Review: A Styleless There Are No Saints Never Gets Beyond Crime Drama Tropes
The hook of There Are No Saints, the new film from director Alfonso Pineda Ulloa, is that he’s working from what is apparently an old screenplay by the great Paul […]
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.
Interview: Filmmaker Stefan Forbes on Toxic Masculinity, Hostage Negotiations and Finding the Story in Hold Your Fire
In the 2008 documentary Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, director Stefan Forbes painted a portrait of a political player whom he considered a force against all things good and […]
Review: Top Gun: Maverick Features Impressive Flight Scenes But More Nostalgia Than Novelty
I recently had a wise person tell me that nostalgia is for those who are afraid to face the present, and I tend to agree with that. By that token, […]
Review: Lacking Any Spark, a New Adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter Never Really Ignites
The recent attempt to re-ignite author Stephen King’s work as film adaptations after the first It movie blew up the box office (followed by a solid remake of Pet Sematary) […]
Review: The Sadness Is a Highly Effective and Wildly Unnerving Zombie Thriller
Who knew Taiwanese horror could be so…messy? Marking the feature debut of writer/director Rob Jabbaz (a Canadian filmmaker who has made his professional mark in Taiwan), The Sadness is a […]
Review: With Typical True Crime Style, Our Father Recounts a Troubling Fertility Saga
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the new Lucie Jourdan-directed documentary Our Father is produced by Jason Blum (among others), because the events being recounted are a true-life […]
Review: Based on a True Story, Operation Mincemeat Offers Drama, History and a Glimpse into WWII-era Personal Lives
One of the things I love about historical dramas is that they have a tendency to be dry, which I realize runs counter to what I typically like about films […]
Review: Shepherd Offers a Horror Film with Physical Scares and Emotional Torment
From writer/director Russell Owen (Inmate Zero) comes Shepherd, a surprisingly effective and angsty horror thriller set on a remote Scottish island where nothing seems to live but sheep, ghosts, and […]
Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Is a Chaotic Mix of Tones and Styles
In many ways, director Sam Raimi (the Evil Dead trilogy, the original Spider-Man trilogy) was the absolute perfect choice to take over the reins of the second Doctor Strange film, […]
Review: The Duke Chronicles the True, Very British Story of Art Thievery as Civil Protest
Back in the 1990s, I had a soft spot for British films in which the townspeople all rallied around some cause and simply got things done though sheer will power […]
Review: Liam Neeson’s Latest, Memory, Is Flat and Forgettable
Well, it’s a new month, so it’s time for a new Liam Neeson movie. And you guessed it: he plays a guy with a certain set of skills that involve […]
Review: Half-Baked Documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe Fails to Unearth Anything Noteworthy About the Star
A documentary has to work hard for me not to like it. So imagine my reaction to seeing how hard director Emma Cooper worked (or rather, re-worked) journalist Anthony Summers’ […]