doing anything wrong.

Q: So what's coming up? I interviewed Julie Delpy recently and she said you might be doing a third in the "Before Sunrise/Sunset" series.

RL: Quite possibly. It's about that time in the cycle. And we have followed the same thing. Five years of going, "No, no we don't have any ideas. And then in the last couple of years it just kind of percolated to the surface. It was Julie and Ethan being in their 40's now, they both have kids. Julie has a kid now. I don't know. It's a new phase of our lives.

Q: It's a collaborative effort?

RL: Yeah. I think that's the only way it will work. Who knows. It might be happening. There's nothing set. But it could be going that way.

Q: "Boyhood?"

RL: Yeah. That's ongoing. A couple more years on that.

Q: So, anything next?

RL: No, nothing. Not really. I wish I did. It's a difficult time to get movies off the ground. I've got a lot of projects and scripts swirling about. But it gets tougher and tougher.

Q: One last question: what's your favorite Texas movie?

RL: Ooh. That's a tough one. Any given time and moment, just off the top of my head today, if I had to watch a Texas movie -- maybe "Tender Mercies" with Robert Duvall. Bruce Beresford. Directed by an Aussie, of course.

Q: Sometimes the outsider has the deeper insight.

RL: Yeah. I like "Written on the Wind" more than "Giant," for instance.

Q: This film reminded me a little of "The Trouble With Harry." Which also stars Shirley MacLaine. Did you have this in mind at all?

RL: Speaking of Shirley... No really. I saw that film a long time ago in the 80s when they re-released four Hitchcock movies. I don't know if I really know that one that well. There's a body floating around. And young Shirley . She had some funny stories about Hitchcock, the way he talked. But in this film she's become Harry.

See this film marathon: The Story of Film: An Odyssey @ the MFA

Peter Keough — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

The Oscar-winning success of The Artist reminded moviegoers that people were making films before, say, Titanic. And so Mark Cousins's marathon series The Story of Film: An Odyssey has come along at an auspicious time. The 15 hour-long episodes begin with the first cinema pioneers - like Georges Méliès, now familiar to fans of Martin Scorsese's Hugo - and progress to the present day and the oneiric complexities of David Lynch and Alexander Sokurov. And then it speculates further, to a future no doubt dominated by endless sequels of Marvel's The Avengers. It screens at the Museum of Fine Arts May 16 through May 27, and should be a piece of cake for those who braved the 24 hours of Christian Marclay's The Clock.

The MFA is at 465 Huntington Ave, Boston | Passes $77; $63 students, seniors | 617.369.3907 and mfa.org/programs/film.

See these films: Serial Mom + Psycho @ the Brattle

Peter Keough — Sat, 12 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

It seems obvious now, but it took the programming geniuses at the Brattle to pair these two movies for Mother's Day. Perhaps Alfred Hitchcock's scariest film, Psycho (1960; 7:15 pm) demonstrates the terrible things that can happen when Oedipal obsession, voyeurism, taxidermy, and motel management come together under one spooky roof. Perhaps John Waters's last genuinely transgressive film, Serial Mom (1994; 9:30 pm), shows the carnage that can occur when a perfect housewife (Kathleen Turner) takes perfection a little too far, doing in those guilty of such abominations as failing to recycle or wearing white shoes after Labor Day.

Sunday, May 13 at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | $12; $10 students, seniors | brattlefilm.org

Super(hero) PAC?

Peter Keough — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:19:00 GMT

Maybe I'm giving too much credit to Hollywood studios, but you've got to suspect that they are aware that there's a big-deal election happening in November and so they might be marketing and releasing films with that in mind. Maybe not so much to influence the outcome of the election as to exploit audiences' feelings about it. Movies, in part anyway, being one way for people to deal with such weighty matters as the destiny of our country via the safe and indulgent medium of mass entertainment

So inevitably I'm thinking that "The Avengers" has some kind of political subtext. After all, it's closing in on a billion dollars in grosses worldwide, which is probably almost as much as Karl Rove has amassed in his "American Crossroads" super PAC.

Nor am I the only critic twiddling my thumbs about this; a number of writers have pondered the meaning and ramifications of such a megahit in an election year. In a posting on his "New Yorker" blog titled "The Avengers' Not Unlike an F-16 Stunt Run," Richard Brody describes the film as "an impressive feat of cinematic engineering, a work of prodigious skill and efficiency that carries out its cartoonish mission while addressing graver concerns-the construction of a post-9/11 revenge fantasy that takes place against the backdrop of unpopular foreign wars."

In her article "‘The Avengers': Good, evil and politics" on the "Washington Post" website, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite points out that "The Avengers" is "a snapshot of our cultural struggles as a nation" in which those who should be protecting us are "more interested in fighting each other." They are "heroes driven by their own internal demons far more than they are by a desire to protect humanity" and therefore illustrate the country's "empathy gap."

There are many other analyses from all parts of the political spectrum. Anthony Kaufman in his article "The Politics of ‘The Avengers'; Or, Can Clean Energy and Old-Fashioned Jingoism Mix?" at "Indiewire Hollywood" sums up some of these interpretations from the left, right, and middle and concludes: "they're a hodgepodge of political views and ideological undercurrents, colliding with each other to create a mainstream entertainment that, if you look close enough, manages to uphold old-fashioned reactionary American values. Here, it's such myths as militaristic might, individual sacrifice and the renegade American hero -- although, it also seems to throw a bone to contemporary liberal views on energy policy at the same time."

