Review: Fallout Is a Genuinely Great Addition to the Mission Impossible Series
Tom Cruise is 56 years old, and I choose to believe he could keep making Mission: Impossible movies for the rest of his life. (Or Jack Reacher films or maybe […]
Movies with a View: Elevated Films Returns This Week
Outdoor movies in Chicago abound in the summer months, as the park district, Gallagher Way at Wrigley Field and many, many more present movies in the open air. Though their […]
Review: Despite Exploring a New Genre, Unfriended: Dark Web Lacks Creativity, Inspiration
As the age of the found footage films seems to be taking its final few breaths, the era of movies composed of nothing but windows popping up on a computer […]
Review: Joaquin Phoenix Carries a Moving, if Stilted, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
When Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, the latest from Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, To Die For, Milk) defies expectations, it’s a glorious thing. But when […]
Review: Creative Duo Crafts Heartbreaking, Uplifting Story of Change in Blindspotting
At its heart, Blindspotting is a film by and about friends. Longtime music collaborators and Oakland natives Daveed Diggs (best known for his Tony-award-winning dual role in Hamilton) and poet […]
Review: The Torture and Triumph of Teenagedom in Wonderfully Inspiring Eighth Grade
When I was in eighth grade (many moons ago), the internet barely existed, let alone social media. The idea of everyone having their own handheld computer that connected them to […]
Review: The King Will Have You Rethinking A Legend, and Perhaps Democracy Itself
Eugene Jarecki is a documentary filmmaker who’s never been afraid to go there, to ask the hard questions and investigate from every angle. His 2005 film Why We Fight, about America’s seemingly insatiable need […]
Review: Denzel Washington Returns to The Equalizer A Changed Man
In the 2014 Equalizer movie (as the sequel is, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Denzel Washington), Washington’s Robert McCall was a man trying to put his deadly past behind […]
Review: For Summer Fun at the Movies, Mamma Mia! Sequel is a Sure Thing
Let’s get this out of the way up front: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, like its predecessor (and smash hit, currently sitting at $144M worldwide gross), is silly from start […]
Interview: Blindspotting Creative Duo On Oakland, Finding a Director and the Ten Years to the Big Screen
Musicians, poets, actors, and general creative types Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal have been working on-and-off on the screenplay for Blindspotting for somewhere around 10 years—long before Diggs got involved […]
Review: Restored Print of Wickedly Fun The Murderer Lives at Number 21 Comes to Chicago
In 1942, after a few years of working together with directing partner Karl Hartl, Henri-Georges Clouzot (Wages of Fear, Diabolique) broke out with his first solo effort with the old-school […]
Review: Two Journalists Pursue Truth Against the Odds in Rob Reiner’s Shock & Awe
It’s safe to say that after 20-plus years of subpar filmmaking, it would have been easy to write off director Rob Reiner as having his best works (This Is Spinal […]