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Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Down with the King: Our film critic discusses his lifelong Stephen King fandom
Still from 'The Life of Chuck.' NEON There have been so many movies made from King's work, yet filmmakers haven't scratched the surface of his prolific oeuvre. Even with the numerous miniseries and television movies, there always seems to be more King to consider. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Even King himself has taken a crack at adapting his work, something most authors shouldn't do. See his directorial debut, 'Maximum Overdrive' for a great example as to why. Anyway, King's screenplay for Mary Lambert's 1989 version of 'Pet Sematary' was pretty good, though the film was far less disturbing than what I'd consider his darkest book (and one of his best). As an added bonus, the movie gave us that awesomely absurd Ramones song. Advertisement King's most recent screenplay was for 2016's 'Cell,' an adaptation of the 2006 horror novel set right here in Boston. The movie was the second pairing of Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack in a King story, after the superb '1408.' Fans of the novel were really mad about the movie's changes, but My affectionate reaction surprised me, as the book served as my reunion with King — I'd given up on him after several disappointments — so it holds a place in my heart. That uber-violent Boston Common opener won me over big time. I've read everything he's written since. Stephen King Photo by Alex Gotfryd/CORBIS via Getty Images While we're on the topic of books, some of my favorite novels include 'Night Shift,' 'The Stand,' 'The Eyes of the Dragon,' 'Different Seasons,' 'Pet Sematary,' and a few others I'll get to shortly. On the flipside, he hasn't written a book worse than 'It.' Here's a list of 10 movie favorites. You should know by now that 'The Shining' isn't going to be here. 'Misery' (1990) My favorite King book of all time became one of the best adaptations of his work. One of the best books about the art of writing and the evil of fandom becomes a showcase for Advertisement Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie in the 1976 film "Carrie." Photo by FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images/FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images 'Carrie' (1976) Back when I was too young for R-rated movies, my two older cousins would act them out for us after they saw them. This was one of the movies they 'performed.' They were surprisingly thorough — their version of the PG-rated 'Mommie Dearest' deserved Oscars. When my aunt took me to see 'Carrie,' I pretty much knew the entire movie. And I still jumped at the end! I've never heard an audience scream louder in my entire movie-going career. My favorite De Palma, easily. 'Cat's Eye' (1985) and 'Creepshow' (1982) King wrote the screenplays for these short story-based movies that were directed by two of the best helmers of his work, Lewis Teague and George Romero. Romero tackled the better of the two, the gory and fun tribute to EC Comics that gave Ed Harris one of his first roles and had Ted Danson murdered by Leslie Nielsen. That particular tale disturbed me so much that I was almost sorry I snuck into that R-rated movie. Note I said 'almost.' Teague directed Drew Barrymore's second run-in with King (after 1983's 'Firestarter' — sue me, I like that one, too). Tied together by a cute cat, the film gives a shout out to 'Night Shift' by using two of its stories, 'Quitters, Inc' and 'The Ledge.' It's rather brutal at times for animal lovers, but the cat not only survives, it takes its revenge. For a far nastier tale of King kitty cat revenge, try 'Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.' 'Cujo' (1983) Teague also directed this tense, suspenseful adaptation of King's novel about a rabid killer St. Bernard. Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro are trapped in a car while the rabid dog goes on a tear. Scared the hell out of me as a 13-year old — and I'd read the book! Thankfully, the movie changes King's ending. Advertisement 'Christine' (1985) You can make an argument that this is lesser John Carpenter, but you can't deny it's a damn gorgeous looking piece of widescreen filmmaking. Plus. the titular killer Plymouth Fury is really, really cool. It gets set on fire and still manages to run over its victim. Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, River Phoenix, and Jerry O'Connell in the 1986 film "Stand by Me," directed by Rob Reiner. Columbia Pictures 'Stand by Me' (1986) and 'The Shawshank Redemption' (1994) 'Different Seasons,' the four novella book King wrote in 1982, produced two of the top five cinematic adaptations of his work. These two have a companion piece in 'The Life of Chuck,' as they're also not horror films. Before Rob Reiner met Annie Wilkes, he directed this bittersweet, controversially profane tale of four boys who take a trip to see a dead body. All four actors — Jerry O'Connell, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, and the late River Phoenix — give excellent performances, and I haven't met a guy yet who didn't identify with one of their characters. (I'm a combination of Wheaton's King stand-in and Feldman's brutalized kid.) Before he directed his almost-as-good take on 'The Mist,' Frank Darabont made the Tim Robbins-Morgan Freeman prison movie that keeps topping the rankings at IMDb. Not bad for a movie that originally flopped at the box office. Freeman should have won that Oscar. Christopher Walken in 'The Dead Zone.'' Paramount Pictures 'The Dead Zone' (1983) My favorite David Cronenberg film gets dismissed by his fans as a mere work for hire, but he gets a career-best performance out of Christopher Walken. Better than any actor, Walken nails the heartbreak of so many King characters possessed with a power they do not want. It's also a perfect movie to watch in today's political climate. Though it's Cronenberg's tamest movie, he still reminds us he's the king of body horror. Those scissors — shudder!! Advertisement 'The Dark Half' (1993) Romero directed Timothy Hutton in a dual role in this adaptation of one of my favorite King books. Both book and movie require a large suspension of disbelief, but once again, King traverses the mind of a writer with fascinating results. Inspired by his Richard Bachman revelation, King gives Romero plenty of gory mayhem to put onscreen. I didn't think the director could pull off the novel's most disgusting moments, but he does. He even outdoes Hitchcock in the murderous birds department. Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
