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 […]
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 […]
Review: In Risky Cheney Biopic VICE, Former VP is the Supervillain
Whether or not you enjoy this biopic on former Vice-President Dick Cheney may depend a great deal on how much you enjoy snark, skimming the surface of a subject who […]
Review: On The Basis of Sex Is an Approachable Biopic for an Ambitious American Icon
It could be reasonably argued that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the most important American woman alive today. In a deeply divided political climate, she sits in a […]
Review: Jennifer Lopez in Second Act Doesn’t Deserve a First Look
In a true Christmas miracle, everything about Second Act, the new Jennifer Lopez film, manages to scream that it’s both trying too hard and not trying hard enough. Foregoing any real […]