One of the coolest parts of my job is that I get to discover new up and coming artists thanks entirely to my Musical Spirit Guide, our Deputy Director of Programming, Thérèse LaGamma. If I were to be completely honest, before I started working here my taste was exclusively top 40 hits – more specifically the songs that spend days stuck in your head. In fact, as I write this I’m planning my trip down to the Taylor Swift concert that is just 72 hours away.Read More
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Welcome to July, the second stop on your three-month “What Summer Can Be Like In New England” tour. As we have learned up to now, summer in New England can be like summer in San Francisco; don’t put your fleece away just yet.
Still, if July’s beginning is any indication of what the rest holds in store, we may be in for a demonstration of “Why People Come to New England In the Summer.” Let’s hope.
While we’re waiting, we have a sci-fi thriller showing this week at The Music Hall that will fulfill your need for a summer movie that you can watch without turning your brain off. If you’ve seen the previews (there’s one after the jump, ed.), you know that Ex Machina has a sleek, futuristic look that’s perfect for a film that asks what it means to be both artificial and intelligent, and what it might mean for us humans—poor, meat-pod creatures that we are—when AI really gets revved up.Read More
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We’re thrilled about the upcoming lineup for School Day Series, one of The Music Hall’s longest-running programs under our Explore + Learn banner. For the past 20 years, SDS has brought live theater to our littlest patrons, typically Pre-K to Middle School children from the greater Seacoast community.Read More
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What a treat to see the fabulous, toe-tapping, exuberant, and expertly staged and acted Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at the Music Hall’s Historic Theater Wednesday evening!Read More
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Choosing which movie to see is often vexing. There are just more releases every month than an ordinary human being with an actual life can see. It’s a shame, but there it is. But sometimes it’s harder than usual.
A month or so ago, as I was facing the task of choosing which movies to discuss in May, I had a couple of real posers. Last week, my choices were either Catherine Deneuve in On My Way or Nymphomaniac Vol. I. I chose the one with all the naked people in it because I wanted to keep up with what Lars von Trier is up to. But I knew that the Deneuve film would also be good.
The choice for this week was equally difficult, given that I would rather watch movies in The Historic Theater. The Big Room was playing Enemy, an intellectually challenging thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal. I like Jake, and I like thrillers.
And yet, despite all that, I chose to head to The Loft to watch and discuss Particle Fever, a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider, the extremely large machine built in France and Switzerland to shoot very small bits of matter at one another at unimaginably high speeds in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Higgs Boson.Read More
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Tomorrow evening (Tuesday, May 13) at The Music Hall, there will be two movies playing. In The Historic Theater, folks will be watching a French film title On My Way starring Catherine Deneuve in which the aging beauty hits the road with her grandson. It’s the perfect kind of movie to have around for Mother’s Day and I hope it attracted lots of Moms, including some who were escorted by their aging sons, who, like me, were once hopelessly in love with la Deneuve. They will see the still-lovely Catherine and some wonderful French scenery and will, I suspect, have their hearts warmed.
And I’m not going to be discussing it.
Instead, I will be at The Music Hall Loft watching and discussing Lars von Trier’s latest outrage, Nymphomaniac Vol I.
According to the critical surveys I’ve done, critics think Nymphomaniac I is a slightly better movie than On My Way, although not by much. And the scores may be a little skewed by the few critics who gave Nymphomanic a score of zero. The critics who like the film are alternately fascinated and baffled by it. Like most people who have access to the Internet, the film’s use of explicit sex wasn’t much of a shock. And many were holding off making any judgment at all until Nymphomaniac Vol. II showed up, letting us know where von Trier was heading with his philosophical sexplorations. (Looking at the average scores for Vol. II reveals very little. Those who hated Vol. I kept on hating.)
But while Lars von Trier is a provocateur and a troublemaker and an imp of the perverse, very few people ever accuse him of being anything less than a brilliant filmmaker. He’s an abrasive guy, but he isn’t afraid to push hard in pursuit of an idea. From Breaking the Waves to Dancer in the Dark to Melancholia, he drives his stories, his actors and his audiences beyond the usual limits.
So that’s why I’m forsaking my one-time girlfriend for a date with a Danish loose cannon.
I approach Nymphomaniac Vol. I with trepidation. After all, I sat all the way through von Trier’s Dogville. But I can’t be a film person and not see what this guy is up to.
If that appeals to you as well, I’ll see you at The Loft at 7:00 and we’ll find out what all the yelling is about.
Nota bene: Next week we will be geeking out with the infinitely less controversial scientific documentary about the world’s biggest atom smasher with Particle Fever. And the week after that, we’ll be back in The Big Room for Omar, an edgy thriller about the Middle East, where even the romantic comedies (which this isn’t) are edgy thrillers.
I hope to see you there.Read More
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