Review: Tim Burton’s Vision Crash Lands in Live-Action Remake of Dumbo
The latest in what is going to be a long line of Disney animated properties being made into live-action remakes, Dumbo is depressing. I thought long and hard about it, and […]
Siskel Film Center’s EUFF Week 4: One More Week of Acclaimed European Cinema
The 22nd Chicago European Union Film Festival is almost over, with just one more week of screenings remaining. Thankfully, there’s still plenty to see whether you’ve put off checking it […]
Review: Time is of the Essence in Fast-Paced The Hummingbird Project
The last year or so has been a hell of a time for actor Alexander Skarsgård, who seems to average a movie every other month, including the Netflix original Hold […]
Review: Strong Actors Get Lost in a Contrived The Aftermath
For reasons I’ll never quite understand, a small section of the British film industry has been obsessed for roughly 70 years with telling love stories that take place during and […]
Review: The Mustang Heralds a Promising New Filmmaking Voice
It will never cease to amaze me when a first-time feature director unleashes something as confident and sure-handed as Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s The Mustang, which joins an unexpected series of […]
Review: Iceland’s Woman at War on Living Boldly and Finding Balance
What can one person do to combat the forces of climate change and globalized industry? Quite a bit, as Benedikt Erlingsson would have us believe in Woman at War, the story […]
Review: Jordan Peele’s Us Revels in an Ambiguity with Bite
There’s a line spoken early in Us, the sophomore feature from writer/director Jordan Peele (Get Out) that is important but doesn’t give anything away about the film’s true nature. It’s […]
Siskel Film Center’s EUFF Week 3: Compelling Stories Keep the Schedule Fresh
Gene Siskel Film Center’s robust European Union Film Festival continues into its third week with ever more interesting offerings; it’s a credit to the jam-packed schedule that just as one […]
Review: Transit is a Nazi-Era Thriller Updated to Modern Times
Georg (Franz Rogowski) is caught between a rock and a hard place. He has no papers, can’t secure a visa, and is running out of contacts in an increasingly hostile […]
Review: Julianne Moore is Perfect Imperfection in Gloria Bell
As filmmaking challenges go, a movie with the resplendent Julianne Moore at its center, where the camera is as enamored with her as we are, is not exactly a difficult […]
Review: Coming Of Age with Resilience in Giant Little Ones
In this unexpectedly satisfying sophomore work from writer/director Keith Behrman (2002’s Flowers & Garnet), Giant Little Ones is the story of two fairly popular high school boys—Franky (Josh Wiggins) and […]
Review: Manipulative Five Feet Apart Hits New Low for Teen Romances
I have to admit, I was genuinely shocked when I learned that this romantic-drama about a pair of teenagers, both with cystic fibrosis (CF), wasn’t based on a novel by […]