Out of Time: The Brilliant Soundtrack of Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home”
On May 7th of last year, I was fortunate enough to catch Amy Scott’s splendid documentary, “Hal,” at the Chicago Critics Film Festival. I had already been a fan of […]
Category Archives: New Releases
Morgan Saylor on “Anywhere With You,” “White Girl” and “Novitiate”
Ever since Morgan Saylor’s galvanizing portrayal of a drug-addled college student in Elizabeth Wood’s “White Girl” blew the roof off the Gene Siskel Film Center upon its Windy City premiere […]
John Fricke on the 80th Anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz”
For as long as I’ve loved Victor Fleming’s 1939 Hollywood landmark, “The Wizard of Oz,” John Fricke has been The Man Behind the Curtain, and like the wizard himself, he […]
Indie Outlook Picks the 2018 Nominees
The more movies one sees during a given year, the more maddening one finds the conspicuous omissions during awards season, where voters’ memories fail to extend past the month of […]
Top 20 Films of 2018: Part II
There’s a certain magic that occurs when a film so thoroughly fulfills your long-held wishes that it seems as if the director had made it especially for you. Some films […]
Top 20 Films of 2018: Part I
For dutiful film critics preparing to mark their ballots, the final months of the year are nothing less than a cinematic avalanche. Studios do everything in their power to entice […]
CIFF 2018: Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” and Six More Highlights
Today marks the end of the 54th Chicago International Film Festival, and I feel as if it’s only begun. My crazier-than-usual schedule combined with a lack of pre-festival press screenings […]
CIFF 2018: “The Hate U Give” and “Widows” on the Red Carpet
A “Starr” is truly born in “The Hate U Give,” George Tillman Jr.’s riveting screen adaptation of Angie Thomas’ bestselling book, which was published only last year. Amandla Stenberg turns […]
A Decade of Lady Gaga: Ten Unforgettable Performances
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, a.k.a. Lady Gaga, was born just six days after me on March 28th, 1986. Over the past decade, I’ve looked to her as one of the […]
Olmo Omerzu on “Winter Flies”
Olmo Omerzu has quickly emerged as one of my favorite filmmakers yet to be discovered by the majority of Americans. By age 33, the Slavic director has helmed three features […]
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