New York Post
17-05-2025
- New York Post
Why the time has come for New Yorkers to trust the subway again
On back-to-back nights last week, I bumped into two New Yorkers made famous by the subway: Lenore Skenazy and Daniel Penny. Skenazy rose to prominence in 2008 as 'America's Worst Mom' for letting her 9-year-old son ride the 6 train alone; Penny in 2023 for restraining Jordan Neely, a repeat offender menacing other passengers, in a headlock that would lead to Neely's death. Skenazy's and Penny's incidents took place 15 years apart, but are united by a perennial question: Is the subway safe enough for New York's most vulnerable? 5 Author and parenting activist Lenore Skenazy became famous a decade ago when she let her young kids ride the subway alone. Zandy Mangold Back in the oughts, Skenazy argued that the real threat to kids wasn't dangerous riders, but overprotective parents who never let them develop the skill of independence. The subway, in theory, is the ultimate liberator for kids and parents alike. I'm raising my kids in the suburbs, and the biggest pullback to city life isn't the arts or the restaurants — it's the chance for my kids to grow in confidence and be exposed to the world without my hand-holding. City life for kids, though, requires trust in public order. When Skenazy made a name for herself by sending little Izzy into the subway alone, the city's trust was peaking. Just months before, MTA had announced that ridership was at a 50-year high, and subway crime was at a record low. 5 Daniel Penny put Jordan Neely in a headlock that would lead to Neely's death. Steven Hirsch Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his successor, Michael Bloomberg, New Yorkers were safer than they had been in generations. The secret sauce those mayors used was 'broken windows' policing, targeting disorder and low-level crime to maintain public peace and confidence in public spaces. The way scholars George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson saw it, if you tolerate broken windows, graffiti, fare evasion, and low-level lawlessness, you signal that no one is in charge and you invite bigger crimes to follow. But when you enforce the basics, you stop that spiral before it metastasizes. With a focus on the small stuff, NYPD was able to keep a lid on the big stuff, build trust in the system, and prevent recurrences of the mayhem of the 1970s and 1980s that spawned Charles Bronson's 'Death Wish' on the silver screen and, in real life, Bernie Goetz, the so-called Subway Vigilante. 5 The mayhem that greeted subway riders during the 1970s and 1980s was so extreme that it inspired the iconic film 'Death Wish.' FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images Disastrously, however, the city's voters turned away from that center-right consensus on crime and handed the keys to Gracie Mansion to Bill de Blasio. Following de Blasio's election in 2014, the city slashed proactive policing, ended stop-question-and-frisk, and sent the clear message that low-level crimes would go unenforced. The result: more fare evasion, more disorder, and more violence. According to research from Aaron Chalfin, associate professor of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, felony assaults in the subway system tripled from 2009 to 2023, even while ridership fell by 20%. 5 A group of kids can be seen leaving the 34th Street Penn Station subway station in Manhattan in October 2022. Stephen Yang With Big Bill's 'compassionate' policing approach put into practice, it was only a matter of time before crime surged and a modern subway defender was forced to rise to the occasion. That man was Daniel Penny. On May 1, 2023, Jordan Neely — already arrested more than 40 times, including for punching a 67-year-old woman in the face and breaking her nose — boarded an F train in Manhattan. According to witnesses, Neely raged at passengers, yelling that someone was going to die and that he wasn't afraid of prison. Penny stepped in and ended the threat. Daniel Penny's act is one that no New Yorker should ever have to take. But these days, we need brave men like Daniel Penny on board because city leadership has failed to create the conditions that let parents feel as confident as Skenazy did in the Bloomberg era. 5 Mayor Adams can claim some improvement on subway violent crime numbers, which began to creep back up during the tenure of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, according to reports. Paul Martinka Thankfully, though, the tide is turning in favor of order. Following the horrific burning of a woman on the F train in December, the NYPD launched a new Quality-of-Life Division last month to crack down on low-level offenses, just like the broken windows playbook calls for. Summonses and arrests are up, and crime numbers are looking better. As the Manhattan Institute's Rafael Mangual told me, 'progress is being made — in part because more resources are being devoted to the subways.' Mangual added, however, 'disorder that doesn't make it into official stats is still what riders experience every day.' And parents like me can still feel that. If New York is going to be a place for kids to range free again, like Lenore Skenazy did 17 years ago, we need a full return to the public safety principles that made it possible. Jordan McGillis (@jordanmcgillis) is the economics editor at City Journal.
