Words are Alice Howland’s life, yet lately she hasn’t been able to string them together to form meaning the way she intends. She is a linguistics professor at Columbia University, but she draws a blank during one of her lectures. She’s also getting lost during her runs and having trouble ...

**Andy and Lana Wachowski** are risk-taking filmmakers with vision that cannot be contained, at least not within the confines of a big-studio picture. After the kinetic, layered unreality of their underappreciated live-action adaptation of “Speed Racer” and the big-theme ensemble of ...

Much has been written and filmed about author/artist **William S. Burroughs**, who moved in Lawrence in 1981 and lived here for the remainder of his life. But any trace of 1983’s **“Burroughs: The Movie,”** considered to be the definitive documentary on his life and work, had been ...

It made me grin from ear to ear when I heard the news. **J.K. Simmons**, the longtime working character actor — who is most visible right now as the guy from those [Farmers Insurance commercials][1] — is hosting “Saturday Night Live” next weekend. It is a testament to the power ...

There’s a nearly wordless scene early on in the disturbing tragedy **“Foxcatcher,”** now playing at [Liberty Hall,][1] that beautifully sets up the relationship between brothers and wrestlers Mark Schultz (**Channing Tatum**) and Dave Schultz (**Mark Ruffalo**). They grapple with one ...

There are films that are “important,” and there are films that are personal, and it's rare the two intersect. I put the word “important” in quotation marks because that connotation denotes somebody second-guessing what they think an audience needs to see. Most “important” movies ...