Screen
Hurts so good
Good science fiction makes you ask hard questions. Things like “What is the true core of human nature?” and “Do they really expect us...
Frozen is a bit childish, but that’s OK
Dangling from the edge of Mount Treacly, overlooking the icy abyss of Cliché River, Frozen hurls a Bechtel rope and swings itself to safety in the nick of time. And just in case you miss the climax’s blatantly obvious flipping of established Disney gender roles, ...
The art of the reel
Ghosts aren’t real. This is now confirmed scientific fact after the disembodied spirit of original Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton didn’t immediately, ectoplasmically engulf or...
‘The Wolverine:’ Better Orient-ed
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was the kind of movie that is released with apologies and finger-pointing. After his first solo stint landed with the grace and majesty of a wet fart, odds were stacked against a sequel for Wolvie. But if Hugh Jackman can forcibly warble Les ...
That’s enough, James Franco
At one point, our collective return to Oz (not be confused with Return to Oz, sorry Faruza) was going to see director Sam Raimi deploy Robert Downey Jr. as his titular wizard. The short list after Downey split must have consisted of just two names: James Franco and “...
Many unhappy returns
The hackneyed, half-assed backstory for the lead character in Happy Death Day involves the tragic loss of her mother, which doesn’t actually feel sad...
Film/STILL 1959
1959: fourteen years after the war ended and five years before The Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show, the cinema started to go democratic. Cameras were smaller, weighed less and cheaper, thereby allowing independent directors to make movies they wanted to make ...
reel to reel | Week of July 28, 2011
The 400 Blows François Truffaut sensitively re-creates the trials of his own difficult childhood in The 400 Blows, the film that marked his emergence as one of Europe’s most brilliant auteurs and signaled the beginning of the French New Wave. Talk back after 7 p.m. ...
Not quite naughty, definitely not nice
It’s almost impressive to put together such a cornucopia of talent, such a veritable cavalcade of funny folks, and produce something this listless and...
BIFF 2013: Finding light in the darkness
Somewhere in a Ukrainian cave, the film crew for No Place on Earth switched off their headlamps...
