When people refer to particular actors as “a star of stage and screen,” they are usually referring to performers who have decades of experience moving back and forth between theater […]

Filmmaker Joe Lynch might be better known to many as an actor in the “Holliston” series (created by his filmmaking buddy and co-star Adam Green) than a director. I suspect […]

The films of director Simon Curtis often skirt the line between reality and the myth of a famous person’s life. Rather than attempt to tell the story of Marilyn Monroe, […]

This week, the film Thank You For Your Service is released in theaters. Starring Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now; War Dogs), it’s written and directed by Jason Hall, who is […]

Writer-director Sean Baker has made three films in a row (all told, he’s made six) that have taken an almost hypnotic approach to reality-based fiction. In 2012’s Starlet, Baker and […]

North America’s longest-running competitive film festival, the 53rd Chicago International Film Festival begins on Thursday, Oct. 12 at the AMC River East 21 (where almost every CIFF screening will, once […]

If you’ve been to the movies or turned on a television in the last 25 years, you’ve likely stumbled upon the work of the consummate character actor John Carroll Lynch, […]

So what did I learn from The Fate of the Furious (installment eight of The Fast and the Furious series, in case you’re counting, which you know you are)? When […]

Now hear me out before you judge. This new, fully animated Smurfs movie is nothing like the two previous, mostly live-action films (The Smurfs, The Smurfs 2). If anything, Smurfs: […]

The concept of the new film from director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) seems deceptively simple but as Tom Flynn’s deft screenplay (plucked from the 2014 blacklist) scratches the […]

Look, there’s no getting around the fact that when you bring together three of the classiest, most recognizable older actors currently working (Oscar winners all, I should add), there’s going […]

Sometimes the idea for an animated film is so out there that it actually works in an absurdist way. And in the world we’re living in right now, the idea […]