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.
Documentary filmmaker Ryan White has a true gift for not only telling heartfelt stories about people that the world has reduced to pop-culture figures (Good Ol’ Freda, Serena, Ask Dr. […]
In 2007, writer/director/editor Jason Eisener won a contest for directing the best grindhouse trailer for the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. The trailer was for a fake film called Hobo […]
The plight of Irani-born writer/director/producer Jafar Panahi (Taxi, The Circle, Three Faces) has become known around the globe: he has been harassed and even imprisoned recently by the government of […]
Part biopic, part history lesson, part English class, the documentary Turn Every Page explores the 50-year professional relationship and friendship between author Robert Caro (now 87 years old) and his […]
In 2018, writer Sev Ohanian and writer/director Aneesh Chaganty released a unique and tension-filled missing-person mystery calling Searching that features a story told entirely on screens—as in computer and phone […]
From the opening titles of The Seven Faces of Jane: “In the summer of 2021, eight filmmakers were invited to create a section of a feature film without any knowledge […]
There’s a fine line between ridiculous and stupid, and many of Gerard Butler’s movies dance along that line, often tripping over themselves and landing on the stupid side of things. […]
Admittedly, I’m a sucker for a Western, even if it’s a half-assed attempt at one using all the tropes that the genre has at its disposal. But at some point, […]
On paper, this film actually makes sense, even if it might not work out in the end. Actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actor/musician Rita Wilson, were watching the 2015, […]
The only big gripe I have about the new evil-robot thriller M3GAN is that there isn’t a single second of this movie where we don’t know that at some point […]
Shot by cinematographer Luc Montpellier in muted tones that almost make the film look like it was shot in black-and-white and then tinted to match the mood of each moment, […]
It’s the last Friday of the year, so it’s time to reveal my Best of the Year list. As always, I was able to squeeze in about 10-12 additional films […]