“Primary Colors.” Directed by Mike Nichols. Written by Elaine May, based on the novel by Anonymous (Joe Klein). Running time: 140 minutes. Rated R for strong language and adult content. Just 10 minutes into “Primary Colors,” Mike Nichols’ entertaining film about a gluttonous, philandering, foul-mouthed… Read More
“The Sweet Hereafter.” Directed by Atom Egoyan. Written by Egoyan, based on the novel by Russell Banks. Running time: 110 minutes. Rated R: (for language, nudity and adult content). Nightly, March 16-19, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. Midway into Atom Egoyan’s film about death and grieving… Read More
THE POINT MAN by Ben Rathbun, Minerva Press, London and Washington, 94 pages, paperback $13.95. It’s an old axiom among the movers and shakers in the world that the better known you are, the less freedom you have in which to operate. It’s often the… Read More
MONSON ACADEMY REVISITED, 1847-1997 by William R. Sawtell, Howland’s Printing, 1997, 239 pages, $20 paperback, $30 hardcover. BANGOR — William Sawtell of Brownville describes himself as the compiler, rather than author, of “Monson Academy Revisited.” Readers might appropriately conclude that Sawtell took the right approach… Read More
FROM MAINE TO MEXICO: With America’s Private Pilots in the Fight Against Nazi U-Boats, by Louis E. Keefer, COTU Publishing, Reston, Va., 1997, hardcover, 535 pages. For those of us whose memory of World War II is limited to being carried on a parent’s shoulder… Read More
Odetta did not come to the Grand in Ellsworth to perform. She came to lead a campfire sing-along with people huddled together against a sudden snow squall. She came to teach the slave songs her ancestors sang in the cotton and tobacco fields. She came to sing the… Read More
In an interview last year, Neil Simon, the playwright of more than two dozen stage works, was talking about being 70 and about his newest play. “I know that I have reached the pinnacle of rewards,” Simon said. “There’s no more money anyone can pay me that I… Read More
Spring could be flowers. Spring could be birdies and sunshine and little lambs. But, in the hands of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, which performed a classical concert Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, spring is a detonation of sound. In the… Read More
“Ma Vie en Rose.” Directed by Alain Berliner. Written (in French, with English subtitles) by Chris Vander Stappen and Berliner. Running time: 88 minutes. Rated R. Nightly, March 9-12, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. Renee Richards meets Romper Room in Alain Berliner’s “Ma Vie en Rose”… Read More
“AFTERGLOW,” written and directed by Alan Rudolph. Running time: 113 minutes. Rated R for language, sexuality and adult content. Playing nightly, March 2-5, at the Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. Thirty-three years since Julie Christie won an Oscar for her role as the androgynous waif in… Read More
“Grace and Glorie” is a play about opposites. Grace Stiles is 90 and dying. Gloria Whitmore is in her late 30s and looking for life. Grace is the country mouse, uneducated and illiterate but noble and wise. Gloria is the city mouse, hypersuccessful and enlightened but provincial in… Read More
True blue opera nuts don’t understand this point of view but for many concertgoers, hearing opera once a year is about enough. We love it and then we need to move on to one of the other performing arts. But the Italian National Opera, which… Read More
“The Apostle.” Written and directed by Robert Duvall. Running time: 133 minutes. Rated R (for mild language and violence). Nightly, Feb. 23-March 5, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. Forty minutes into “The Apostle,” Sonny Dewey (Robert Duvall), a Pentecostal preacher in rural Texas, has a premonition. Read More
“Kiss Me Kate,” which the Maine Masque is presenting this weekend at the University of Maine, is the kind of musical you hate to love. It came out of the late 1940s, when it seemed like a good thing for men and women to beat on each other. Read More
If you saw the Georgian State Dance Company on Wednesday at the Maine Center for the Arts, you might have the impression that Russians don’t actually walk. Hop, yes. Glide, yes. Leap, bound, fly, march — yes, yes, yes. But walking is simply too pedestrian for these masters… Read More
In the spirit of Tournament Days, we took our appetites to a restaurant that fills you up good after a long day on the bleachers. We could have gone to Miller’s, where the salad bar could feed a small nation for a week. We could have gone to… Read More
When Norm MacDonald was fired a month ago from his position as anchor of the “Weekend Update” segment of TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” it was hard not to feel sorry for him. He was funny. He was pert. Then he was gone. All we knew was that Don… Read More
