Review: Chained For Life Beautifully Balances Depth and Dark Comedy
One of the genuine pleasures of seeing nearly 200 films in a year (I’ll probably fall a half dozen short of that in 2019) is discovering truly independent gems like Chained […]
Review: By Over-Simplifying the Narrative, Bombshell Misses Its Mark
In the throes of the 2016 presidential campaign, as a nation geared up to elect a sexual predator, women in entertainment began speaking up and out against the bad actors […]
Review: Lost Holiday Loses Track of Its Own Characters, Mystery
Starring a collection of some of the more interesting names in indie filmmaking and directed by the Matthews Brothers (Michael Kerry and Thomas, who also co-stars in the film), Lost […]
Review: For the Cats Movie Adaptation, Best Not to Ask Why At All
The problem with Cats, the stage or movie musical, isn’t that it’s difficult to understand, as many may claim. The issue is figuring out the point of it. What life […]
Review: As It Ends an Era, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Gets Too Nostalgic for Its Own Good
I think I went into this most recent (and supposedly final) Star Wars with the right attitude: I didn’t pin my hopes and dreams on the filmmakers bringing us back […]
Review: Knives and Skin Is a Chicago-made Surreal Coming of Age Tale
Not to be confused with Knives Out, though sharing some thematic DNA with Rian Johnson’s earlier film, Brick, Knives and Skin is a stylized, teen noir meditation on suburban stagnation, […]
Review: A Familiar Cast—And a Few New Faces—Play the Same Game in Jumanji: The Next Level
I went into the last Jumanji film, Welcome to the Jungle, with such neutral expectations that I was pleasantly surprised to discover a funny, energetic adventure comedy featuring an array […]
Review: A Moving Portrait of a Quiet Life in Colewell
The sophomore effort from writer/director Tom Quinn (The New Year Parade) is exactly the kind of movie that could easily get lost in the shuffle of awards-season contenders and bigger-budget […]
Review: American Dharma Doesn’t Offer Any New Insight into Steve Bannon’s Dangerous Political Influence
It’s true for all of us, to one degree or another, that we exist in a sort of information bubble when it comes to news, politics, current events and more. […]
Review: Clint Eastwood’s Style (and Politics) Put the Story of Richard Jewell Into Perspective
Like many of the films Clint Eastwood has directed in the last 10 years or so—since about Gran Torino on—his latest, Richard Jewell, is an expertly made movie with a […]
Review: A Master Filmmaker Gives One Last Masterclass in Varda by Agnès
A few years ago, I designed for myself a sort of one-woman film festival: the films of Agnès Varda. Then in her mid-80s, the prolific French New Wave filmmaker was […]
Review: In The Aeronauts, Thrills and Scientific Discovery Taken to New Heights
Those with a fear of heights may want to brace themselves for The Aeronauts, the story of a scientist and a balloonist who ascend in a hot air balloon over 1860s […]