Film Critic

Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris was awarded a 2012 Pulitzer Prize on Monday for essays and reviews that the judges said embodied "smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose, and an easy traverse between the art house and big-screen box office. " Morris, 36, who joined the Globe staff in 2002, won the prize for criticism with a range of work published in 2011. Among the pieces were reviews of "The Help," "Drive," "Water for Elephants," "The Tree of Life," and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris , who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism last month, quizzed Brookline-bred late-night guy Conan O'Brien about comedy at the John F. Kennedy Library on Thursday evening. O'Brien is on the board of directors for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and has signed on to be the honorary chair of the foundation's New Frontier Network, which promotes civic engagement to young people. O'Brien has been in town for much of the week because of "The Cable Show" at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

A hotbed of documentary filmmaking for decades, the Boston area is home to at least three great working documentarians. Frederick Wiseman, still going strong at 82, is the tireless recording angel of institutions large, small, and in between. Errol Morris, who's part philosopher, part private eye, must be the world's only practicing forensic epistemologist. Some day he's going to make a movie called "CSI: The Universe. " Ross McElwee, the least known of the three, may have made the single most influential documentary among them.

If Shia LaBeouf has his way, this year's Cannes Film Festival is just a beginning. After previous trips to the festival with blockbusters "Transformers" and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," LaBeouf is here with his first film in competition, the Prohibition-era "Lawless," as well as a short he directed, "Howard Cantour.com. " "Smaller hotel room, but a lot more pride," he said in an interview shortly before "Lawless" was to make its premiere Saturday. In "Lawless," directed by John Hillcoat, LaBeouf stars as the younger, less violent brother of a trio of Appalachia...

Does film have a future? The question is ideologically freighted and fraught with ambiguity: Just what do we mean by film? Is the cinema something that can only exist when 35mm film is run through a projector in the dark of an auditorium or can it be a more private, less technically ideal experience, involving DVD players, flat-screen televisions, and copious use of the pause and rewind buttons? Jonathan Rosenbaum has become, by some consensus, the most widely respected film critic in the United States in the last decade in part because of his willingness to tackle such thorny questions.

A documentary about the history and current state of film criticism may seem like awfully inside baseball, but someone had to make it, and who better than Gerald Peary, longstanding Boston Phoenix reviewer, scholar, professor, curator, and all-around gadfly? At 81 minutes, “For the Love of Movies’’ may be overlong to some and not nearly long enough for others. Like some of the screenings we critics attend, it has problems with focus. An emphasis on movie clips and talking-head interviews with writers, who - let’s face it - didn’t get into the business because of...

Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for criticism Monday, for essays and reviews that embodied what Pulitzer judges called "smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and big-screen box office. " Morris, 36, who joined the Globe staff in 2002, won the prize for a range of movie reviews and essays published in 2011. Among the pieces submitted with his nomination were reviews of "The Help," "Drive," "Water for Elephants," "The Tree of Life,"...

If Shia LaBeouf has his way, this year's Cannes Film Festival is just a beginning. After previous trips to the festival with blockbusters "Transformers" and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," LaBeouf is here with his first film in competition, the Prohibition-era "Lawless," as well as a short he directed, "Howard Cantour.com. " "Smaller hotel room, but a lot more pride," he said in an interview shortly before "Lawless" was to make its premiere Saturday. In "Lawless," directed by John Hillcoat, LaBeouf stars as the younger, less violent brother of a trio of...

WGBH this week taped the first celebrity edition of "High School Quiz Show," featuring such local luminaries as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" author Jeff Kinney, Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, Globe film critic Wesley Morris, meteorologist Mish Michaels, KISS 108's Matt Siegel, humorist Jimmy Tingle, restaurateur Joanne Chang, and Susan Wornick of WCVB-TV. Hosted by "TV Diner" don Billy Costa, the show will air May 20.

