Screen
La dolce vita
There’s an old story (probably embellished, possibly apocryphal) from Blackboard Jungle’s opening weekend. Not many people remember that 1955 teen drama starring Sidney Poitier and...
‘Vampire’s Assitant’ doesn’t have enough bite
In the bizarre world of Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, there’s a war brewing over “portion” control. It seems the truce between those who sip, leaving humans a little weaker but none the wiser, and those who gorge, gluttons who leave death, destruction and...
Savage deception, revealed
Amir Bar- Lev’s previous documentary, My Kid Could Paint That, questioned the authorship of a little girl’s unusually sophisticated and lucrative canvases, and the role her father may have played in their creation. It was a detective story as well as a highly ...
Just as I remember
This is not based on a true story; this is a true story.” So proclaims the title cards that open American Animals — a...
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 ...
Daydream believer
You may overlook the anachronisms at first, but a few things ought to tip you off that Women Talking, the latest from writer-director Sarah Polley,...
The tin shine of BIFF
As the Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF) celebrates its 10th anniversary, founders Kathy and Robin Beeck have much to celebrate...
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story
If someone asks you to name a mermaid, any mermaid, what is the first name that comes to mind? Lorelei? Madison? Ariel? Probably the...
Indifference wins the day
The best romantic comedies have a blithe, take-it-or-leave-it spirit. Larry Crowne has the opposite. It’s the neediest movie of 2011, and one of the phoniest...
The good lie
Billi (Awkwafina) has come home to China. Specifically Changchun — a city she left at the age of 6, when her father relocated his...
The beast within
The beauty of cinema is that nothing is what it seems. Images are not literal explanations, but visual descriptions of an emotional experience, and...
