Screens Monthly: Premieres, Festivals and Toronto Dispatches in September
The kids are back in school, summer is winding down and before long, we’ll all be hibernating again through another Chicago winter. In the meantime, more than a few great […]
Review: Playing with Time, Passably, in Don’t Let Go
Movies that play around with time, time travel or our ability to change the past are a sticky situation at best. There’s one school of thought (namely the Back to […]
Review: Love, Antosha Chronicles a Life Fully Lived, Lost Too Soon
Twice in 2011, I was fortunate enough to have met actor Anton Yelchin, and I can vouch for the fact that he could talk your ear off about all manner […]
Review: Brittany Runs A Marathon Focuses on One Woman’s Journey to the Finish Line
I just got home from a run. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write. But it’s true. After my jog today, I’ve completed week four of Couch to 5k, […]
Review: How Chicago and France Made Bessie Coleman, First Black Aviatrix
From director Olivier Sarrazin, this French production about the first African-American woman to receive a pilot’s license (although she had to go all the way to France to make it […]
Review: The Peanut Butter Falcon Celebrates An Unlikely Friendship Via Memorable Performances
It could have gone so wrong, but the feature writing/directing debut from Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson got to me hard, right in the heart. Although not your typical tearjerker, […]
Review: After the Wedding Remake is No Match for Oscar-Nominated Original
A film like After the Wedding offers so much promise. An English-language remake of the 2007 Academy Award nominee of the same name (that one written and directed by Susanne Bier), […]
Review: The Human Cost of War in Deeply Personal For Sama
The Amazon is burning and the polar ice caps are melting. Immigrants seeking a better life are being separated from their children and detained like animals. Wars are being raged […]
Review: Murderous Comedy Ready or Not Makes Bloody Work of Family Games
So much of what makes the new horror comedy Ready or Not so effective is that it doesn’t feel like it takes place in the real world, even when blood […]
Music Box Theatre Celebrates 90 Years of Cinema With One Week Not to Miss
In a time when all the content anyone could ever desire is quite literally at our fingertips, a movie theater celebrating 90 years in business is a wonder. When that […]
Review: The Nightingale Isn’t an Easy Watch; It’s an Essential One
Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale may just be the hardest film of the year to watch. It is brutal and intense, devastating and unflinching. It is also essential, and features perhaps one […]
Review: One Child Nation Reveals the Personal Toll of China’s Devastating Population Policy
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, One Child Nation doesn’t just tackle the seemingly endless and nefarious ways in which the […]