Review: Folk Horror and Family History Combine in Misty, Murky Debut Moloch
On the edge of a peat bog in the North of the Netherlands is an isolated town called Moloch, where a local stumbles upon the well-preserved body of a woman, […]
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.
Review: Ryan Gosling Is a Steely Assassin in Russo Brothers’ Action-Heavy The Gray Man
I suppose it wouldn’t take that much of a suspension of belief to assume the government would hire professional killers to do its dirty work from time to time; I […]
Review: Metal Documentary This is GWAR Chronicles the Over-the-Top Band’s Costumes, Egos and Cultural Footprint
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, when it comes to music documentaries, I always prefer to watch ones about acts or music styles that I’m less familiar […]
Review: Jordan Peele’s Alien Invasion Thriller Nope Resists the Filmmaker’s Usual Thematic Undertones
Although it may take a while to realize it, Nope, the latest work from writer/director Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us), will eventually reveal itself to be two different stories joined […]
Review: Fire of Love Chronicles Great Science and a Great Love Story
There is something about the reddish-orange hue of flowing lava, as it swallows up everything in its path, that warms my heart. It’s as mesmerizing as it is terrifying, and […]
Review: The Emotional and Supernatural Haunt an Aging Actor in Promising Debut She Will
In a moderately impressive example of style over substance, director and co-writer Charlotte Colbert (in her directing debut) gives us the story of aging film star Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige, […]
Review: Resilience, Optimism and a Dedication to Lasting Change Resonate in Uplifting Doc Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down
Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ story is not an easy one to hear, but by the time you get to the present day of it all, it becomes one of the […]
Review: Adapted from a Best-Selling Book, Where the Crawdads Sing Foregoes Grit for a Murder Mystery Soap Opera
This is an odd little movie based on an improbably popular novel by Delia Owens (adapted by Lucy Alibar, Beasts of the Southern Wild) and starring rising talent Daisy Edgar-Jones (Fresh, “Normal People”) as Kya, a young woman living in the marshlands of Barkley Cover, North Carolina, where she was abandoned by her family at a young age and grew to respect and eventually catalog the wildlife around her.
Interview: Documentary Duo Julie Cohen and Betsy West on Meeting Gabby Giffords, What She Keeps in her Freezer, and Going Over Budget on Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down
Documentary filmmakers Julie Cohen and Betsy West are on a roll, a roll that began four years ago with their Oscar-nominated work RBG, a profile of the now-late Supreme Court […]
Review: Netflix’s The Sea Beast Anchors a Family Friendly Story in Eye-Catching Animation and Exciting Action
In a time when the new Minions movie is dominating the box office with Top Gun-like astronomical numbers, Netflix gives us an animated adventure film that is creatively rich, with […]
Review: True Crime Documentary Girl in the Picture Expertly Unravels a Life of Mystery, Abuse and Tragedy
In a few short years, director Skye Borgman has quickly become one of the finest documentary filmmakers, specializing in true-crime cases that are so strange, twisty and complicated (Abducted in […]
Review: In Thor: Love and Thunder, a Hero’s Promising Journey Gets Lost in a Filmmaker’s Muddled Vision
I won’t waste your time comparing Thor: Ragnarok to the latest tale of the God of Thunder, Thor: Love and Thunder, because to do so would be to imply that […]