Viva la French Cinema! during July in Chicago
Movie fans will be shouting viva la France this weekend as the 6th annual French Film Festival begins today at the Music Box Theatre. The festival, which runs July 22 […]
Ghostbusters; The Infiltrator; Life, Animated; Our Little Sister; Nuts!
GHOSTBUSTERS Here’s the bottom line: I laughed watching Ghostbusters…a lot. It’s as funny a movie as we’ve come to expect from director and co-writer (with his The Heat writer Katie […]
The Secret Life of Pets, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Under the Sun, Blood Simple (reissue), Director’s Cut
THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS People are being a little hard on this harmless little film about beloved and discarded house pets. Of course it’s derivative but a great deal […]
CST’s Doreen Sayegh Brings the Bard to the City of Big Shoulders with Shakespeare 400 Chicago
Doreen Sayegh has been a skosh busy. Playwright and quote-machine William Shakespeare died 400 years ago this year, and a few folks still like to produce his work, so […]
Filmmaker Michel Gondry Discusses His New Movie Microbe & Gasoline
It is all about finding something magical in life, says filmmaker Michel Gondry, when asked to sum up what his films share in common. Gondry, indeed referred to as a […]
New-to-Blu-ray: Napoli, Napoli, Napoli
Alex is a freelance movie critic who specializes in writing about classic Hollywood movies from the 1920s, ’30s & ’40s. He has his own film blog and he writes about film […]
The BFG, The Legend of Tarzan, The Purge: Election Year, Swiss Army Man, Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words, Our Kind of Traitor, Belladonna of Sadness
THE BFG Try as I might, I could not wrap my heart around director Steven Spielberg’s latest, The BFG, based on the Roald Dahl book and the final screenplay from Spielberg’s […]
The Neon Demon, Free State of Jones, The Fundamentals of Caring, Tickled, The Wailing, The Music of Strangers, Pervert Park
THE NEON DEMON Even when I don’t like his films (which is rare), I’m always glad writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn is out there in the world making movies. He’s something […]
Chicago Filmmaker Interview: Stories Are A Girl’s Best Friend
If you ever walked into Excalibur & Vision Nightclub, once a hot stop in Chicago’s nightlife, now shut down, on any weekend, you would have found Stephanie Rabiola tending bar. Rabiola […]
Finding Dory, Central Intelligence, Genius, De Palma, Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, The American Side, Our Last Tango
FINDING DORY If I were the type of critic—and I’m not—to rank films that come out of the same production house (in this case Pixar), I think I’d slot their […]
Summer of Silence at Facets and Music Box
Silence will be golden this summer as movie lovers around the city will have various opportunities to appreciate the history of silent films. Facets Cinémathèque will launch a new monthly […]
The Conjuring 2, Warcraft, Now You See Me 2, Presenting Princess Shaw, The Idol, Older Than Ireland, Puerto Ricans In Paris, Unlocking the Cage
THE CONJURING 2 You know a filmmaking team (especially in the horror genre) has confidence when a storyline involving the Amityville Horror case is relegated to the prologue of your […]