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...
Ten short films about morality
Famed Polish writer/director Krzysztof Kieslowski already had a handful of feature films and documentaries under his belt when his writing partner, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, gave...
John Hughes for kids
Released a year ago, the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie captured remarkably little of the sly charm of the Jeff Kinney books that line my son’s bookshelf. The film did, however, capture enough of the fan base to warrant a sequel. And here we are. And it’s a little ...
A live-action Looney Tunes cartoon
Wes Anderson’s cinematic style did not appear fully formed. It took a few movies over five years before Anderson locked in on formal compositions,...
A foggy reflection
In 1998, Walt Disney Feature Animation released its 36th film, its first and only retelling of a Chinese legend: Mulan, the story of a...
BIFF 2013: Finding light in the darkness
Somewhere in a Ukrainian cave, the film crew for No Place on Earth switched off their headlamps...
Maid in Mexico
Luxury hotels are bizarre, magical places. They are like hermetically sealed chambers where every possible amenity has been accounted for: Food, drink, entertainment, even...
A knife in the water and the snakes in the grass
In the history of cinema, there are few feature debuts as mysterious, haunting and assured as Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water. Yes, that...
Strength and decay: One strongman’s quest for the American dream
New Jersey strongman Stan “Stanless Steel” Pleskun, the “Strongest Man in the World at Bending Steel,” and his struggle to build a career performing feats of strength are the subject of New York filmmaker Zach Levy’s award-winning documentary Strongman, which will ...
Uncomfortable in the uncanny valley
Directed by Steven Spielberg, a longtime fan of the source material, The Adventures of Tintin begins with a gorgeous animated credit sequence, deftly incorporating bits of the narrative about to unfold. It’s as nifty as the overture in Spielberg’s earlier Catch Me If...
