Top 100 Favorite Films: 2017 Edition
A few years ago, I was asked by a friend to rank my Top Five Favorite Films. It was so daunting to limit my list to only five titles that […]
Tag Archives: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Top 20 Films of 2015: Part II
To demonstrate just how spectacular a year it has been for film, this Top 10 list is followed by three “special honorable mentions,” which should be considered a tie for […]
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, […]
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 […]
Stephen Cone, Cole Doman, Nina Ganet, Pat Healy and Elizabeth Laidlaw on “Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party”
“Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party,” the seventh feature from director Stephen Cone, is a masterpiece of nuance. It assembles a large cast of characters, observes their behavior as they interact during […]
Neither Safe Nor Still: The Genius of Julianne Moore
Throughout her extraordinary career, Julianne Moore has often excelled at playing characters who are ostracized. Consider her 1950s housewife who develops forbidden feelings for her black neighbor in “Far from […]
Eleanore Pienta, Molly Plunk and Drew Tobia on “See You Next Tuesday”
Writer/director Drew Tobia’s “See You Next Tuesday” is in-your-face in all the right ways. It’s a mature film about immature people who are unapologetically themselves and we can’t help loving […]
In the Sweet By and By
“There’s a sense of elegy in the film. A sense that something wonderful is coming to an end, and the way to handle that is not to regret it, but […]
Joaquin Phoenix: A Career in Three Acts
“There’s nobody really better than you are,” replied a rather perplexed and amused David Letterman during his hilarious 2009 interview with Joaquin Phoenix, an actor rendered unrecognizable by his scruffy […]
