Review: Top Gun: Maverick Features Impressive Flight Scenes But More Nostalgia Than Novelty
I recently had a wise person tell me that nostalgia is for those who are afraid to face the present, and I tend to agree with that. By that token, […]
Preview: Chicago Media Project’s Doc10 Film Festival Returns with Acclaimed, Essential Filmmaking
Chicago’s only all-documentary film festival, Doc10, has truly established itself over the last seven years as one of the top-tier non-fiction festivals in the nation. Taking place this year primarily […]
Review: Despite a Slightly Dimmer Storyline, Downton Abbey: A New Era Captures Much of the Franchise’s Charms Yet Again
If you had told me over a decade ago that a prim and polished television drama from PBS set within the gilded walls of a great British estate during the […]
Review: Gender-Centric Horror Flick Men Struggles to Find Depth Beyond Trauma
A film like Men, the latest from writer/director Alex Garland (Annihilation, Ex Machina), is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. I’m not even entirely sure it’s my cup […]
Review: Lacking Any Spark, a New Adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter Never Really Ignites
The recent attempt to re-ignite author Stephen King’s work as film adaptations after the first It movie blew up the box office (followed by a solid remake of Pet Sematary) […]
Review: The Sadness Is a Highly Effective and Wildly Unnerving Zombie Thriller
Who knew Taiwanese horror could be so…messy? Marking the feature debut of writer/director Rob Jabbaz (a Canadian filmmaker who has made his professional mark in Taiwan), The Sadness is a […]
Review: With Typical True Crime Style, Our Father Recounts a Troubling Fertility Saga
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the new Lucie Jourdan-directed documentary Our Father is produced by Jason Blum (among others), because the events being recounted are a true-life […]
Review: Set in the 1960s, Happening Is a Starkly Contemporary Story of Reproductive Rights
If everything in the news lately about reproductive rights (and the effort to restrict and remove them) has you feeling despondent and worried, perhaps a screening of Happening, the story […]
Review: Based on a True Story, Operation Mincemeat Offers Drama, History and a Glimpse into WWII-era Personal Lives
One of the things I love about historical dramas is that they have a tendency to be dry, which I realize runs counter to what I typically like about films […]
Review: Shepherd Offers a Horror Film with Physical Scares and Emotional Torment
From writer/director Russell Owen (Inmate Zero) comes Shepherd, a surprisingly effective and angsty horror thriller set on a remote Scottish island where nothing seems to live but sheep, ghosts, and […]
Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Is a Chaotic Mix of Tones and Styles
In many ways, director Sam Raimi (the Evil Dead trilogy, the original Spider-Man trilogy) was the absolute perfect choice to take over the reins of the second Doctor Strange film, […]
Review: A Breezy French Romantic Comedy, Anaïs in Love Finds Honesty, Authenticity
Perhaps because I just saw Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World for a second (and just as impressive) time, Anaïs in Love, the feature directorial debut from actor […]