NEW YORK - Charles Higham, a prolific celebrity biographer whose books drew attention for their memorably vast claims (Errol Flynn was a Nazi spy, Howard Hughes played a central role in Watergate), died April 21 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81. His death, apparently of a heart attack, was announced Wednesday by his friend Todd McCarthy, the chief film critic of The Hollywood Reporter. Mr. Higham, who began his career as a poet, wrote some two dozen biographies. Subjects included Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Cary...

Did you go to the theater this weekend? Let us know which movie you saw and whether or not it met your expectations. Here's a snapshot of this weekend's box office , according to IMDB. " Think Like a Man " lead with $18 million in its second week in theaters, followed by " The Pirates! Band of Misfits " and " The Lucky One ," which brought in $11.4 million and $11.3 million, respectively. " The Hunger Games " and " The Five-Year Engagement " tied with $11.2 million each ("The Hunger Games" has grossed $372 million after six weeks in theaters)

NEW YORK – John Cusack is not familiar with the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl/Guy" archetype. It's not that the concept is so widespread or well known that it should be on the tip of everyone's tongue. It's just that he is often a Manic Pixie Dream Guy. That is, when he's not going dark. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a term coined by film critic Nathan Rabin, is a flighty, free-spirited character whose lack of inhibition teaches the brooding protagonist the true meaning of life.

Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for criticism Monday, for essays and reviews that embodied what Pulitzer judges called "smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and big-screen box office. " Morris, 36, who joined the Globe staff in 2002, won the prize for a range of movie reviews and essays published in 2011. Among the pieces submitted with his nomination were reviews of "The Help," "Drive," "Water for Elephants," "The Tree of Life," and "Mission:...

Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris was awarded a 2012 Pulitzer Prize on Monday for essays and reviews that the judges said embodied "smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose, and an easy traverse between the art house and big-screen box office. " Morris, 36, who joined the Globe staff in 2002, won the prize for criticism with a range of work published in 2011. Among the pieces were reviews of "The Help," "Drive," "Water for Elephants," "The Tree of Life," and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

WGBH this week taped the first celebrity edition of "High School Quiz Show," featuring such local luminaries as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" author Jeff Kinney, Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, Globe film critic Wesley Morris, meteorologist Mish Michaels, KISS 108's Matt Siegel, humorist Jimmy Tingle, restaurateur Joanne Chang, and Susan Wornick of WCVB-TV. Hosted by "TV Diner" don Billy Costa, the show will air May 20.

Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris , who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism last month, quizzed Brookline-bred late-night guy Conan O'Brien about comedy at the John F. Kennedy Library on Thursday evening. O'Brien is on the board of directors for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and has signed on to be the honorary chair of the foundation's New Frontier Network, which promotes civic engagement to young people. O'Brien has been in town for much of the week because of "The Cable Show" at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

NEW YORK – John Cusack is not familiar with the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl/Guy" archetype. It's not that the concept is so widespread or well known that it should be on the tip of everyone's tongue. It's just that he is often a Manic Pixie Dream Guy. That is, when he's not going dark. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a term coined by film critic Nathan Rabin, is a flighty, free-spirited character whose lack of inhibition teaches the brooding protagonist the true meaning of life.

A hotbed of documentary filmmaking for decades, the Boston area is home to at least three great working documentarians. Frederick Wiseman, still going strong at 82, is the tireless recording angel of institutions large, small, and in between. Errol Morris, who's part philosopher, part private eye, must be the world's only practicing forensic epistemologist. Some day he's going to make a movie called "CSI: The Universe. " Ross McElwee, the least known of the three, may have made the single most influential documentary among them.

He was known for his slow and dream-like directing style and had enough stamina at 76 to be working on his latest movie. But award-winning Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos was killed in a road accident Tuesday after being hit by a motorcycle while walking across a road close to a movie set near Athens' main port of Piraeus. The driver, who was also injured and hospitalized, was later identified as an off-duty police officer. The accident occurred while Angelopoulos was working on his upcoming movie "The Other Sea. " Angelopoulos had won numerous awards...