Princess Ida has sworn off men. Instead, she seeks to enlarge her mind, to pursue only the highest intellectual goals. To that end, she has established a university for women and has vowed never to marry. But put her story in the hands of W.S. Read More
“Sphere.” Directed by Barry Levinson. Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, written for the screen by Stephan Hauser and Paul Attanasio. Running time: 132 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for mild language and violence). Toward the end of Barry Levinson’s unfortunate film adaptation of Michael Crichton’s… Read More
PORTLAND — The sea stories that gave rise to the Hollywood blockbusters “Amistad” and “Titanic” have their rightful places in Lincoln P. Paine’s new book. But the 1839 slave ship mutiny and the luxury liner’s deadly encounter with an iceberg in 1912 are just two… Read More
ELEVEN SECONDS A Story of Tragedy, Courage, and Triumph, by Travis Roy with E.M. Swift, Warner Books, 1998, 226 pages, $20. The book “Eleven Seconds” by Yarmouth’s Travis Roy with Sports Illustrated writer E.M. Swift is a must read for anyone with compassion. googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
SOME JEWELS OF MAINE: JEWISH MAINE PIONEERS, by Celia C. Risen, Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc., Pittsburgh, 178 pages, paperback, $14. “Some Jewels of Maine: Jewish Maine Pioneers” is Celia Risen’s second book. Her first, published in 1988, is titled “Yankee Fiddler: A Man Called Suss.”… Read More
THE BAXTERS OF MAINE, Down East Visionaries, by Neil Rolde, Tilbury House Publishers, softcover, 340 pages, $14.95. When it came to his magnificent obsession — the securing of Mount Katahdin as the centerpiece of an envisoned wilderness park for the people of Maine — Percival… Read More
Those who have been asking what all this centennial fuss is about should check out “Remember the Maine.” The one-hour documentary by Maine Public Television will be premiered at 3 p.m. Saturday at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer. Its on-air debut will be at 7 p.m. Read More
Blanche DuBois turned 50 last year. It’s tempting to think how she might look so many years later and what happened to her and what kind of kindnesses she’s been depending on from strangers these days. But it’s more fascinating to look at how she has — without… Read More
Aristophanes is the kind of guy you wish were around these days. As civilization’s first comedic writer, just think what he could do with President Clinton’s dirty laundry. Or the filibustering of tobacco companies. Or confrontations between Microsoft and the Justice Department. Old Aristophanes would have a ball… Read More
“AMISTAD,” directed by Steven Spielberg, written by David Franzoni. Running time: 145 minutes. Rated R for violence and brief nudity. Currently playing at the Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville, and at Hoyts Cinemas. You cannot shackle the human spirit. You cannot beat it down, you cannot… Read More
It is a history that repeats itself time and time again. A potently ambitious figure rises to power and, as he infects the people with a false sense of his qualifications, the advisers around him get nervous and start their own plotting. As the populace increases its adulation,… Read More
There’s a great moment in the new film “Stephen King’s The Night Flier,” which opens today in Bangor. A cop is recounting the scene of a crime where a man has been raucously murdered. As the cop tells the gruesome tale of finding the man, the camera does… Read More
ORONO — Good bands have to come from somewhere, and they can’t all come from Manchester, England, or Seattle. But somehow it’s still a surprise — even a reason for doubt — when a good band turns up somewhere near you. Such is the case… Read More
“L.A. Confidential” Directed by Curtis Hanson. Written by Hanson and Brian Helgeland. Based on the novel by James Ellroy. Running time: 138 minutes. Rated R (for strong violence, language and adult content). Feb. 2-13, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var… Read More
While going on a shakedown cruise, Billy Joel and his mates enjoyed pretty smooth sailing Tuesday night in Portland. The concert, before a sellout crowd of 8,000 at the Cumberland County Civic Center, was the only New England stop for Joel during the current leg… Read More
Bangor got the blues Monday night, but that ain’t bad. “The King of the Blues,” B.B. King, was in town, heating up the Bangor Auditorium on a frigid night. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner… Read More
“The Ice Storm” Directed by Ang Lee. Screenplay by James Schamus, based on the novel by Rick Moody. Running time: 112 minutes. Rated R (for language, drug use, sexuality and adult content). Nightly, Jan. 26-29, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
