2020 in Review: Best Narrative Films of the Year
Call me old fashioned, but I’m a firm believer in not posting a Best of the Year list until the year is actually over. I’m often able to squeeze in […]
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.
2020 in Review: Best Documentary Films of the Year
As I’ve said before, the reason I separate documentaries into their own Best of the Year list is not because I feel they should be judged any differently than feature […]
Review: Without Much to Motivate It or Inspire Us, Wonder Woman 1984 Ultimately Disappoints
There are so many reasons the long-awaited sequel to the groundbreaking Wonder Woman is genuinely bad that I need to start by simply listing them: writing, editing, acting, directing, logic, […]
Review: One Night in Miami Follows the Conversations, Hopes and Frustrations of Four Great Men
The part that we know is fact is that in February 1964, shortly after underdog Cassius Clay defeated heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in Miami (considered one of the greatest upsets […]
Review: News of the World Stars Tom Hanks in a Story of Finding One’s Way Home
Set five years after the conclusion of the Civil War, News of the World (based on the Paulette Jiles novel) tracks the very particular journey of Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd […]
Review: As Filmmaker and Star, George Clooney Creates a Universe in Peril in The Midnight Sky
Marking his seventh feature as a director, George Clooney enters what I would consider his first foray into genre filmmaking with The Midnight Sky, based on author Lily Brooks-Dalton’s Good […]
Interview: Filmmaker Dana Nachman on Filming Pre-COVID and Editing During a Pandemic, Tugging at Heartstrings and Not Ruining Christmas
For a little more than 10 years, documentary filmmaker Dana Nachman has been making some of the most emotionally resonant works out there, films that very often illustrate just how […]
Review: Gerard Butler Stars in Disaster Drama Greenland, Where the End of the World Isn’t All It’s About
Quite often in action films starring Gerard Butler, the action so overshadows anything resembling character development or acting or complex thought that they become big, dumb explosion and punching festivals, […]
Review: Third Installment of Skylines Gets Throwback Alien Action Just Right
The intriguing plot of 2010’s Skyline involved the citizens of Los Angeles being gulped up by an alien invasion for unknown purposes. As written by Liam O’Donnell, I think at […]
Review: Video Game-Turned-Movie Monster Hunter Is Another Unoriginal, Staggeringly Familiar Action Adaptation
On paper, the latest video game (by Capcom, I’m told) turned feature film, Monster Hunter, has elements that should at least make it tolerable for me, despite the fact that […]
Review: Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman Bring Energy, Urgency to August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
If you asked me who my favorite playwright of all time is, I wouldn’t hesitate to answer August Wilson. I was living in New York City in 1990 when I […]
Review: A First-time Filmmaker Discovers Her Truth in Fascinating, Frustrating My First and Last Film
In an attempt to make a documentary about what it means to turn 60, reluctant filmmaker (and retired tech executive) Tracey Thomas ended up making a movie about mortality, grief, […]