Review: Sputnik Delivers a Smart and Scary Night at the Movies
When it comes to Russian horror films, I don’t exactly have a deep expertise. Thankfully, such a viewing history isn’t required to get a thrill out of Sputnik, the latest […]
Review: Political Doc Represent Finds its Strength in its Tight Focus
In 2002, a lot of documentaries about 9/11 were released. In 2009, it was economics and the recession. 2020 is proving to be the year of the political documentary, as […]
Review: Fascinating Boys State Makes Politicians of Teens in a Summer Camp for Future Leaders
There’s a moment not too long into Boys State, the Sundance Grand Jury award-winning documentary about the annual mock-government conference for Texas high schoolers run by the American Legion now streaming […]
Review: Despite a Promising Start, Murder Mystery The Silencing Fizzles Out
The first half of the latest film from Belgian-born director Robin Pront, The Silencing, is quite good, due largely to the fact that it feels like the beginning, middle and […]
Review: Project Power Brings as Much Action as Nonsense, and Both Entertain
Having gone for more than a year without a new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, and with the last two DC comics-based films being based on villains (Joker and Birds of […]
Review: The Family Drama of Made in Italy Gets Lost in Its Scenic Setting
Admittedly, the prospect of watching a film starring Liam Neeson and his real-life son, Michael Richardson (whose mother, Natasha Richardson, died in 2009) as an estranged father and grown son […]
Review: Magnificently Strange She Dies Tomorrow Channels Contagious Distress and Collective Anxiety
This is one of the more difficult reviews I’ve had to write all year for the simple fact that writer/director Amy Seimetz’s (the prolific indie actor whose previous feature was […]
Review: A Sweeping, Emotional Journey of Trauma and Reflection in Out Stealing Horses
Based on the 2003 Norwegian novel by Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses is a sweeping story of traumas inflicted by war, by circumstance, even by our own families. The film version, […]
Review: Howard Introduces the Lyricist Behind Some of Disney Animation’s Most Iconic Soundtracks
In his own way, songwriter Howard Ashman was as important a creator of a type of musical theater as more established lyricists like Stephen Sondheim, Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Andrew […]
Review: Latest Lush Adaptation of The Secret Garden Doesn’t Quite Fully Bloom
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s acclaimed novel The Secret Garden has been adapted into films, stage musicals and television movies so many times since its publication in 1911 that it’s difficult to […]
Review: Red Penguins Revisits Post-Cold War U.S.-Russian Relations on Ice
About five years ago, director/producer Gabe Polsky (In Search of Greatness) released Red Army, a film that told the story of the Soviet Union’s famed Red Army hockey team through […]
Review: I Used to Go Here, Another Insightful, Female-Centric Narrative from Chicago Filmmaker Kris Rey
The last we saw Kris Rey as writer/director (she had a small on-screen role in Damien Chazelle’s First Man last year), she delivered Unexpected, a sweetly thoughtful exploration of motherhood […]