Review: LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special Indulges Fans in its Time-Hopping, Festive Storyline
It’s not as strong or funny as the two LEGO movies and it only runs about 40 minutes, but for some reason The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is exactly […]
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.
Interview: The Climb Filmmakers, Stars on Using Their Own Names, Building Off Their Short Film, and Inspiration from French Cinema
At its core, the long-delayed art-house comedy The Climb (which had its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Coup de Coeur prize) is about […]
Review: Only Margot Robbie Completists Need Invest in Forgettable Depression-Era Dreamland
Obviously, when Margot Robbie’s name gets attached to anything, I’ll take notice. But the strange little 2019 holdover Dreamland was a work I knew nothing about until a couple of […]
Review: Disappointing Ammonite Keeps Leads Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan from Digging Very Deep
I spent most of my time watching writer/director Francis Lee’s (God’s Own Country) new film Ammonite in awe of its lead character, Mary Anning (Kate Winslet). She’s a reserved but well-respected, […]
Review: Single-Note Come Away Treats Classic Children’s Stories as Fodder for Derivative Dreck
For as much vitriol is being shot this week at the emotional dishonesty of a film like Hillbilly Elegy, I find that crime far more on display in a work […]
Review: Mank Delves into the Process, Memories and Later Years of a Classic Hollywood Screenwriter
The first thing you should do before seeing David Fincher’s Mank is re-watch (or watch for the first time, you cinema philistine) 1941’s Citizen Kane and maybe even do a little […]
Review: Freaky Reinvents the Body-Swap Comedy with a Bloody, Dark and Wicked Take
Sometimes with movies, being given what you want is preferable to being given what you need. I remain a great admirer of the Happy Death Day movies because they delivered […]
Review: Werner Herzog’s Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds Inspires with Big Questions, Grand Visuals
Whenever Werner Herzog directs and narrates a documentary that involves vast landscapes and/or ancient religions, sign me up. Co-helmed with Clive Oppenheimer, Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds involves the pair […]
Review: A Conservative’s Memoir Clashes with a Liberal’s Filmmaking in Confused, Superficially Emotional Hillbilly Elegy
I’m not here to judge the best-selling memoir of J.D. Vance or his conservative politics the way others seem to do in their reviews of the film adaptation of Hillbilly […]
Review: A Documentarian Records—and Participates in—the Twisting, Turning Story of Where She Lies
In the era of multipart docu-series, it’s nice to see a documentary film with multiple twists and turns and questions and theories all in a compact space of less than […]
Review: Predictable Kindred Works Better as Family Drama than Genuine Thriller
Feel free to add director Joe Marcantonio’s debut feature Kindred to the list of recent genre works that are actually family dramas couched in the effective framework of horror and/or […]
Review: Proxima Explores the Ordinary Life and Emotional Ties of an Ambitious Astronaut
I’ve spoken before about those rare instances when you begin watching a movie and realize almost immediately that you know nothing about what you’re about to watch. You certainly haven’t […]