Film Review: Jake Gyllenhaal in Stronger Impresses and Inspires
The two best films being released this week are based on high-profile true stories— ’70s tennis drama The Battle of the Sexes (see separate review) and the Boston Marathon bombing […]
Chicago Production Could Be a ‘Hometown Hero’ Thanks to Seed & Spark
An independent filmmaker committed to seeing their movie get made will likely, at some point, turn to crowdfunding to make it happen. Services like Kickstarter and Indiegogo provide a platform […]
Film Review: Eye-Catching Animation, Witty Repartee Keep The LEGO Ninjago Movie Interesting
When I say this is my least favorite of the three Lego animated films, I don’t mean that as an insult; I just mean that the The LEGO Movie and […]
Film Review: Kingsman Sequel is Bigger, Not Necessarily Better
Kingsman: The Secret Service, the 2014 British adaptation of the Mark Millar-Dave Gibbons comic book series, felt subversive because it didn’t feel like it was trying to be subversive. The […]
35th Reeling Film Festival Brings LGBTQ Films to Chicago
The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival known as Reeling—the second-oldest LGBTQ film festival in the world—kicks off its 35th annual events on Thursday, September 21, running through September 28 at […]
‘Design Double Feature’ Highlights Graphic Design and Letterpress Printing Past and Future
The Music Box Theatre is hosting a Design Double Feature on Tuesday, September 19 that will be a glorious night of film for graphic designers, typographers and fans of printing […]
Film Review: Bold Documentary Rat Film Is Full of Creepy Vermin
Unlike the horror movie approach of Morgan Spurlock’s 2016 doc Rats, director Theo Anthony’s first feature, Rat Film, works more subtly in building anxiety levels. Here, it directly links the […]
Film Review: Flawed Rebel in the Rye Doesn’t Dig Deep Enough
Working from the biography J.D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski, writer-director Danny Strong (a successful screenwriter of such works as Lee Daniels’ The Butler and the two-part The Hunger […]
Film Review: First They Killed My Father is Angelina Jolie’s Best Film Yet
The quality of the films debuting on Netflix over the last couple of years has been on a steady incline. Even still, I wasn’t quite prepared for the devastating, true-life […]
Film Review: Women Gracefully Lead the Touching, Winning The Midwife
Catherine Deneuve has been making films since 1957 (!), and to watch her on screen is to watch a master at work. Sixty years after her debut, she continues to […]
Film Review: Cast Chemistry Saves Clunky Spy Thriller American Assassin
Neither great nor bad, but somewhere closer to okay, American Assassin’s strength lies in its appreciation of what an older generation has to offer a younger one, even if the […]
Film Review: mother! is Unsettling, Confusing and Entirely Riveting
You don’t so much watch the latest from writer-director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan) as you endure it, and I’m not saying that in an […]