Film reviews: XXX: Return of Xander Cage, Split
XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE You can’t keep a good Vin Diesel franchise down, any more than you can keep a Vin Diesel character dead for longer than one movie. […]
Steve Prokopy is chief film critic for the Chicago-based arts outlet Third Coast Review. For nearly 20 years, he was the Chicago editor for Ain’t It Cool News, where he contributed film reviews and filmmaker/actor interviews under the name “Capone.” Currently, he’s a frequent contributor at /Film (SlashFilm.com) and Backstory Magazine. He is also the public relations director for Chicago's independently owned Music Box Theatre, and holds the position of Vice President for the Chicago Film Critics Association. In addition, he is a programmer for the Chicago Critics Film Festival, which has been one of the city's most anticipated festivals since 2013.
Film Review: Ocean Waves, A Rediscovered Studio Ghibli Gem
Following last year’s first official U.S. release of 1991’s Only Yesterday, the famed Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli is rounding out its unreleased (stateside, at least) titles with the 1993 […]
Film Review: Claire in Motion, Devastating Drama
The setup is fairly straightforward even if the purpose is elusive. The latest film from directing team Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Howell (2011’s Small, Beautifully Moving Parts) concerns Claire […]
Film Review: Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened…, Dreams Shattered Then Realized
When I interviewed La La Land writer-director Damien Chazelle a couple months ago for Ain’t it Cool News, we discussed one of the film’s themes being the power of rejection […]
Film Review: 20th Century Women, Mostly Awful
A few years ago, writer-director Mike Mills (Thumbsucker) made a touching and uproarious film that was both a tribute to his father and all fathers called Beginners, which resulted in […]
Film Review: Monster Trucks, Hopelessly Misguided
Whatever you think this movie is about probably isn’t exactly right. If, based on the trailer, you think it’s about a monster who takes up residence inside a high school […]
Film Reviews: Live by Night, Patriots Day, Bye Bye Man
LIVE BY NIGHT I’ll admit, I was confused even by the title of this film, since most of the action takes place in sunny Florida. But as I got deeper […]
Film Review: Train to Busan, Fueled by Pure Adrenaline
One of the last films I watched in 2016 (and it managed to crack my Top 20 of the year in the process) was South Korean horror thrill ride Train […]
Film Review – Mifune: The Last Samurai, An Exciting Portrait of One of the World’s Best Actors
One of my favorite documentaries of 2016 was also about one of my personal heroes from way back. The film is director Steven Okazaki’s Mifune: The Last Samurai about the […]
Film Review: Notes on Blindness, An Eerie Journey From Light to Darkness and Back Again
Much like the memoir that inspired it, Notes on Blindness (from co-directors James Spinney and Peter Middleton) attempts the seemingly impossible, especially for a visual art form: to capture the […]
Film Review: A Monster Calls, An Evocative and Mature Modern Fairy Tale
There are children’s films, and then there are films with children in them that seem more geared toward adults. Spanish-born director J.A. Bayona seems to specialize in the latter, with […]
Film Review: Silence, A Beautiful Work of Questioning Faith
Filmmaker Martin Scorsese has spent most of his career presenting us with characters who, in any other movie, might be looked upon as the bad guys. But he gets us […]