Review: The Nun, Cheap Scares, Shocking Moments, Missed Opportunity
As we learned in 2016’s The Conjuring 2, Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) has been haunted by what she later discovers is a demon named Valak, who takes the shape of […]
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.
As we learned in 2016’s The Conjuring 2, Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) has been haunted by what she later discovers is a demon named Valak, who takes the shape of […]
In 2014, Australian-born twin brothers Jonathan and Josh Baker wrote and directed the short film Bag Man, about a 12-year-old, African-American boy who leaves his home in Harlem carrying only […]
I’ll admit, I did this interview so long ago, I almost forgot I’d done it. But when reviews began to pop up for the exciting screen-centric, missing-person thriller Searching, I […]
One of the most impressive feature debuts I’ve seen in quite some time is Bing Liu’s documentary Minding the Gap, about three boys growing up in Rockford, Illinois, and bonding […]
There’s a moment in the footage presented in the documentary John McEnroe: In The Realm Of Perfection in which McEnroe dives for a ball he knows he has no chance […]
Mixing genres can be a tricky thing in the movies, but in the last couple years, some of the finest exercises in horror—The Babadook, A Quiet Place, The Witch, Hereditary—have […]
The Bookshop, a bittersweet, fragile drama set in 1959 England based on the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, centers on Florence Green (the always great Emily Mortimer), a widow who has spent months […]
There are times when telling a story simply and with as few frills as possible results in a film with the greatest dramatic impact. Such is the case with director […]
Although the horror-comedy Arizona is the first feature from Jonathan Watson, he has actually spent many years working second unit on films and TV series created by the likes of […]
Based on the novel by Meg Wolitzer (adapted by Jane Anderson), The Wife is the story of a nearly 40-year marriage that is held together by the same things that […]
I’ve never read either of the books written by Henri Charrière upon which Papillon is based, but I can tell you that the 1973 film is a perfect movie—a character […]
Although the setup to this British crime comedy is a bit of a stretch, the execution is often quite funny, and let’s face it: anytime you get a chance to […]