Film Review: XX, A Feminist Perspective on Horror
In an effort to expand on the current wave of female-directed horror breakthroughs—such as Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Jennifer Kent’s […]
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.
Film Review: A United Kingdom, An Inspiring Not-So-Simple True Love Story That Changed the World
A wonderful trend in the last year of film has been the uncovering of long-forgotten (and sometimes, virtually unknown) stories about ground-breaking achievements that have quite literally changed history. While […]
Film Review: Fist Fight, A Mediocre Afterschool Special
In many strange ways, the raunchy comedy Fist Fight has a few important messages buried in its brutality, most of which have to do with the decline of the public […]
Film Review: The Great Wall, Strange and Bold
Admittedly, it sounds like a ridiculous idea on paper. Hell, even when you see it executed on the big screen, you almost can’t believe that somebody came up with the […]
Film Review: A Cure for Wellness, A Spectacular Thud
While director Gore Verbinski has true gifts for immersive production design (as he did in the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films) and just generally creeping us out (The […]
An Overview of the 2017 Oscar Nominated Short Films
Some of the finest directors working today cut their teeth on (and occasionally return to) short films. Look at any Pixar film today, and I promise you whoever directed it, […]
Film Review: Alone in Berlin, An Inspiring Rebellion
The 1947 novel “Every Man Dies Alone,” by author Hans Fallada, is best known for being one of the first anti-Nazi books published by a German writer after World War […]
Film Review: The Red Turtle, Magnificently Realized
The natural inclination after watching the Oscar-nominated, timeless, and slightly surrealistic The Red Turtle is to wonder what centuries-old mythology serves as its source material. In truth, this wordless story […]
Film Review: Fifty Shades Darker, Stupid and Loathsome
It’s true what they say: familiarity breeds contempt. And the more I get to know the characters in the Fifty Shades film, the more I find them stupid and loathsome. […]
Film Review – John Wick: Chapter 2, Unflinchingly Brutal
During the course of the first John Wick film (released in 2014), writer Derek Kolstad and first-time director Chad Stahelski (a former stunt man and coordinator) hinted at a vast […]
Film Review: The Lego Batman Movie, Is it Possible to Have Too Much of a Good Thing?
Sitting through the high-energy, brightly colored, million-jokes-per-minute The Lego Batman Movie, I was reminded of a question that I haven’t had the opportunity to ask myself in recent months: Is […]
Film Review: Saving Banksy, A Glimpse Into the Clandestine Grey Market of Purchasable Street Art
Although it doesn’t end the debate about whether street art/graffiti art/anonymous art is a fancy term for vandalism, the documentary Saving Banksy lays out the captivating story of a handful […]