Kathryn Bigelow’s film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, has generated a great deal of outrage over its treatment of torture: Bigelow has been likened more than once to Leni Riefenstahl, the filmmaker associated with Hitler, for justifying, whitewashing or apologizing for the Bush Administration’s use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation” strategies. I’ve even seen writers I respect criticizing it without actually seeing it, or urging others not to see it because, by spending our $10 on it, we’d be sending our approval of torture out to the world. I don’t take kindly to anyone who tells me that I should take their opinion as truth and not have the chance to form my own. So perhaps I went into the film predisposed to be on Bigelow’s side. It’s true, the film doesn’t take a stand one way or another — the screenwriter, Mark Boal, has said that it intentionally leaves it to you, the viewer, to form your own opinions. And there is a lot left out: Boal doesn’t bring in the passionate debate about torture that was going on at the time, other than a brief clip of Obama on TV, stating that “We don’t torture.” On the other hand, Bigelow doesn’t shy away from showing how ugly and brutal those interrogation sessions were, or how they dehumanized the torturers as well as the tortured. Nor does the film fudge how much useful information was discovered by torturing his suspected associates (not much). It’s hard not to compare “Zero Dark Thirty” with the other recent CIA-vs-terrorist cultural phenomenon, TV’s “Homeland.” (It doesn’t help that I indulged in a “Homeland” marathon over the winter holiday, watching all 24 episodes in about a week and a half.) In both the film and the TV series, a brilliant young woman is obsessed with capturing the top terrorist, even when those around her lose focus, divert resources or don’t believe the evidence she’s uncovered is real. But the similarity between “Zero Dark Thirty” ’s Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, and “Homeland” ’s Carrie Matheson, played by Claire Danes, ends there. Maya has no mentors, no family, no love interests, no interesting mental illness to create extra drama. She is alone, and for over a decade has one goal only: to find “UBL” using the tools she has available. She does make one personal connection, to a more experienced CIA analyst and rival, wonderfully played by Jennifer Ehle with her signature warmth. (This is one film that passes the Bechdel test with flying colors: two women defined entirely by their relationship to their work and each other, not to men.) But that doesn’t last. The movie moves crisply through the 11 years between 9/11 and the final hours leading up to the assault on the compound at Abbottabad in Pakistan. Maya believes that finding the courier who communicates between Bin Laden and the outside world will lead to Bin Laden himself, but it takes years to convince her superiors to put the resources into locating him. Then it takes many more months to determine the likelihood that he is in the compound, and another half-year to convince the Obama administration to go in. (James Gandolfini has an excellent cameo as the Leon Panetta-like figure who makes the final call.) The final quarter of the movie plays out in real time, and is breathtaking — as good a piece of filmmaking as I can recall. As suspenseful storytelling, as stylish filmmaking and as a reasonably accurate record of a narrow slice of very recent history (based on the incomplete information available) “Zero Dark Thirty” succeeds. (There are many more stories yet to be told about these events.) Chastain’s steely, almost gloomy performance is excellent, as is the surrounding very large cast, particularly Joel Edgerton as the leader of the Navy Seal team. “Zero Dark Thirty” is not jingoistic, nor does it sugarcoat or overhype any part of the story. What it does is tell the story, in all its moral complexity and complicated human mess. Don’t let anyone talk you out of seeing it. “Zero Dark Thirty” is rated R for violence, brutal images and language. It is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, and elsewhere.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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