“Dark Elegies” is a ballet about a village lamenting the deaths of its children. The dancers wear peasant clothes of muted browns and blues. The women’s heads are covered with wraps. The men look downward. In the background is a disorienting pictorial representation of a hamlet, the kind… Read More
Every weekday around noon we hear it. We’ve been at our desks for four hours. We’ve seen enough of the boss. And the growl begins. It’s deep and low and hungry. Feed me, it says. Ah, lunch time. Such a civilized time of day. It’s… Read More
GOOD WILL HUNTING, directed by Gus Van Sant, written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Running time: 125 minutes. Rated R (for strong language and adult content). Currently playing at Hoyts Cinema, Bangor. In a letter to The New York Times dated Aug. 13, 1945,… Read More
David Mamet’s “Oleanna” was called one of the 10 best plays of the year when it appeared on Broadway in 1992. It could have just as easily been called one of the most maddening plays of that year. About a sexual harassment case between a self-assured professor and… Read More
“Food Fights,” stories by Fred Bonnie; Black Belt Press, Montgomery, Ala.; 191 pages; $24 hardcover. What does it take to have a successful restaurant business today? How come some restaurants become local institutions for decades, while others go out of business in a few months?… Read More
To all the superhuman efforts of the weekend, add the classical concert performed by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra Sunday afternoon at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. You couldn’t exactly call it a humanitarian feat, but it was undeniably a good deed in a world of… Read More
THE GREAT LOBSTER WAR, by Ron Formisano, U.Mass. Press, Amherst, Mass., 1997, 150 pages, $35 cloth, $14.95 paper. To the world at large, the celebrated Maine lobster is a minor source of protein; along the Maine coast, where thousands of people make their living, or… Read More
A PRIDE OF LIONS, Joshua Chamberlain And Other Maine Heroes by William Lemke, Covered Bridge Press, softcover, 390 pages, $14.95. When Gen. Ulysses S. Grant chose Maine Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain to command the Union parade at the formal ceremony of surrender of Gen. Robert… Read More
TEMPLE OF THE WINDS by Terry Goodkind, Tor Books, hardcover, 528 pages, $25.95. A character from Maine author Terry Goodkind’s “Temple of the Winds” (Book Four in his series “The Sword of Truth”) sums it up best: “Prophecy was never anything but trouble.” googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
“Deconstructing Harry,” written and directed by Woody Allen. Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (for strong language, sexuality and adult content). Nightly, Jan. 5-15, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. Imagine, if you will, Woody Allen as a pathological narcissist. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var… Read More
“The Wings of the Dove,” directed by Iain Softley. Written by Hossein Amini, based on the novel by Henry James. Running time: 103 minutes. Rated R (for nudity and sexuality). Nightly, Dec. 29-Jan. 8, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. Just as Jane Austen had retreated to… Read More
Written and directed by James Cameron. Running time: 194 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for mild language, brief nudity and sexuality). For film audiences to set sail once more with Titanic, that magnificent, ill-fated ship that departed Southampton, England, 85 years ago only to sink in the… Read More
One of the strengths of Sesame Street through its 28 years has been the ability to educate through entertainment. This same principle has carried over to the traveling version of the show, Sesame Street Live, which opened its seven-show stint at the Bangor Auditorium Thursday… Read More
Sean Harkness didn’t expect to be playing a guitar last night with a stageful of musicians at the Maine Center for the Arts during the Windham Hill 1997 Winter Solstice Tour. But the night before, he had heard the same group play Alice Tully Hall in New York… Read More
Year after year, Ebenezer Scrooge turns his life around and takes us with him in holiday productions of “A Christmas Carol.” And year after year, we persist in thinking singularly of old Scrooge as having a tight purse and a tight heart. Poor Scrooge. He’s… Read More
There couldn’t have been any Scrooges left by 9 p.m. Sunday in the Hutchins Concert Hall. That’s when Crystal Gayle’s holiday show in front of a capacity crowd at the Maine Center for the Arts reached its end. Amidst the overkill of commercialism these days,… Read More
CARLA’S SONG directed by Ken Loach, written by Paul Laverty. Running time: 127 minutes. Rated R (language, violence, adult content). Showing Dec. 15-18, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. “Carla’s Song” opens with a hazy, lingering shot of a double-decker bus pushing through the polluted streets of… Read More
