Review: At MUBI Fest, The Mastermind Adds Harmony to the Heist
The Mastermind is an indie flick, a heist movie, a period piece, and a meditation on American life, but what I failed to realize the first time I watched it […]
Preview: The Salt Shed Is Back for More Tears with Crying at the Shed 2026
What is this salty discharge? The average human tear contains about 2% electrolytes. Especially emotional droplets need even more salt ions to maintain balance in the eye. Therefore, there is […]
Review: Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig Return for Wake Up Dead Man, a Knives Out Mystery Challenging Faith and Shifting the Genre
Although I enjoyed this third installment of the Benoit Blanc/Knives Out mysteries most of all, it’s also the one where Blanc (Daniel Craig) doesn’t show up until about 45 minutes […]
Review: A Man Tries to Start Over, In More Ways than One, in Post-Wildfire Drama Rebuilding
The timing could not have been more difficult for a film like Rebuilding to premiere at Sundance in January, shortly after the devastating LA wildfires. Writer/director Max Walker-Silverman offers a film set […]
Review: Kelly Reichardt’s Observational Filmmaking Style in The Mastermind Makes for a New Type of Heist Movie
Filmmaker Kelly Reichardt’s visual style can be described in many ways—quiet, subtle, humanistic, etc.—but I think the best way to sum up her approach to storytelling is observational. Reichardt channels […]
Dispatch: Mid-Week at Chicago Int’l Film Festival Highlighted by Special Guests, Hidden Gems and More
Hitting the mid-week mark, the Chicago International Film Festival boasts special guests and anticipated films on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 21 and 22; here are the highlights our film critics […]
Dispatch: Sundance Film Festival Continues with an Inspiring Coming-of-Age Documentary and Rose Byrne as a Beleaguered Mother
Our coverage of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival continues with reviews of four films making their world premiere at the festival. Folktales Documentarians Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are a […]
Review: Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers Makes Tennis Sexy and Puts Ambition and Friendship to the Test
Set in the world of competitive tennis, filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria remake) and writer Justin Kuritzkes’ Challengers is about players who are young and hungry, […]
Review: An Austen Heroine for a New Generation in Pretty, Pastel Emma.
Nearly every scene in Emma., the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel about a selfish young woman who sees the error of her meddling ways, looks as if it would be […]
Film Review: God’s Own Country Succeeds with Strength, Tenderness
About half an hour into God’s Own Country, the feature debut from Francis Lee that premiered at Sundance Film Festival last year and opens at the Gene Siskel Film Center […]