It is dispiriting to watch such talented people try to animate this turgid blueprint.
Author Archives: John Wilmes
Posted inFilm
Review: The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Don’t try to make these guys more real, because that was never the point.
Posted inFilm
Review: Of an Age
Of An Age opens with a sequence worthy of entry into The Cinema of Stress library (think Uncut Gems or Dog Day Afternoon), but in 1999 and with a gay bildungsroman.
Posted inFilm
Strange World
Everyone is delightfully lost in a softly Lovecraftian Osmosis Jones labyrinth with climate change overtones and lovely faceless critters everywhere, trying to pantomime meaning to these stumbling humans.
Posted inFilm
Black Adam
Rarely do we feel like we are experiencing the thing itself, but rather a setup for a different, later event, which will probably not be the real thing either.
Posted inFilm
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
Had the movie embraced its creepier glimmers, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile may have been an appropriately horrific October release. Instead, it bears only the suggestion of such a thing and never finds distinction.
Posted inFilm
Thrill of recognition or contempt for inaccuracy
Ultimately, whether the show is any good does not depend on how well it “gets” Chicago, on a logistical or even cultural level, but on whether it is entertaining or not.
Posted inArts & Culture
In the face of Trump, Writers Resist
At Cole’s Bar last week, Speak Up/Warm Up hosted steadfast and resilient local authors.
Posted inArts & Culture
Legos at the Museum of Science and Industry: Kid tested and inner-child approved
“Brick by Brick” features re-creations of famous architectural feats.