Film, Film & TV, Review

Dispatch: Siskel Film Center’s Chicago European Union Film Festival: Spotlight on Belgium

After more than 25 years of March featuring the upcoming slate of films released from the nations of the European Union as part of their Chicago European Union Film Festival […]

Steve Prokopy /
Film, Film & TV, Review

Review: Tótem, Lila Avilés’ Sophomore Directing Effort, Is a Small, Intimate Film With Big Heart

We all have different mechanisms for coping with death or its imminent arrival. In the case of seven-year-old Sol’s family in Tótem, Mexican filmmaker Lila Avilés’ delicate second feature, that […]

Alejandro Riera /
Film, Film & TV, Review

Film Review: New Restoration of The Passion of Joan of Arc Is as Breathtaking as Ever

I have such vivid memories of seeing Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 groundbreaking work The Passion of Joan of Arc back in college: the stark, shocking camera angles; the tear-stained performance […]

Steve Prokopy /
Film, Film & TV, Review

Film Review: Don’t Miss the 4k Restoration of Renoir’s The Crime of Monsieur Lange

I shouldn’t have to convince you to see a beautifully restored, 4K presentation of a great French film by the director of Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game, […]

Steve Prokopy /
Film, Film & TV, Review

Film Review: Quiet The Fencer Teaches Compassion At the End of a Sword

Nominated a year ago for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards and also the official Finnish contender for the 2016 Academy Awards, The Fencer is a surprisingly […]

Steve Prokopy /
Film, Film & TV, Review

Film Review: Despite Predictability, Biopic Tom of Finland Draws Compelling Portrait of Gay Icon

At some point right around the time the artist Tom of Finland (real name Touko Laaksonen) died in the early 1990s, I remember seeing Daddy and the Muscle Academy, a […]

Steve Prokopy /
Film, Film & TV, Film fest

Siskel Film Center Kicks off 2018 with Slate of Docs in Stranger Than Fiction Series

When Siskel Film Center re-opens tomorrow, they’re doing it with all guns blazing. The arthouse cinema on State Street took a month off at the end of the year to […]

Lisa Trifone /
Feature, Film, Film & TV

Screens Monthly: January

With the new year comes the coldest temperatures in Chicago since…well, since last winter, probably. In what’s traditionally a month for throw-away movie openings (too late to qualify for an […]

Lisa Trifone /