Valerie Weiss on “A Light Beneath Their Feet”
“By turns endearing, unsettling, and ultimately moving, ‘A Light Beneath Their Feet’ is a triumph of empathetic filmmaking. There are no heroes and villains in this story, just ordinary people […]
Category Archives: New Releases
Deborah Kampmeier on “SPLit”
Deborah Kampmeier’s “SPLit” is an arrestingly raw howl of fury at the global stigmatization of female sexuality. It is also a deeply haunting portrait of one young woman’s internal growth, […]
Rebecca Parrish on “Radical Grace”
Few films this year have left me feeling more elated and hopeful than Rebecca Parrish’s sublime documentary, “Radical Grace.” It follows three key members of the “Nuns on the Bus” […]
CIFF 2015: Eight Films to Remember
Jury duty is a term that has aggravated random citizens and demolished carefully coordinated schedules for generations. Yet in the case of my experience on the New Directors jury at […]
CIFF 2015: Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson on “Anomalisa”
“Apparently I like to have people not understand each other,” mused Charlie Kaufman during our conversation prior to the Chicago International Film Festival’s October 21st screening of his latest masterpiece, […]
Tea Time with Howard Shore
What do “The Fly,” “Big,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “That Thing You Do!”, “High Fidelity,” “The Departed” and David Lowery’s upcoming “Pete’s Dragon” have in common? They were all […]
CIFF 2015 Preview: “Anomalisa,” “James White” and Six More
There comes a point when a film festival turns from a casual diversion and into an obsession. That happened to me last year during the Chicago International Film Festival, when […]
Colin Healey on “Homemakers”
One of the great pleasures of the moviegoing experience is encountering a character unlike any you have seen before onscreen. Irene (Rachel McKeon), the anti-heroine of Colin Healey’s superb directorial […]
Bel Powley Amazes in “The Diary of a Teenage Girl”
There are about a million or so ways Marielle Heller’s “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” could’ve flown clear off the rails. While leaving the screening room, I ran into […]
The Storm Clouds Broke
“No bags allowed,” said the theater attendant. Initially, I was shocked. I had carried my laptop bag with me to film screenings for the last several years, but today was […]
Indie Outlook 