Review: Nicole Kidman Transforms in Karen Kusama’s Destroyer
Nicole Kidman is having quite a moment. She started 2018 on a high note, with Emmy wins for her contributions to the HBO series “Big Little Lies,” and just kept […]
Review: Two Sharp Performances Create Comedy Magic in Stan & Ollie
In an odd sort of way, Stan & Ollie, a film that covers the later-period career of film stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, suffers from some of the same shortcomings […]
Review: One Man’s Struggle With Sexual Identity in The Sunday Sessions
What I thought might be a documentary companion piece to last year’s thought-provoking Boy Erased, about the abhorrent practice of teen gay conversion therapy, turns out to be a wholly different […]
Review: The House That Jack Built Is A Character Study Sans Morality
As often as writer-director Lars von Trier has made films about despicable people, there has almost always existed a kind of twisted morality about each of them that made even […]
Review: Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart as an Odd Couple in The Upside
Present political climate not withstanding, we live in a fairly sophisticated society where we shouldn’t have to soft-pedal the truth about assisting the disabled via a movie with comedy, just […]
Documentary Shortlist Screenings Continue All Month at Music Box Theatre
As we previewed last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has partnered with a handful of movie theaters across the country (including Chicago’s own Music Box Theatre) to show […]
Review: Heart-Wrenching Capernaum Is Essential, If Difficult, Viewing
At the center of Capernaum, the latest film from Lebanese writer/director (and actor) Nadine Labaki (Where Do We Go Now?, Caramel), is one of the year’s best performances, and it’s delivered […]
Review: Facing Changes As a United Front in Family in Transition
From January 4 through 31, the Gene Siskel Film Center celebrates the art of the documentary with its annual series Stranger Than Fiction: Documentary Premieres. This year, the theme of […]
Review: How One Man Shaped the Modern Media Landscape in Divide & Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes
There’s no way you don’t come out from watching Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, the latest by director Alexis Bloom (Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie […]
Review: Bathtubs Over Broadway Chronicles Corporate Musicals and the Man Who Loves Them
I have vivid memories of watching old episodes of both the NBC and CBS versions of David Letterman’s late night talk show and always getting a kick out a repeating […]
Review: As January Horror Films Go, Escape Room Isn’t Horrible
In what has become an annual tradition at the movie theaters in early January, a PG-13 horror film has slipped in and threatened to soft-peddle largely bloodless scares in the […]
See Every Documentary Shortlisted for an Oscar at Music Box Theatre
In a cinematic feat that I’ve never seen attempted before, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has partnered with a handful of movie theaters across the country (including […]