Review: Disney’s Haunted Mansion Gives the Beloved Theme Park Ride a Welcome New Narrative
When I was a kid, one of the first pieces of vinyl I ever owned was an audio version of Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, containing all the music, voices and […]
Review: Though Enjoyable to Look At, Paint Is a Comedy With Too Subtle Brush Strokes
Lest you think that the new Owen Wilson-starring film Paint is some veiled biopic of public television superstar Bob Ross, let me assure you that any similarities between Wilson’s Carl […]
Review: Marry Me Proposes a RomCom With Plenty of Product Placement but Zero Chemistry
Sometimes film reviews are hard to write. Especially, at least for me, reviews for films I don’t have strong feelings about one way or another. Finding ways to say, “Meh, […]
Review: Filmmaker Wes Anderson Goes Full-Tilt Wes Anderson in Charming, Quirky The French Dispatch
Filmmaker Wes Anderson, with 10 feature films to his name (his 11th is in production), has become such a known quantity that those keeping track of these things know relatively […]
Dispatch: Chicago International Film Festival Kicks Off with Previews of Three Films Soon to Arrive in Theaters (and Streaming)
The Chicago International Film Festival returns this week—like really, truly returns!—with dozens of films and events that once again highlight the best in international cinema, emerging talent and homemade productions, […]
Review: An Alternate Reality—Or Is It?—in Bliss a Blurry Attempt at Science Fiction
I’ve liked the two films director Mike Cahill made in collaboration with actress and co-writer Britt Marling, Another Earth and I Origins. His latest work, Bliss, marks a departure from […]
Film review: Masterminds, Cinematic Comfort Food
The long-delayed (due to Relativity Media’s financial woes) new film from director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, Gentleman Broncos) turns out to be a surprisingly moving love story couched […]