“Scream 2” — the sequel to last year’s hypersuccessful slasher-cult film “Scream” — isn’t your typical sequel. Unlike so many other sequels, rushed into theaters before the original’s popularity has waned, “Scream 2” actually lives up to its predecessor. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
Editor’s Note: In the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah, the children’s librarians at Bangor Public Library offer this selection of books they believe would make nice gifts for the holidays. The offerings range from sturdy board books for preschoolers to the classic “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” for… Read More
ART OF THE MAINE ISLANDS by Carl Little and Arnold Skolnick, 96 pages, Down East Books, $30. Put me on a Maine island and leave me there and watch how happy I become. That’s how much I love the islands in this state. I’ve been… Read More
THE CHRISTMAS NOTE by Skeeter Davis and Cathie Pelletier, illustrated by Carl E. Hileman, Nashville Books, 39 pages hardcover, $19.95. The story of the little girl who wanted a doll for Christmas, but got a note from Santa instead, just would not go away. It… Read More
Earlier this week, Keith Lockhart had been in San Diego with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. It didn’t look much like Christmas there to him, but when he got to Augusta on Tuesday and saw all the snow, he knew it was beginning to look a lot like… Read More
More than Frosty and his generosity. More than Charlie Brown and his true story of Christmas. More than that yah-who-florays song all the Whos down in Whoville sing to the Grinch. And nearly more than Scrooge’s time-honored ghosts, Clara Silberhaus has stolen my heart for the holidays. Read More
“Fire,” written and directed by Deepa Mehta. Running time: 104 minutes. Unrated (nudity, language, adult content). Dec. 8-11, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. About her controversial film “Fire,” writer and director Deepa Mehta notes in a promotional director’s statement that it “came about in part because… Read More
The phenomenon that is the Wallflowers rolled into Alfond Arena in Orono last night, and the crowd of slightly more than 5,000 got what they came for. Introducing the band was Bangor’s most famous part-time guitarist, Stephen King, who said that his band, the Rock-Bottom… Read More
“Alien Resurrection,” directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Joss Whedon. Running time: 109 minutes. Rated R (strong, graphic violence, nudity, language). Now playing at Hoyt’s Cinema, Bangor. In a letter to fellow writer and friend William Dean Howells, Mark Twain wrote in the winter of… Read More
For all the feminist la-ti-da-ing you get in the two-woman show “Parallel Lives,” which the Belfast Maskers opened over the weekend, you won’t walk away from this production feeling as if you’ve been bashed in the head by angry women. OK, there’s some anger in this nearly vaudevillian-style… Read More
Few musicians create a legacy the way Art Blakey did: he redefined drumming into something at once volcanic and swinging; he developed a sound, the horn-heavy, hard-bop Blue Note sound, that put muscle back into the musically anemic 50s; and he founded a school, the Jazz Messengers, that… Read More
“Anastasia” An animated film produced and directed by Don Bluth. Written by Bruce Graham, Bob Tzudkier, Noni White and Susan Gauthier. Running time: 94 minutes. Rated G. Currently playing at Hoyt’s Cinema, Bangor. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes… Read More
“The Dark Tower IV: Wizard & Glass,” by Stephen King, 672 pages, $17.95, published by Plume, 1997. Reading Stephen King’s best novels has always been like riding a scream into a nightmare — he startles your worst fears into revealing themselves and pushes forward with… Read More
“Oliver!” which opened last weekend at the Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth, is not a feel-good musical. Loosely speaking, it’s about child abuse, violence against women and ill-tempered poverty. And there’s a rags-to-riches plot line, too. Sound Dickensian? Well, yes, it is, of course. But just for the sake… Read More
Here’s what you don’t want to do at a performance of klezmer music: sit. This is music for working, for dancing, for weddings and celebrations and lamentations. But not for red-carpeted concert halls where expressive movements are limited to an enthusiastic tap of the toe. Read More
“Boogie Nights,” Bangor Cinemas, rated R (explicit sex, drug use, language, nudity and violence). Mainstream critics want to tell you that Paul Thomas Anderson’s film about the late 1970s and early ’80s adult film industry is one of the year’s best. They insist that it… Read More