So maybe "The Avengers" is kind of a Rorschach test. Or, to use a more recent analogy, an ideological "Etch-a-Sketch." Judging from the film's record-breaking performance at the box office, perhaps it could be a winning campaign strategy as well.

My own opinion about all this is in flux, but I think a key to the meaning of such movies lies in the nature and identity of the bad guy. In this case, it's Loki, the Norse god of... Mischief?

I'm not impressed. True, I had a cat named Loki, and he could sometimes be a handful. But as I noted in my review of the movie, Loki reminds me of Woody Allen as the court jester in "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex."

What does he want? He's upset because his dad, Odin, always liked Thor best. Poor baby. He wants to be worshipped, like Joss Whedon is now. So he, tiresomely, needs to conquer the world with an army of orc-ish dolts on flying skidoos who are pale imitations of the evil Bot army in "Transformers 3."

This is a bad guy with the moral gravity of a contestant on a reality TV show. But then again, that's been the tone so far of the media coverage of the Presidential election.

Attend this film fest: newportFILM's May Mini Fest @ the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport

Peter Keough — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

As the recent film festival surge starts to settle down here in Boston, it picks up south of the border. In Newport, where newportFILM's May Mini Fest gets underway with Matthew Akers's Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012 ), a portrait of the artist as a brilliant, feminist provocateur. It screens on Friday, May 11 at 7 pm, preceded by a wine reception at 6 pm. Saturday will start out at 1 pm with Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol's charming, inventive A Cat in Paris (2011), a nominee for last year's Best Animated Film Oscar.

Both are at the Jane Pickens Theater and Events Center, 49 Touro St, Newport, Rhode Island | $12; screening with reception $20 | 401.846.5474 or newportfilm.com.

See this film series: "Delirious: Films by Nancy Andrews" at the Brattle

Peter Keough — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Still from Andrews' short film "The Haunted Camera"

Sometimes an artist can transform painful, debilitating experiences into something visionary. In 2005 Nancy Andrews suffered a near-fatal illness, and it inspired her to make films that probe the far reaches of consciousness. One such is Behind the Eyes are the Ears, a surreal exploration of reality, fantasy, and identity that combines eerie animation and live action footage. It will screen in the Balagan program "Delirious: Films by Nancy Andrews" followed by a discussion with the director and Michael Belkin, M.D., from Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of Vascular Surgery, and Samata Sharma, M.D, a Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. It takes place at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Harvard Square | Tuesday, May 8 @ 8 pm | $10; $8 students, seniors | 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org.

Attend this film event: An Evening With Robert Downey Sr. @ the Brattle

Peter Keough — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Before there was Iron Man, there was Robert Downey Sr., the father of the actor and one of the iconic figures of '60s independent filmmaking. His Putney Swope (1969; screens Thursday, May 17 at 7:30 pm), a savage satire of American materialism, greed, and racial acrimony, is even more timely now than when it came out. The Brattle Theatre celebrates this overlooked auteur in a retrospective beginning with An Evening With Robert Downey Sr., on Wednesday, May 16 in which the director introduces and discusses his fanciful short documentary No More Excuses (1968). It's an analysis of the New York dating scene that includes time-traveling Civil War veterans and a petition to clothe naked animals.

The Brattle is at 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | 7:30 pm | $11; $9 students, seniors | 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org.

See this film: Piccadilly at the Coolidge w/ live music by Berklee musicians

Peter Keough — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Has the popularity of silent movies brought on by the Oscar-winning The Artist since faded to black? Perhaps this screening of E.A. Dupont's lushly noirish Piccadilly (1929) will restore some of the magic. The stunning Anna May Wong plays an impoverished scullery maid whose sultry dancing proves a hit on the stage of a fancy London nightclub. But her good fortune brings on lust, jealousy, greed, and tragedy. Just like The Artist (but without the dog)! It screens as part of the Sound of Silents series at the Coolidge Corner Theatre with live orchestral accompaniment by Berklee musicians. The Coolidge Corner is at 290 Harvard Street, Brookline | Monday, May 7 @ 7 pm | $20; $17 students, seniors | 617.734.2500 or coolidge.org.

See this film: ReGeneration @ Harvard Square Cinema

Peter Keough — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:06:00 GMT

In case you've forgotten what democracy looks like, this screening of Phillip Montgomery's documentary ReGENERATION (2010) might serve as a reminder. Narrated by Ryan Gosling and featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky, the late Howard Zinn, and Adbusters' Kalle Lasn, it investigates the then-reputed political apathy of young people, analyzing the culpability of an infantilizing media, and prefiguring the Occupy movement to come. Following the screening there will be a panel discussion with the film's producer, Tufts alum Jeremy Goulder and Lesley University Associate Professor of Communications, Donna Halper. It takes place at the Harvard Square Cinema, 10 Church St, Cambridge | Thursday, May 3 @ 7:30 pm | call for ticket info | tugg.com/events/495.