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Byline: Sean Smith
The first scene of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" removes any doubt that the famous child wizard is growing up fast. The camera glides toward a light pulsing in the night, then through an open bedroom window, where Harry is hiding under his covers, playing with his wand and hoping to God he doesn't get caught. Wait a minute. Has new director Alfonso Cuaron inserted a sneaky allusion to the private habits of teenage boys into the family-friendly franchise? Cuaron's a warm, chatty guy and not one to dodge controversy--his last film, "Y Tu Mama Tambien," was so graphic that it was released unrated--but there's no way on earth he's going anywhere near this topic. "This is NEWSWEEK, man!" he says, then laughs for a very long time.
Intentional or not, it's a pitch-perfect bit of subtext, and only the first of many reasons "Azkaban" rocks. Sure, there's a werewolf and a hippogriff and a bunch of other magical stuff, but the real reason this third film in the series outshines the others is that it's about something far more frightening than failing your Potions final or facing Lord Voldemort. It's about being 13. "It's such an archetypal age--the bar mitzvah, the communion," says Cuaron, who replaced Chris Columbus, the director of the first two movies. "It's the moment in which fear is no longer the bogeyman under your bed. It resides inside you. In this story, Harry has to come to terms with his male energy."
In Harry's latest adventure he's being hunted by convicted murderer Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who has escaped from Azkaban prison. Black was supposed to be a...
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