Buy a car. Buy a house. Get your oil changed. For every nice salesman you bump into while you’re doing so, there are a hundred sleazeballs working the same job, and chances are you’ll buy something from him. He’s the type of person who seems to take delight… Read More
There’s no getting around the audacity of Sunday’s classical concert by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. The final event in a weekend of activities celebrating Russian culture, the concert had an exhausting quality. But don’t let that fool you. It… Read More
“The Myth of Fingerprints,” written and directed by Bart Freundlich. Running time 90 minutes. Rate R (for sexual situations, adult content and language). Nightly, Nov. 10-13, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. About 15 minutes into “The Myth of Fingerprints,” one thing becomes painfully clear: Bart Freundlich,… Read More
After seeing Brad Fraser’s “Unidentified Human Remains and the Nature of True Love,” which opened Thursday at the University of Maine, you can cross Edmonton, Alberta, off the list of places you might want to vacation. Evidently, Edmonton has one of the highest crime rates of all the… Read More
NO PLACE FOR LITTLE BOYS: Civil War Letters of a Union Soldier, edited by Melissa MacCrae and Maureen Bradford, illustrated by David J. Priesing, Goddess Publications, 120 pages, $14.95. “Between the muster in Bangor, August 21, 1862, and the last gun at Appomattox, April 9,… Read More
A BRACELET FOR LILY by Dick Goodie, Irving Books, Portland, paperback, 210 pages, $12.95. The scene is occupied Belgium during the summer and fall of 1944. A young pilot from Maine has his P-47 Thunderbolt shot out from under him while on a support mission… Read More
Editor’s Note: Each month, the children’s librarians at Bangor Public Library offer a selection of classics and new favorites designed to encourage reading and provoke thought in young readers. The books may be purchased at local bookstores or found at your local library. THE SUBTLE… Read More
THE FIRST MAINE CAVALRY, by Mary Calvert, published by Monmouth Press, Monmouth, 325 pages, $25 hardcover. In April 1861, when newly elected president Abraham Lincoln called for men throughout the North to join forces to protect the property and interests of the United States, thousands… Read More
“Microcosmos,” directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou. Running time: 75 minutes. Rated G. Nightly, Nov. 4-6, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. In common meadows, sidewalk cracks and backyard gardens, another world thrives with life, a world so richly complex and absolutely necessary to our survival. Read More
When pianist Christopher O’Riley and cellist Carter Brey play music together, they don’t just show off their talent and skill and insight. No, when these two masters get together in musical collaboration, as they did Sunday afternoon at the University of Maine’s Minsky Hall, they wail. Like two… Read More
It’s Halloween and that means horror films. Following is a list of some of the best that will help make selecting tonight’s fare easier: “Aliens” (1986) Sigourney Weaver, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton. Rated R. Running time: 135 minutes. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var… Read More
It wouldn’t be fair to say that John O’Conor seems to become the instrument itself when he plays the piano, which the Irishman did Wednesday night with the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the Maine Center for the Arts. That would actually be too simple a description. Read More
Thirty minutes into the University of Maine School of Performing Arts production of “Sylvia,” I wanted to fling a copy of Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” right at the head of playwright A.R. Gurney. And I wanted it to hurt. “Sylvia,” you may know, is Gurney’s midlife… Read More
“The Graduate,” directed by Mike Nichols, written by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, and based on the novel by Charles Webb. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG (brief nudity, language, adult content). Nightly, Oct. 27-30, at the Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville. Looking back at… Read More
FOXBORO, Mass. — If 30,000 people clap with winter gloves on, does anyone hear the sound? It was tough to tell Tuesday night at frigid Foxboro Stadium during the second evening of concerts staged here by the legendary Rolling Stones. Temperatures dipped below the 40s, making a four-hour… Read More
“The Devil’s Advocate” Directed by Taylor Hackford. Written by Jonathan Lemkin and Tony Gilroy. Running time: 138 minutes. Rated R (for violence, language, nudity and adult content). Currently playing at Hoyt’s Cinema. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes =… Read More
