Review: Bibliophiles Will Get Lost In the Nostalgia, Promise of The Booksellers
As author Fran Lebowitz reminds us in the terrific new documentary The Booksellers, there was a time not so long ago when, if you had an hour to kill in […]
Chicago’s Independent Cinemas Find Creative Ways to Keep Us Entertained From Home
As we head into our second (and far from last) official week of Illinois’s “Stay at Home” order, keeping busy and entertained remains the best way to keep the Coronavirus […]
Siskel’s CEUFF Week 2: European Films (Mostly) Worth Braving the Crowds For
With the ever-developing news around COVID-19, institutions like the Siskel Film Center are diligently implementing the recommendations and precautions necessary to keep their audiences safe while not compromising programming that’s […]
Siskel’s European Union Film Fest Week 1: Avoid Travel, Head to the Cinema for Adventure
The Chicago European Union Film Festival is the Siskel Film Center’s annual love letter to the cinema of nearly an entire continent, a month-long program that includes films from all […]
Review: We Believe in Dinosaurs Details the Fight Over Creationist “Ark Park” in Kentucky
We Believe in Dinosaurs is the title of the handsomely made documentary feature directed by Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross, but it’s also a statement repeated by several of […]
Review: Citizen K Traces One Man’s Rise and Fall in Putin’s Russia
Perhaps one of his more complicated and layered profile documentaries, the latest from filmmaker Alex Gibney (an Oscar winner for Tales to the Dark Side), Citizen K explores the bizarre […]
Review: Renegade Emergency Medical Service Drives Midnight Family
Although it didn’t make the cut as an Academy Award nominee earlier this week, the documentary feature Midnight Family did make the 15-title Oscar shortlist, and for very good reason. […]
Review: On One Critic’s Life, Words and Influence on Film in What She Said
It seems odd to be reviewing a documentary about a film critic whose influence is still a big part of the critical landscape, in the same way it was surreal […]
Review: White Snake Retells An Ancient Chinese Legend In Slick Animation
Technically a prequel to the ancient Chinese “Legend of the White Snake” tale (which has ben interpreted in a number of major Chinese operas, films, and television series), White Snake […]
Review: The Planet Enters a New, Uncertain Era in Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
As difficult as it is to imagine, the Earth’s condition—both in terms of climate and physical characteristics—is not more a result of human shaping and interference than forces of nature. […]
Review: A Whirlwind of Emotion, Tragic and Comic, in Fleabag One Woman Show
Although not technically a movie, this filmed version of writer/performer Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s recent revival of her one-woman show Fleabag (which then inspired the massively successful two-season BBC series) is available […]
Review: A Man, His Music and a Movement in Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
I always look forward to documentaries made by Stanley Nelson, a filmmaker who seems to have taken it upon himself to tell some of the most fascinating and necessary stories […]