The following interview with author/filmmaker Marjane Satrapi was originally published in the February 11th, 2008 issue of my college paper, The Columbia Chronicle. I was deeply moved by her words, […]
The following interview was originally published on September 22nd, 2010, at HollywoodChicago.com. Few films have conveyed the sensation of an out-of-body experience quite like “Enter the Void,” the latest feature […]
The following interview was originally published at HollywoodChicago.com on February 17th, 2011. Perhaps no one but Gregg Araki could make a hallucinogenic, doom-laden mystery as playful and curiously optimistic as […]
The following interviews with filmmaker Benh Zeitlin and actors Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry were originally published at HollywoodChicago.com in July 2012. Their film, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” went […]
Few modern filmmakers understand the essence of Frank Oz’s artistry as innately as Rian Johnson. The most euphoric sequence in Johnson’s sublime 2017 blockbuster, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” occurs […]
I’ll never forget the moment I first fell in love with the cinema of Quentin Tarantino. Having grown up Catholic pre-Gibson’s “Passion,” I was not at all accustomed to graphic […]
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 […]
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 […]
“Such a nasty woman…”—Donald Trump, interrupting Hillary Clinton during their final presidential debate I must’ve been four or five when I viewed a trailer on a rented VHS tape that […]
When Cristian Mungiu wrote the script for his Cannes prize-winner, “Graduation,” he had only one person in mind for the film. It was Maria Dragus, an actress he had first […]
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