8.1.10
FILM REVIEW: The Kids Are All Right
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
7.15.10
FILM REVIEW: I Am Love
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
6.22.10
FILM REVIEW: Please Give
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
6.11.10
He's Your Handyman
Call Peter Vernon for just about anything you need done around the house or garden
6.3.10
Prime Minister Netanyahu's Statment Regarding the Gaza Blockade Action
4.21.10
FILM REVIEW: Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
4.17.10
CONCERT REVIEW: Jakob Dylan at the Egg, Albany, N.Y.
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
4.16.10
BOOK REVIEW: The Ask by Sam Lipsyte
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
4.16.10
MUSIC REVIEW: Shawn Colvin at the Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
12.29.08
Israel's Gaza Defense
WALL ST JOURNAL: The more damage to Hamas, the better the chances for peace.
3.8.10
Berkshire Living Finalist for Six National Awards
One of only nine magazines in the nation to win six or more nominations
2.18.10
Community Radio Station Gets Full-Power License
WBCR to become regional powerhouse in three years
2.15.10
[Eagle Watch] Whoops! They did it again.
Berkshire Eagle headline contradicts story
2.11.10
FILM REVIEW: Crazy Heart
by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
1.20.10
The Filibuster Fiasco
The majority party must wield the reins of power delivered unto it by the people
1.20.10
The Filibuster Fiasco
The majority party must wield the reins of power delivered unto it by the people
|
FILM REVIEW: Please Give
6.22.10
PLEASE GIVE
Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener
Starring Catherine Keener, Rebecca Hall, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt
Reviewed by Seth Rogovoy
This delightfully dark black comedy about a married couple that scavenges the apartments of dead people for furniture they then sell at incredible markups in a Soho-style shop and a couple of adult sisters tending to their 91-year-old nasty grandmother who lives next door to the couple is a tour-de-force of character acting that examines real issues of what it means to care and give – to be a caregiver, in other words.
You can’t give without someone taking, and the film doesn’t shy away from the different ways in which people accept the role of taker.
In a film chock full of conflicted characters, Keener, as always, is brilliant, attractive, and complex, but so are Peet, Platt, and the movie’s revelation, Rebecca Hall. Platt is literally the odd-man-out in a film that luxuriates in its examination of what it means to be a woman: a mother, a daughter, a wife, a lover, a nurse, etc.
Holofcener’s scenes capture real New York in a way that few have since Woody Allen’s best films of the 1970s, and her opening montage of mammograms is a stunning visual metaphor for what the entire film is about. It’s too bad she had to tack a sentimental ending on the movie, but otherwise it’s off-pitch-perfect.
Seth Rogovoy is Berkshire Living’s award-winning editor-in-chief and cultural critic.
|
