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‘Strange Way of Life’ Almodovar’s turn at gay Western

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

With “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) and more recently the overrated “The Power of the Dog” (2021), the gay Western has been born. One can rightly argue that many classic Westerns (and classic Western parodies) have always had powerful, in the case of the parodies, openly homoerotic currents.Now, the great Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar (“Talk to Her”), who turned down “Brokeback Mountain” all those years ago (it was directed by Ang Lee), tries his hand at the form with the 30-minute English-language short “Strange Way of Life.” The film, which takes its odd-sounding name from a famous fado song, is both moving and a bit baffling.Shot in Spain’s Andalusia region, “Strange Way of Life,” which was lensed by Almodovar regular Jose Luis Alcaine (“Volver”), certainly looks like a Western. But the film was sponsored by Saint Laurent, and at times you may ask yourself if that explains the presence of such beautifully laundered and folded undergarments and a stunningly green jacket wor...

Thursday’s high school roundup/scores: Erin Cottam tallies 100th point for Oliver Ames in victory

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

Erin Cottam dialed up a hat trick for Oliver Ames, surpassing the 100-point threshold in a 7-1 field hockey win over Taunton.Addi Weiss and Emily Carney each scored twice as Franklin (8-0-1) shut out Hockomock League opponent Mansfield 8-0. … In a Catholic Central contest, Jordi Higgins recorded a pair of goals and an assist to boost Bishop Feehan (8-1-1) to a 5-0 victory over Bishop Stang.In Patriot League action, Caitlin Patten recorded a hat trick and Stella Brazis added a pair of goals as Hingham (7-1-1) defeated Plymouth North, 6-0.Scoring her first career goal wasn’t enough for Talia Harrington, who registered a hat trick for Gloucester in a 4-0 Northeastern Conference win over Saugus. … Another three-goal, two-assist performance from Mackenzie Clarke powered Belmont (8-2) to a 7-1 Middlesex League win over Burlington.Kayla Murphy’s tally was the only goal of the game, helping Pentucket edge Methuen 1-0 in nonleague play.A hat trick from Kat Quill and Mary Firlings’ firs...

Greenway: U.S. spends big to house migrants, not military

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

President Joe Biden would never come out and say, “We value illegal migrants more than we do members of our military.” But considering how much more his administration is spending to house migrants who came here illegally than those who defend us — and the conditions both are living in — he might as well.The Biden administration is paying $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house illegal migrants. ICE provides them not only food and a bed, but medical and dental care, recreation and other services to meet higher standards than county detention systems, for example.However, the administration is not filling the beds in these facilities. It’s choosing to bypass ICE and simply release the migrants onto the streets in many cases, where they need to be housed in other facilities, like hotels in American cities. So basically, the administration is paying for nice facilities, which have a large amount of space available, and also paying to put the migr...

Collins: Expanding private jet capacity at Hanscom reckless idea

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

In New England, we’ve experienced deluges of rain, flooding, and Canadian wildfire smoke this summer. Other regions have faced record heat waves, droughts, and wildfires.But apparently, the perspective looks different from a private jet. Private jets, enjoyed almost exclusively by the extraordinarily wealthy, pollute at 10 to 20 times the rate per passenger compared to commercial jets.As our society awakens to the new abnormal of climate disruption, developers are hatching a plan to expand this form of carbon-intensive travel in New England. They’re pressing Massport and state officials to approve a plan to triple the private jet capacity at Hanscom Field, New England’s busiest private jet port.The disconnect between the Commonwealth’s climate goals and the Hanscom expansion couldn’t be weirder. As cities and towns plan to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030, Hanscom’s expansion would release a carbon bomb — all so a handful of billionaires and multi-millionaires can fly to Nantucket or...

‘He was Chicago’s son’: Dick Butkus, the Hall of Fame Bears linebacker known for his toughness, dies at 80

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

Perhaps no player in the Chicago Bears’ 104-year history better epitomized the team’s tough and determined identity than Dick Butkus.A product of Chicago’s working-class South Side and the University of Illinois, Butkus became a fierce Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker before embarking on a modest but enduring entertainment career in Hollywood.“After football, it was difficult for me to find what I liked second-best,” Butkus once told the Tribune. “Football was always my first love. That certainly didn’t mean I couldn’t find something else. And the proof of the pudding is where I have ended up today.“I guess I could have been one of those guys who didn’t prepare to quit. But things happened and through hard work I found out that, hey, there are other things besides football.”Butkus, 80, died “peacefully in his sleep overnight” at his home in Malibu, California, the Butkus family said Thursd...

