When the subject of great Boston films is discussed, a handful of titles inevitably rise to the top, from “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” and “Good Will Hunting” to last year’s “The Holdovers.” But arguably no filmmaker has ever captured Boston (or, for that matter, Cambridge) on film quite like Jan Egleson. A stage actor with the Theater Company of Boston in the 1970s (he has a bit part in “Eddie Coyle” as a gun dealer), Egleson turned his eye to cinema, making a string of raw, low-budget films concerning primarily the Boston working class. Egleson will be on hand this weekend at The Brattle Theatre for a series titled simply “Six Films by Jan Egleson.” Of particular interest to readers of the Day will be Egleson’s first film, “Billy in the Lowlands” (1979), which features some incredible vintage location footage of Harvard Square and the Fresh Pond Mall (check out that sign for Zayre!), and its follow-up, “The Dark End of the Street” (1981), featuring a 9-year-old Ben Affleck in his film debut. Though perhaps not as well known as some of his fellow independent filmmakers of the 1970s, Egleson’s work is no less vital, and essential for anyone with an interest in Massachusetts on film. (Check The Brattle’s website for the series’ full schedule and ticket info.)
The Harvard Film Archive has been working with the venerable Japanese studio Shochiku since 2023 to create the Shochiku Centennial Collection, striking new 35 mm prints of some of the studio’s most revered titles. The two latest additions to the collection will be unveiled this week: Kinoshita Keisuke’s “Carmen Comes Home” (1951) on Thursday, and Yamada Yoji’s “Where Spring Comes Late” on Monday. “Carmen” is notable as the first feature shot in Fujicolor (Japan’s equivalent of Technicolor), and Kinoshita takes full advantage of the new technology, capturing the verdant greens of Japan’s countryside and dressing his cast in truly jaw-dropping costumes. “Spring,” meanwhile, continues the beloved story Yamada began in “Toro-san, Our Lovable Tramp” (1969), which the HFA screened as part of the series last year, and features footage of the legendary Osaka Expo ’70. Even if you’ve seen these films before, you almost certainly haven’t seen them like this – and if you haven’t, this is the perfect chance to educate yourself in one of the world’s greatest movie studios.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Edgar Wright’s zombie comedy “Shaun of the Dead” (2004), and to celebrate The Brattle will screen a new 35 mm print from Friday through Monday. There has, of course, been no shortage of zombie media in the two decades since “Shaun,” from TV’s “The Walking Dead” (2010-2022) to Danny Boyle’s upcoming sequel “28 Years Later.” Even if you’ve had you’re fill of the undead, however, there is still something special about Wright’s film. Part of that lies in the film’s respect for its genre and its characters; for all its silliness, it takes the threat of its monsters seriously, and there is genuine weight to Simon Pegg’s performance as the title character and his relationships with his recently-ex-girlfriend (Kate Ashfield) and his ever-immature best mate (Nick Frost). The rest, of course, has to do with the fact that “Shaun of the Dead” is incredibly, screamingly funny, as impeccably constructed and performed as any classic of comedy before or since. Wright would reunite with Pegg and Frost for “Hot Fuzz” (2007) and “The World’s End” (2013), but there’s a case to be made that none of the three have ever been better than right here.
The Somerville Theatre’s “A Bit of Hitch” series continues on Tuesday with one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most timeless and iconic thrillers. “Rear Window” (1954) has one of those plots that has been imitated and paid so much homage that it’s almost startling to encounter the original for the first time: Jimmy Stewart, laid up and apartment-bound in a cast, becomes convinced after some idle snooping that his neighbor has murdered his wife, and enlists his girlfriend (the ever-radiant Grace Kelly) to help him crack the case. “Rear Window” is a masterpiece however you see it, but there’s a case to be made that the scope of its artistry can be truly appreciated only on the big screen. Hitchcock painstakingly choreographed the denizens of each apartment, all of whom are visible through most of the film through the telephoto lens of Stewart’s camera; each plays out their own discrete subplot almost entirely in pantomime, and the scope of their work becomes apparent when projected at full size. Hitchcock was one of the screen’s masters of suspense, but he was also one of its most intricate craftspeople, and nowhere is that more apparent than through the windows of that Greenwich Village brownstone.
For better or for worse, transgender identities have been present in horror cinema almost since the genre’s inception – albeit frequently in problematic or inaccurate lights. To that end, film critics Willow Maclay and Caden Mark Gardner have partnered with Wicked Queer to program a pair of double features at The Brattle, each presenting a horror classic with questionable trans representation alongside a more recent film created by actual queer and trans filmmakers. Tuesday sees Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), whose serial killer Buffalo Bill drew protests from LGBTQ activists, paired with Alice Maio Mackay’s raucous horror comedy “T-Blockers” (2023), in which a gang of scrappy, queer misfits battle an alien parasite that affixes itself to bigoted hosts. Wednesday promises to be even wilder, with the absolutely bonkers slasher-flick oddity “Sleepaway Camp” (1983) paired with Jane Schoenbrun’s dreamy instant-cult-favorite “I Saw the TV Glow” (2024). Maclay and Gardner will be present following “Silence” to unpack the film’s complicated legacy and to further illuminate the place of trans representation in horror and film at large.
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
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