Cinema as escapism is nothing new, but how we choose to transport ourselves through film can mean different things to different people. The last film I saw on the big screen before […]
When it debuted in 1996, Wes Craven’s Scream, written by Kevin Williamson (who also wrote I Know What You Did Last Summer and would go on to create Dawson’s Creek), made a splash in […]
For the better part of 30 years, actor Michael Jai White has been someone I’ve admired for being one of the few action stars who also can go toe-to-toe with some of […]
Michael Caplan’s documentary about Nelson Algren is a love letter to the gritty Chicago of the past as well as an homage to Algren, perhaps America’s most under-appreciated author. Caplan does an […]
Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi relishes in the ambiguous; or rather, it may be that he excels at exploring the most genuine aspects of our human nature, the fact that very little in […]
The legend of Agent 355 is that she was likely America’s first female spy, in operation during the American Revolution, but that she died without anybody knowing her real name. But as […]
Thanks to a few choice story elements, the second feature from director Randall Okita (The Lockpicker) rises above its B-movie foundation in telling the story of blind former skier Sophie (Skyler Davenport, […]
Although writer/director Pedro Almodóvar has had many creative partnerships over the year (mostly notably with the likes of Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas), his now eight pairings with Penelope Cruz have borne […]
The Gene Siskel Film Center celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022, and the downtown cinema is celebrating with a year-long film series they’re (fittingly) calling 50/50. Every Monday of the year, head […]
It’s the last day of the year, so naturally it’s time to unleash my Best of the Year list. As always, I was able to squeeze in about 10-12 additional films in […]
As is tradition around these parts, I separate documentaries into their own Best of the Year list, not because I feel they should be judged any differently than narrative films, but because […]
Like Orson Welles did nearly 75 years earlier, director Joel Coen (working without brother Ethan) has taken Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, stripped it down to essentials—minimalist set design, shot it in […]
