Bernard Boo's Movie Reviews
All movie reviews written by Bernard Boo
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Bettie Page Reveals All
As one subject in director Mark Mori’s loving hagiography Bettie Page Reveals All says, when you see Ms. Page in a photograph, it’s like she’s looking straight into your eyes. In the film, precious audio recordings of Page reflecting on...
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The Punk Singer
Throughout the ’90s and into the early 2000’s, Kathleen Hanna blazed a trail for young feminists everywhere, fronting the blistering punk band Bikini Kill and the dance-y electroclash band Le Tigre, and co-founding the riot grrrl movement. Her rousing...
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Twice Born
Sergio Castellitto’s adaptation of his wife Margaret Mazzantini’s novel, Twice Born is an overwrought romantic melodrama set in the Bosnian conflict that features two fine actors turning in sick-day performances. The Italian actor-turned-director fails to draw anything substantial out of his...
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Sweet Dreams
In 1994, Rwanda was devastated by the genocide that saw the country’s Hutus slaughter nearly 1 million Tutsis in a vengeful, horrific act of malice. Rwanda has been on the mend to this day, striving to redefine itself and...
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Philomena
Judi Dench, an actress capable of moving mountains with her onscreen power, is capable of much more than what’s required of her in Philomena, a good film based on an astounding true story, directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen). Embodying...
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Much like its successful predecessor, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire–directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) and based on the book series by Suzanne Collins–features rock-solid performances, great writing, and inventive action set pieces set in a sci-fi dystopia. The...
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The Armstrong Lie
In 2008, when legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong announced that he would return from retirement and compete in the Tour de France once again (he’d won seven years straight, from 1999 to 2005), director Alex Gibney saw an incredible opportunity...
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American Promise
American Promise is a terrific film about racial imbalance and family dynamics, whose immense 13-year production process (from 1999 to 2012) was lengthy by design; filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson began documenting their son, Idris, and his best...
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Running From Crazy
Barbara Kopple, director of the riveting 1976 labor strike documentary, Harlan County U.S.A., misfires with her latest doc, Running From Crazy, a film that homes in on all the wrong things while the good stuff flies under the radar. Through the...
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Dallas Buyers Club
Real-life figure Ron Woodruff was a self-proclaimed legend of the rodeo; a shit-kicking, wild-woman-wrangling, tough sumbitch who’d put up his dukes at the drop of a hat. In the mid-1980’s, the apex of the AIDS crisis in the U.S.,...