Review: The Early Life of a Jazz Age Star in The Chaperone
Admittedly, most of the people who go to see The Chaperone probably don’t know much about the pre-fame life of silent film star Louise Brooks (played here by Haley Lu […]
Review: Let the Spirit – and Aretha – Move You in Amazing Grace
If I have to convince you to go see this documentary chronicling the two Aretha Franklin performances at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los […]
Review: Laika Continues a Strong Run with Adventurous, Friendly Missing Link
As far as animation houses go, the stop-frame animation loyalists at Laika have a perfect record in my book, with a run that includes ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the […]
Review: A Gritty, Subversive Re-Imagining of Hellboy
You don’t have to like one cinematic version of Hellboy over the other. I wildly adore the two previous films directed by Guillermo del Toro. They are inventive, stylish, beautiful […]
Preview: In Its Fourth Year, DOC10 Presents a Can’t Miss Weekend of Films
In Chicago’s crowded film festival scene, DOC10 has quickly positioned itself as a can’t-miss weekend of fact-based filmmaking. By focusing on just a handful of the most anticipated documentaries of […]
Review: The Gospel of Eureka Provides a Welcome Lesson in Community
At just an hour and 15 minutes long, The Gospel of Eureka manages to tell quite a story about a small town in Arkansas that celebrates pageantry and panache in equal […]
Interview: Amy Seimetz on Pet Sematary, Reading Stephen King as a Kid, Learning Not to Apologize
Amy Seimetz is best known as a high-caliber actor capable of plumbing the depths of just about every character she’s ever played, including as the guilt-ridden wife and mother Rachel […]
Review: Knife+Heart is a Pulsing, Captivating ’70s-Era Slasher
Knife + Heart, a new French film with a decidedly retro vibe, is not for the faint of…well, the faint of heart. Set in 1979 and starring Vanessa Paradis as […]
Review: Love and the Passage of Time in Masterful Ash Is Purest White
There is such haunting truth-telling about the way in which certain fated relationships work in the latest from the great Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, Ash Is Purest White, that you’re […]
Review: The Highwaymen Is Perfectly OK for a Movie Night In
In an alternate version of the current cinematic landscape, one where a film’s best chance at finding an audience is strictly through a theatrical release, a film like The Highwaymen might just […]
Preview: Virginia, a Short Film About Biking and Dancing, Premiering at On the Route Bicycles in Lakeview
Claire Bauman, by her own estimation, is someone who would love Virginia Woolf. She went to Vassar. She’s into experimental theater. She’s interested in history, and especially interested in the […]
Review: 1977’s Between the Lines Features an Impressive Cast in Workplace Drama
This lesser-known curiosity from one of the guiding female voices in independent film in the 1970s and 1980s, Joan Micklin Silver (Hester Street, Crossing Delancy), 1977’s Between the Lines is […]