NYICFF Review: Whoever Steals This Book is a dizzying, delightful bookworm's odyssey
I used to be such a reader. For years of my life, I was averaging a book a week, and I was constantly buying new books, devouring them, filling my shelves. In the past few years, my reading has fallen off drastically. It's honestly alarming. Now, I read maybe two or three books a year. I'm a philistine, filling my time instead with video games, movies, and anime. Thus, Whoever Steals This Book, which made its North American premiere at the New York International Children's Film Festival yesterday, felt a little bit targeted. By the end, I kind of felt like that oft-quoted moment from Euphoria : "Is this movie about me ?" The film is about the joy of reading, the transportive journey of diving into a good book, the sense of community that can come from sharing a beloved tome with a friend or neighbor. It scratched some itch in the back of my brain, like... hey, you should start reading again . And don't worry, I intend to. I love how devoted this film is to it...
