On Screen

Smart reviews for the visually obsessed. On Screen features film reviews and festival coverage, spotlighting cinematic craft, storytelling and standout performances.

  • Review: ‘Jurassic World’ forgot to cultivate its entire realm (Includes first-hand account)

    Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park was a monumental release. Based on the book of the same name by Michael Crichton, the pair created an epic action-adventure-science-fiction picture that wowed audiences with its incredible special effects and grand story concept. For those two hours in 1993, dinosaurs became real. Now more than 20 years later, Hollywood has once again decided to reach back in time for its latest movie idea, recreating the fantastic park for a new generation. However Jurassic World may impress audiences fresh to the series, but fans of the original franchise will likely be less dazzled.

  • Review: ‘Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World’ expands on the artist’s legacy (Includes first-hand account)

    Many artists gain notoriety after their death. While their lives are chronicled, it’s often through a posthumous biopic in which it’s necessary the artist be portrayed by some actor who mimics their ability for the screen. However more documentary filmmakers have been taking the opportunity to record their talents and tales while the subject is still alive and able to share a first-hand account. Though Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World is being released after the artist’s death, it’s still a privileged instance in which a notoriously private figure opened his life for the film.

  • Review: ‘Sunshine Superman’ soars to great documentary heights (Includes first-hand account)

    While extreme sports are regularly being taken to new levels, the actual practice of pushing the limits and testing boundaries has existed for several decades. And it generally starts with someone asking, “What else could we do?” Sunshine Superman chronicles the life of a man who asked that question in the ‘70s after regular skydiving became too humdrum.

  • Review: ‘Patch Town’ turns a childhood amusement into a sinister plot (Includes first-hand account)

    Children often want to believe their toys, particularly dolls, are real. In fact advertisers tell children they practically are and come from a magical world or toymaker that gives them life for which you are now responsible. But eventually kids grow out of such make-believe ideas and gradually the toys themselves. In Patch Town, this notion is more than a possibility but a horrific way of life for an entire population that exists unaware of their true origin.

  • Review: Nothing secret about ‘Spy’s witty humour (Includes first-hand account)

    The world of espionage is rife with possibilities for smooth and charming agents, but it also has the potential for sharp humour. The latter can be a bit dicey in terms of quality, particularly depending on the type of comedy used — too many pratfalls, bathroom jokes or forced wit can rapidly drag a movie down. There are prominent examples of good and bad films, so Spy had a 50/50 chance of being genuinely entertaining (or alternatively, absolute torture).

  • Review: ‘Big Muddy’ is mired by a single flaw (Includes first-hand account)

    It’s easy to cross the line from just getting by to greed. The grind of having to repeatedly work/hustle/rob just to make ends meet becomes tiring; especially when an end is within view. Of course retirement is dependent on one last, big score. The burden of possibility is more than some can bear and it causes them to be reckless. Such is the case in Big Muddy when everything that could go wrong does.

  • Review: ‘I Am Big Bird’ is a delightful record of the character and man (Includes interview)

    There are certain aspects of childhood that carry through from one generation to the next. Since its inception, Sesame Street has been one of those pieces. Created by The Muppets originator Jim Henson, the show was intended to entertain and teach a young audience. Human characters would interact with the Muppet personalities and demonstrate valuable life and educational lessons. Though the furry, fuzzy and feathered creatures became international sensations, little was known about the people who operated them allowing them to maintain their anonymity in spite of being worldwide stars. I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story sheds some light on the man who’s brought life to the lovable yellow bird and his grouchy friend for nearly 50 years.

  • Review: Milla Jovovich is a ‘Survivor’ for making it to the end (Includes first-hand account)

    After 9/11, governments have become increasingly sensitive to possible terrorist attacks. While they may be unable to prevent every assault on home soil, they can cast a tighter-knit net to thwart potential enemies from entering the country. In Survivor, a State Department employee at the U.S. embassy in London discovers someone is cutting holes into her network and letting through some possibly dangerous swimmers.

  • Review: ‘Banksy Does New York’ captures the chaos, good and bad (Includes first-hand account)

    When graffiti artist and political activist Banksy announced a one-month residency in New York, it immediately piqued people’s interest. It wouldn’t be the first time he created works overseas, but it would undoubtedly be the most anticipated. By broadcasting his arrival, Banksy was guaranteed an audience for his social commentary that would prove to be some of his most provocative statements to date. The documentary Banksy Does New York is not an authorized account of his visit, but rather a chronicle of how it was experienced by the city’s residents.

  • Review: ‘Tomorrowland’ shows innovation is the answer to everything (Includes first-hand account)

    It doesn’t take much effort to discern people’s expectations of the future are bleaker than they were 50 or even 30 years ago. The images of utopian cities with flying cars and crystal towers are long gone. The looming possibilities of so many destructive forces — from war to aggressive weather to disease to out-of-control technology — make it difficult to be optimistic. But what is that loss of hope doing to the prospective future? Tomorrowland explores both sides of the coin, while providing the ideal solution to the problem.

  • Review: It’s ‘Spring’ and all manner of love is in the air (Includes first-hand account)

    Monsters and romance are not a new pairing. King Kong, Beauty and the Beast and Shrek are good examples in which a connection is established between a woman and her monstrous companion. However the reverse, in which the female is the more ghastly of the two, has not been explored as frequently. In Spring, love is truly blind and completely committed.

  • Review: ‘Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play’ cleverly brightens the darkness (Includes first-hand account)

    A lot has been said in post-apocalyptic narratives about the loss of classic and highly regarded literature, art and film. But what of the remnants of culture that will survive? And the re-emergence of oral histories? Who’s to say popular culture will not find its own place within the newly formed zeitgeist. We live in a world obsessed with the fall of civilization and the violence that will accompany it. But there has to be someone out there trying to retain some sense of normalcy from the past. In Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, playwright Anne Washburn contemplates a society that clings to one of the few artifacts collectively engrained in most people’s memories — The Simpsons.