2023 in Review: The Ten Best Television Shows of the Year
This was a big year for finality in television. A lot of amazing shows ended, and most of them stuck the landing perfectly. Similar to how packed 2023 was for […]
Review: Imagining a Philosophical Conversation, Freud’s Last Session Frustrates More than it Fascinates
Part of the issue with director and co-writer Matt Brown’s Freud’s Last Session is that it can’t decide what the central core of its story actually is. Certainly, a film […]
Review: Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard Star in Beautifully Crafted Relationship Drama Memory
This year has been a very good one for the kind of films I’m naturally drawn to, films without much flash or special effects but with real, authentic stories about […]
Review: Night Swim Boasts Strong Production Credits, but Its Plot and Scares Are Shallow
A slight and silly PG-13 horror film with a hefty pedigree (at least as far as producers go—James Wan and Jason Blum), Night Swim centers on the Waller family, with […]
Review: Society of the Snow Recounts the Harrowing Events of a 1972 Plane Crash with Grace, Human Drama
If the story told in the epic, harrowing Society of the Snow seems familiar, that’s because it’s been recounted a few times since 1972, when the actual events in the […]
Your Chicago Curated First Weekend of 2024 and Beyond
It’s a brand new year! Of course we’ll be accidentally writing 2023 for the next few day/weeks, but that doesn’t mean that 2024 isn’t here and ready to delight with […]
Recap: Fargo (S5, Ep3) — Series’ Third Episode Takes Its Time Setting Up Conflicts
Oh, I missed this show so much. I don’t think I can properly articulate how much I missed it, but if I could interpret the feeling that the claustrophobic, nightmarish […]
Review: Centered by Authentic, Devastating Performances, All Of Us Strangers Confronts Grief, Passion and Connection
There’s a magic to writer/director Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, the kind that sneaks up slowly at first before becoming so powerful it’s impossible to ignore its pull. A […]
2023 in Review: Best Narrative Films of the Year
It’s the last Friday of a pretty great year for film, so it’s time to reveal my Best of the Year list. As always, I was able to squeeze in […]
2023 in Review: Best Documentary Films of the Year
As I am prone to do every year, I separate documentaries into their own Best of the Year list, not because I feel they should be judged any differently than […]
Recap: Invincible (S2, Ep4) — Mark and Nolan Fight Their Toughest Battle in a Brutal Mid-Season Finale
Where do we really come from? Invincible has been asking this question since its beginning. At first, Earth’s superpowered defender Nolan Grayson (J.K. Simmons) told his family he came from […]
Review: Raging Grace Finds More Horror in the Immigrant Experience than Its Jump Scares
This article was written by Zachary Lee. I did not realize the clever double meeting of the title of writer-director Paris Zarcilla’s Raging Grace until the credits rolled. The film […]