Review: The Brutality and Vulnerability of Conscripted Service in 1980s-Set Moffie
Back when the Apartheid regime was alive and well in South Africa in the 1980s, any boy over the age of 16 was made to complete two years of military […]
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: Ben Falcone’s Thunder Force Only Forces Melissa McCarthy into Tired, Unfunny Gags
Can Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone just stop working together? It’s not that their films together just aren’t very good (Superintelligence, Life of the Party, The Boss, Tammy); it’s that […]
Review: Teens Discover the Human Condition on a Journey to Outer Space in Sci-Fi Thriller Voyagers
On the one hand, the latest from writer/director Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist, Divergent), Voyagers, is a science fiction story that exists in a familiar scenario—the earth is soon going […]
Review: A 1970s-Set Creep-Fest, The Power Finds Scares in Shadows and Trauma
From writer/director Corinna Faith comes The Power, a mid-1970s-set creep-fest about nurse trainee Val (Rose Williams) who arrives at a dilapidated East London hospital on her first day in the […]
Review: The Unholy, with Cheap Scares and Muddled Story, Doesn’t Live Up to Its Promising Premise
There are times when the premise of a film is far better than its execution; this is particularly true in the horror genre, where great ideas often go ridiculously off […]
Review: Concrete Cowboy Explores the Real-Life Culture of Black Urban Cowboys with Just Enough Heart and Inspiration
Fifteen-year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin) gets into another fight at his Detroit high school and is on the verge of being expelled when his single mother decides she’s had enough. Initially, […]
Review: Godzilla vs. Kong Brings Epic, Splashy Action and Even Some Surprises to the Monsterverse
The current rundown that makes up Warner Bros.’s “Monsterverse” franchise has always felt a bit like it’s flying by the seat of its pants in terms of connecting the storylines […]
Interview: Violation Filmmakers on Their Feature Film Debut, the Personal Nature of Abuse and Making Movies with Heightened Realism
Since its debut last September as part of the Toronto International Film Festival, the horrifying drama Violation has been one of the most talked about and debated works about the […]
Review: A WWII-Era Ambassador Stands Up to Nazis, and Leads a Resistance, in The Good Traitor
Between this title and Six Minutes To Midnight, it’s an interesting week for footnote stories about pre-WWII America and Britain. In the true-life story The Good Traitor, the great Danish […]
Review: A Little-Known True Story Set in Pre-WWII Britain, Six Minutes to Midnight Starts with Intrigue, Becomes a Foggy Spy Thriller
In a strange but real corner of pre-WWII Britain, there was a finishing school on the south English seaside made up of 20 teen girls, all of whom were daughters […]
Review: Tina Is a Fitting Tribute to the Iconic Entertainer’s Incredible Life, Music and Voice—Even if It Could Be an Hour Longer
Singer Tina Turner has spent a great deal of her life running away from things that made her feel like anything less than the powerhouse performer that she always has […]
Review: Staged Antics, Crude Humor and Inherent Stupidity Truly Make for a Bad Trip, Now on Netflix
I suspect that watching the latest film from Jeff Tremaine, the primary producer of both the Jackass franchise and Bad Grandpa, is going to have one of two impacts upon […]