Review: Classic Comedy and Camp Films Revisited in Time Warp Volume 3
The final chapter in a three-part documentary series on the history of some of the most famous cult films in history, Time Warp, Vol. 3–Comedy & Camp focuses on works […]
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: A Teen’s First Love, Family Drama in Transformative Babyteeth
The vibrant Australian piece Babyteeth is an alarmingly strong drama about the sometimes strange array of people pulled into our orbit when we are at our most desperate and fractured. […]
Review: Vivian Liberto Remembered as Johnny Cash’s First Wife in Touching New Documentary, My Darling Vivian
One of the many films set to debut at the ultimately cancelled SXSW Film Festival back in March, My Darling Vivian is the account of Vivian Liberto, the first wife […]
Review: Precision and Tension in Confined Spaces Make 7500 a Gripping Debut
I didn’t go back and check after I watched the first feature from German-born director Patrick Vollrath, 7500, but I’m fairly certain the bulk of it unspools in real time, […]
Review: You Should Have Left Should Have a Little More Depth
I think the message of writer/director David Koepp’s latest, You Should Have Left, is that in a perfect world, toxic men all get their comeuppance in the end. As we […]
Review: With Empathy and Sensitivity, Seahorse Intimately Follows a Trans Pregnancy
With certain species of seahorse, the males give birth; with others, they have both male and female reproductive organs; still others can change gender depending on reproductive needs. None of […]
Review: A Film About Assisted Suicide, Exit Plan Is Surprisingly Uplifting
Wisely shedding its original Danish title Suicide Tourist, the second feature from director Jonas Alexander Arnby (When Animals Dream, a Cannes debut and one of my favorite films from Fantasia […]
Review: Pete Davidson Does the Work to Grow Up in The King of Staten Island
There’s a scene early on in the new Judd Apatow-directed The King of Staten Island in which the central character, Scott Carlin (SNL’s Pete Davidson), is explaining to his oldest […]
Review: Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods Is a Movie for This Moment
Timing is everything. Then again, great filmmaking is great filmmaking no matter the surroundings. But in the case of director Spike Lee’s latest, Da 5 Bloods, the film feels so […]
Review: The Candy Witch Might Only Be Good Because It’s So Bad
Oh, this is not good. But here’s the thing: once in a great while, I see something so bad that I want everyone else to see it to, just so […]
Review: You Don’t Nomi Makes a Study of Cult Favorite Showgirls
Although I am not of a mind that director Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 opus Showgirls is anything but watchable trash, there are many who believe it is a masterpiece—or at least […]
Review: Abel Ferrera and Willem Dafoe Re-Team for Delicate, Brutally Honest Tommaso
In his first feature since 2014’s controversial Pasolini, writer/director Abel Ferrara (Ms .45, King of New York, Bad Lieutenant) re-emerges with Tommaso, a work that is part biography, part fantasy, […]