Screen
To see a man about a demon
Offering moderately scary Roman Catholic “gotchas!” to a global film audience of all creeds, The Rite comes from director Mikael Hafstrom, whose previous film was the stylish supernatural thriller 1408...
Train of thought
No matter how blue-collar or red-meat the story, director Tony Scott’s movies revel in his luxe, glossy yet easily distracted technique that ensures every shot is trailer-ready, and every fractured moment strives for maximum coolness. He’s an old-school cliche-...
Liveaction Oscar shorts a big deal
Start small. That’s the guiding dictum for everything from biological evolution to filmmaking. The live-action shorts that mark the start of most directors’ careers rarely see the light of day outside of specialized festivals; that is, except for the lucky bunch ...
‘Howl’ is arty and difficult, and exactly right for the Sundance...
PARK CITY, Utah — We were not even four hours into Sundance John Cooper-style...
Reel to reel | Week of October 10, 2013
Blue Jasmine After everything in her life falls to pieces, elegant New York socialite Jasmine moves into her sister Ginger’s modest apartment in San Francisco to try to pull herself back together again. Rated PG. At Boedecker, Esquire, Colony Square. Captain ...
Not this again
Disney’s effort to turn Kristen Bell into America’s Sweetheart reaches its tipping point with You Again, a flat romantic comedy that packages her in a funny setup and surrounds her with funny people...
Violence that bores
In a new introduction to the eight-part comic book series Kick-Ass, which was created in tandem with the film version, Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld describes the chief strength of Mark Millar’s superhero lark as extolling “hyper-real super-violence,” “so far...
Fun with boxing
Six years ago, Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby showed up late in the release calendar and walloped enough fans of boxing melodrama cliches to send it straight to the Academy Awards. Now comes The Fighter, an off-center but exceptional boxing film that I prefer ...
