Review: Overly Sentimental The Miracle Season Lacks Authenticity
When a docudrama ends with a collection of photos and film/video of the real events you’ve just seen dramatized, it’s really easy to wonder why the filmmakers didn’t attempt a […]
34th Chicago Latino Film Festival Offers Two Weeks of Diverse New Films
It’s a strong weekend for film festivals in Chicago, as Doc10 happens on the city’s north side and the 34th Chicago Latino Film Festival kicks off at AMC River East […]
Third Year’s a Charm for DOC10, Chicago’s Only Documentary Film Festival
In just three years, Chicago’s DOC10 film festival has become a destination for the year’s best documentaries as they make their way through the festival circuit. Just one weekend each […]
What to Watch on Netflix and DVD: April 2018
Netflix’s slate of April releases contains a fair number of acknowledged classics, including Se7en, Scarface, and Life is Beautiful. If you’ve seen all those films already, however, here are some […]
Screens Monthly: April
By April, it can be harder and harder to justify time spent in a movie theater. The days are finally getting longer and Spring is in full swing. In true […]
Review: Aggravating, Dumb Birthmarked Totally Misses the Mark
This odd little family tale of two respected, married scientists, Ben Morin (Matthew Goode) and Catherine Morin (Toni Collette), is essentially an exercise in figuring out who among the characters […]
Review: Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer as an Artistic Odd Couple in Final Portrait
In his latest effort as a writer/director, Stanley Tucci (Big Night, The Imposters) has taken what is essentially a footnote in the long career of artist and known lothario Alberto […]
EU Film Festival: Week 4 Preview (and Closing Night)
Now in its last week at the Gene Siskel Film Center, the EU Film Festival boasts another fine crop of films to check out as the affair winds down. We’re […]
Review: Steeped in Nostalgia, Spielberg’s Ready Player One is Youthful, In-Your-Face Fun
There are those who think that living in the past and allowing nostalgia to be a chief driving force in your life is a bad thing, and it certainly can […]
Review: Stop Motion Animation Wows in Anderson’s Touch-and-Go Isle of Dogs
In a similar way that writer/director Wes Anderson’s previous feature, The Grand Budapest Hotel, seemed to spring forth from his current obsessions with filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch and the writings of […]
Review: Charming Romcom Keep The Change Does the Genre Good
Despite its formulaic nature, making a decent romcom isn’t easy to do. It’s the reason films like When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle remain mainstays, classics of happily […]
Review: Coming of Age with a Twist in Flower
One of the things I noticed immediately when scanning the credits for director/co-writer Max Winkler’s (Ceremony) latest work, Flower, is that it’s executive produced by David Gordon Green, Jody Hill, […]