Bernard Boo
667 articles written by Bernard Boo
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Young Ones
Jake Paltrow's post-apocalyptic Western will dazzle you with style, underwhelm you with melodrama.
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The E-Team On Investigating War Crimes: You Cannot Do This Job Without a Sense of Humor
Filmmakers Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman, and subjects Anya and Ole talk E-Team, the latest Netflix Original documentary about the lives of four members of the special division of Human Rights Watch.
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23 Blast
A truth-based football melodrama that fumbles 50 yards short of the end zone.
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Dylan Baker: If Anyone Can Find Comfort in This Film, I’ll Be Happy
In his debut feature, Dylan Baker (Spider-Man 2, Secretariat) pays homage to the miraculous story of Travis Freeman, a former high school football player from Corbin, Kentucky. Something of a town hero, Travis lost his sight completely at the height...
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Judy Irving On Nature Filmmaking: It Forces Me to Focus On Who We Share the Planet With
Bay Area filmmaker Judy Irving has had a fascination with Pelicans for about as long as she can remember. “I really loved what they looked like, that dinosaur look,” she told us as we caught up with her in...
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Justin Simien: I Don’t Need to be Told Racism is Bad–I’m More Interested in Talking About Identity
First-time filmmaker Justin Simien’s satirical comedy Dear White People follows four black students at a fictitious Ivy League school as they struggle with identity and self-worth. Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams) is a shy, gay journalist who fits in nowhere; Troy...
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Listen Up Philip
If you can bear it, Perry and Schwartzman's misadventures of a misanthrope is an intriguing study in misery.
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Dear White People
A campus-set satire that keenly observes black identity and finds humor in the absurdity of "post-racial" America, Justin Simien's blistering debut provides ample food for thought.
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Damien Chazelle: We’re Too Narrative-Focused When It Comes to Movies
As we emerge on the other side of the long film festival season and move into awards season, Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash has been drumming up (sorry) so much good publicity that it isn’t crazy to think the 29-year-old filmmaker may be holding...
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Maika Monroe On Being a Badass, ‘The Guest’
In Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s The Guest, their genre-blending follow-up to 2013’s You’re Next, Dan Stevens plays an ex-soldier who ingratiates himself into the family of one of his fallen comrades. With his good looks and Southern charm, he’s got...
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The Guest
If you’re familiar with Dan Stevens, it’s probably with his work on Downton Abbey as the kind-hearted English gentleman Matthew Crawley. Other than that, his career is largely a blank slate, with most of us having no preconceived notions about him as an actor. This absence...
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Nadav Schirman, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, and the Amazing Story of ‘The Green Prince’
A Palestinian and son of a Hamas leader, Mosab Hassan Yousef was raised deeply entrenched in the Middle Eastern conflict. In his early twenties, he was captured and interrogated by Gonen Ben Yitzhak, a “handler” working for the Shin...
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MVFF37 Day 6: Whiplash, Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
After five days of the typical film festival arthouse heartbreakers and soul-shakers, I began to feel a bit of emotional fatigue as I reached the halfway point of MVFF37. Mr. Turner, The Homesman, Clouds of Sils Maria–all fine films, but how much...
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Hossein Amini: I Struggle So Much With Dialogue…I Find Silent Storytelling More Interesting
Best known for writing Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive, Hossein Amini makes his directorial debut with the ’60s noir-ish throwback, The Two Faces of January, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. Set in Greece in 1962, the film follows a vacationing...
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MVFF37 Days 4 & 5: The Imitation Game, Like Sunday, Like Rain, More
Our last MVFF37 diary was all about Elle Fanning, who just days ago became the youngest ever recipient of the Mill Valley Award. The following day, Chinese-American chef Cecilia Chiang, at 95 years old, walked the red carpet herself...