2018 in Review: What We Liked on the Big Screen (Documentaries Edition)
The reason I separate out documentaries is not because I feel they should be judged differently than feature films, but because I want to put as many great doc titles […]
Steve Prokopy is chief film critic for the Chicago-based arts outlet Third Coast Review. For nearly 20 years, he was the Chicago editor for Ain’t It Cool News, where he contributed film reviews and filmmaker/actor interviews under the name “Capone.” Currently, he’s a frequent contributor at /Film (SlashFilm.com) and Backstory Magazine. He is also the public relations director for Chicago's independently owned Music Box Theatre, and holds the position of Vice President for the Chicago Film Critics Association. In addition, he is a programmer for the Chicago Critics Film Festival, which has been one of the city's most anticipated festivals since 2013.
2018 in Review: What We Liked on the Big Screen (Narratives Edition)
I’m the dummy who waits until the year actually ends before rolling out my Best Of… lists, and that’s because I’m often able to squeeze in about a dozen or […]
Interview: Stars of If Beale Street Could Talk On Getting the Part and Finding Love in Every Scene
The lead actors in If Beale Street Could Talk, the latest work from Moonlight filmmaker Barry Jenkins, had two very different paths that brought them to this extraordinary movie, adapted […]
Interview: Filmmaker Barry Jenkins on Adapting the “Unfilmable,” and Sneaking into Screenings of If Beale Street Could Talk
Writer/director Barry Jenkins has made something bold and beautiful in his third feature, If Beale Street Could Talk, based on a book by James Baldwin that has long been labeled […]
Review: In Risky Cheney Biopic VICE, Former VP is the Supervillain
Whether or not you enjoy this biopic on former Vice-President Dick Cheney may depend a great deal on how much you enjoy snark, skimming the surface of a subject who […]
Review: Jennifer Lopez in Second Act Doesn’t Deserve a First Look
In a true Christmas miracle, everything about Second Act, the new Jennifer Lopez film, manages to scream that it’s both trying too hard and not trying hard enough. Foregoing any real […]
Review: Transformers Franchise Surprises with Friendship, Heart and Heroism in Bumblebee
Taking what is essentially the kid-and-her-pet scenario that is as old as time and applying it to a sci-fi adventure story that acts as a prequel to director Michael Bay’s […]
Review: DC’s Big, Bold Aquaman Isn’t a Masterpiece; It Is a Feast for the Eyes
Here’s the thing about the latest film based on a DC Comics superhero: it’s actually a lot of fun. Aquaman is not great—it’s barely even good—but it’s a great deal […]
Review: Building on a Legacy, Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns Is Sure to Delight
I’ll be the first to admit, I never really understood the mystique of the Mary Poppins character. Or perhaps to put it more precisely, I certainly got what she represented […]
Review: Mortal Engines Is A Long Way from Launching the Next Great Franchise
There’s no telling why the screenwriters of The Lord of the Rings trilogy—Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson—thought that the Mortal Engines four-book series (written by Philip Reeve) was […]
Review: Kore-eda’s Shoplifters Is a Masterful, Elegant Story of the Families We Choose
From one of the current masters of Japanese cinema, Hirokazu Kore-eda (Nobody Knows; Like Father, Like Son; Our Little Sister; After the Storm), Shoplifters tells the story of a group of petty criminals […]
Review: Clint Eastwood’s The Mule May Not Be PC; It’s Also Not Half Bad
If Clint Eastwood’s own recent personal history wasn’t so steeped in botched political messages, I don’t think his films (with the obvious exception of American Sniper) would be so overly […]