Here’s what’s so hard to know about the Dance Theatre of Harlem: The thing that makes it work. Go on about technique and strength and talent if you must. Certainly all of that was in place Saturday when the troupe showed up at the Maine Center for the… Read More
Tom Logan created Legacy Community Productions to give young actors a chance to perform theater and to give schools an opportunity to raise money for their arts programs. His first effort, “Grease,” gives the area’s most talented young actors a chance to shine. The overall… Read More
Robert Hitt’s recent production of “Death of a Salesman,” which opened last weekend at the Belfast Maskers Railroad Theater, will make you nervous. It will make you cringe and worry and grieve. And it should. Willy Loman is a frightening man. That’s not because he… Read More
KISS ME, GUIDO, written and directed by Tony Vitale, running time: 89 minutes. Rated R for sexuality, adult content, and language. Showing nightly, Oct. 13-16, at the Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville. Two of the featured actors in Tony Vitale’s “Kiss Me, Guido” are so… Read More
There is something extraordinarily compelling about an orchestra that doesn’t shy away from being titanic. It’s fair to say the Bangor Symphony Orchestra certainly was just that at its season-opener concert Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts. Although much of the all-Brahms program… Read More
I AM GENERAL EATON! by Philip Turner, Acadia Publishing Co., softcover, 246 pages, $20. When a title search of the author’s property in Caribou showed that the land was part of the original Eaton Land Grant, Turner asked himself what many a new property owner… Read More
Editor’s Note: Each month, the children’s librarians at Bangor Public Library offer a selection of old classics and new favorites designed to encourage reading and provoke thought in young readers. The books may be purchased at local bookstores or found at your local library. Preschool-kindergarten… Read More
THE CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL ELLIS SPEAR, University of Maine Press, 383 pages, hardcover, $28. You remember him from Michael Shaara’s classic, “The Killer Angels,” and his cameo in its epic film adaptation, “Gettysburg.” But the place to get to know Gen. Ellis Spear,… Read More
Here in Maine, we’ve been tricked by pseudonymity in the past. Recall when Stephen King so glutted the book market with his horror tales that he wrote under the name Richard Bachman for a while. The newest player in the fool ’em-if-you-can writer’s game is… Read More
“The Full Monty” Rated R (for langauge, adult content, and brief nudity) Oct. 6-16, Colonial Theater, Belfast Oct. 6-30, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville “The Full Monty” storms into America with all the flash and glitter of a runaway disco ball. It is a fun, endearing… Read More
Elwood P. Dowd is pleasant. He’s considerate and generous and intelligent. He’s the kind of guy you want around at a party, the kind of guy you can go to if you need to talk. So what if his best friend is a 6-foot-tall white rabbit that only… Read More
“SHE’S SO LOVELY,” directed by Nick Cassavetes, written by John Cassavetes, running time: 112 minutes. Rated R (for strong language, violence, and adult content). Playing Sept. 2-9, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville. The last time Sean Penn made a film with a wife, it was the… Read More
“Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature” by Linda Lear is the biography that finally does justice to the life of one of this country’s most extraordinary women. Rachel Carson is widely acknowledged as the scientist-writer who launched the modern environmental movement with the publication of “Silent… Read More
When Sister Mary Ignatius arrives in a black, floor-length habit with a stern, pursed face staring out from her wimple, you’ll sit up straight. Chances are if you went to parochial school in the 1950s, you’ll probably also be compelled to make the sign of the cross with… Read More
“In the Company of Men” Written and directed by Neil LaBute. Running time: 93 minutes. Rated R (for language, adult content and emotional abuse). Sept. 22-Oct. 2 at the Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var… Read More
“Box of Moonlight,” written and directed by Tom Dicillo. Running time: 111 minutes. Rated R (for language, adult content, and brief nudity). Showing nightly, Monday-Thursday, at the Railroad Square Cinemas in Waterville. The creaking you’re likely to hear while watching Tom DiCillo’s “Box of Moonlight”… Read More
Tony Bennett doesn’t just sing a song; he romances it. He squeezes every silken-studded nuance of unexpected flirtation from every note and then leaves the listener feeling slightly dizzy and breathless. Few pop singers can do that in any respectable way, and there are none today who have… Read More