‘The Royal Hotel’ well worth checking into

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

Another gift from South Australia, after the recent hit “Talk to Me,” “The Royal Hotel” is a cautionary trip to a dark and arid corner of mindless, toxic masculinity. Hanna (Julia Garner, “The Assistant”) ) and Liv (Jessica Henwick, “Glass Onion”) are two young women from Canada (or so they say), who have run out of friends and money aboard a cruise ship and decide to take jobs at a pub in a remote corner of Australia, where the clientele are sex-starved local miners. Cue the Hitchcock shot of the two women being dropped off in the middle of dusty nowhere by a bus.When Liv and Hanna first arrive at the pub, they meet at-first-frosty cook and caretaker Carol (Ursula Yovich, “Australia”) and pub owner Billy (Hugo Weaving), who just happens to be a drunk and keeps pickled snakes in glass jars on shelves behind the bar. Hanna and Liv also run into their predecessors in rooms upstairs, Jules (Alex Malone) and Cassie (Kate Cheel), Englishwomen whose going-away party runs out of control.Af...

Week 5 recap: Chicago Bears snap a 14-game skid, beating the Washington Commanders 40-20 for 1st win of the season

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

After 346 days, the Chicago Bears losing streak finally has ended.Bears quarterback Justin Fields and wide receiver DJ Moore connected again and again in front of a national TV audience Thursday night at FedEx Field to lift the Bears to a 40-20 victory over the Washington Commanders.Fields threw for 282 yards and four touchdowns, and Moore had eight catches for a career-high 230 yards and three touchdowns as the Bears halted their franchise-record losing streak at 14 games. It was their first win since Oct. 24, 2022 against the Patriots in New England.The win didn’t come without a little drama, however.After the Bears shot to a 27-3 halftime lead behind three Fields touchdown passes, the offense dried up and the Commanders clawed back to within 30-20, in part due to multiple Bears injuries.The Commanders had a chance to pull within a touchdown, but kicker Joey Slye missed a 46-yard field-goal attempt wide right with 5 minutes, 14 seconds to play.On the ensuing drive, Moore ca...

Rebecca Miller & cast reimagine screwball comedy in ‘She Came to Me’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

BERLIN, Germany – Rebecca Miller, whose wacky, one of a kind comedy “She Came To Me” opens Friday, is in the unique position of being famous by birth and by marriage.The daughter of “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible” playwright Arthur Miller and his third wife, the photographer Inge Morath, she’s married to the revered Oscar-winning and retired actor Daniel Day-Lewis.As a writer, director, Miller, 61, goes her own way. When “She Came to Me,” which stars Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei, world premiered last winter at the Berlin Film Festival, Day-Lewis was nowhere to be seen: This was strictly a Miller showcase.Best described as a screwball comedy, “She Came to Me” focuses on Dinklage in a scene-stealing role as an opera composer – who’s been blocked for five years — whose marriage to Hathaway becomes crazily complicated when he encounters and is attracted to Tomei’s tugboat captain.Tomei found inspiration “watching a lot of Giulietta Masina (Italian direct...

Editorial: Biden is building the border wall he promised not to

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

President Biden, what took you so long?After nearly six million illegal border crossings since he assumed office, cities and states around the country overwhelmed with migrants seeking shelter, and an influx of new arrivals daily, Biden has had an epiphany: his border policy is a disaster.He won’t admit as much, of course, in Biden’s worldview he’s a problem-solving, economy-rescuing, unifying leader who’s going to save us all from climate change.Until he was tripped by the sandbag of reality.Now the Biden Administration is using executive power to waive 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction, according to reports.This is the one thing Biden can truthfully say was “like that when he got here.” Former President Donald Trump was constructing such a wall, and Biden vowed on the 2020 campaign trail that “There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration.”That pledge, it seems, was “tran...

Dear Abby: Where relative goes, bugs follow

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:12:24 GMT

Dear Abby: One of my family members is a loner. I’m the closest relative to them. They invite my children and me over for holiday dinners, but the house is dirty with roaches galore. The bugs even crawl on you during the day on the couch. I don’t want to go there for this reason.I’m also cautious about inviting them to visit here because I once asked them to housesit for me for four days, and I came home to roaches in my house. How do I break it to them gently that the sanitary conditions are troubling, and I don’t want to be in their home nor have them in mine? — Bugged in the Mid-AtlanticDear Bugged: You need to inform this relative that they have a serious insect problem. Roaches carry bacteria, funguses and molds, and also spread disease. Fortunately, with the help of a professional exterminator, an infestation can be handled — but not unless the problem is recognized and addressed.If your relative is unaware that they caused an infestation in...