There are dad movies, and then there’s the Equalizer, a John Wick-adjacent franchise composed of 50 percent semi-retired assassin Denzel Washington inflicting bone-crunching violence on the criminals of the world, and 50 percent average Joe Denzel Washington performing community service with a smile. Neither of the first two movies in the series are all that […]
Category: Film
Posted inFilm
Review: Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind
For nearly ten years, Stig Björkman endeavored to get Joyce Carol Oates on board for a documentary. At first, Oates denied his request, opting to keep her life and mind private. But eventually, the beloved American author accepted Björkman’s proposal, which, admittedly, seemed to verge on incessant prying. Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the […]
Posted inFilm
Review: The Mountain
On a whim, Pierre, a robotics engineer played by Thomas Salvador (also a cowriter and director), abandons his comfortable life in Paris. Before traveling to the French Alps for work, he sits sullenly in his modern apartment, deep in thought, sipping an espresso alone. Immediately, we see that Pierre is contemplative, often lost in thought, […]
Posted inFilm
Hello CUFF
The Chicago Underground Film Festival is back, and the longest-running fest devoted to the subculture of movies has quite a variety of attractions.
Posted inFilm
Review: Bottoms
Just gather your nonsqueamish WLW friends and go see Bottoms immediately.
Posted inFilm
Documenting the ‘pure childhood joy’ of baseball
Solutions for violence disruption often fall on the shoulders of politicians and policymakers, but one youth baseball league is tackling the issue through the power of organized sports, as highlighted in an upcoming documentary.
Posted inFilm
Review: The Eternal Memory
In the remarkable documentary The Eternal Memory, director Maite Alberdi brings us one of the most heartfelt renditions of life, love, and memory in recent years of cinema.
Posted inFilm
Review: Fremont
Packaged in unsuspecting monochrome and monotone, Babak Jalali embeds Fremont with a cunning, melancholic charm.
Posted inFilm
Review: Landscape with Invisible Hand
Once you get past the aliens’ appearances, it’s easy to be mesmerized by the film at large, which is a sweeping and heartfelt examination of colonization, voyeurism, capitalism, and humanity.
Posted inFilm
Review: Perpetrator
A girl walking home alone is such a classic beginning for a horror film that it’s a trope (and title) in itself. This particular opening lends itself to endless continuations and explorations, and when you have a director like Jennifer Reeder, an old story can get retold like no other.
Posted inFilm
Review: Red, White & Royal Blue
Those who desire mere fluff will be satisfied, but the reason the book became a sensation in the first place was its real awareness of the risks it took to truly build a better world. This groundbreaking love story deserved better.
Posted inFilm
Solidarity in the summer
As has been the case for most of my adult life, I’ve also watched a lot of movies (and occasionally, some television) this summer. What’s been different this year is that I’m now thinking more about those who made what I’m watching, both in front of and behind the camera.
Posted inFilm
Review: BAM!
There’s a refreshingly casual diversity that ensures BAM! isn’t only a love letter to Chicago, with many landmarks only natives will recognize, but also one of the best examples of what talented artists can achieve when they refuse to take making art itself for granted.
Posted inFilm
Review: Strays
Director Josh Greenbaum and writer Dan Perrault team up for neither of their best work with Strays, a lackluster crude dog comedy whose blessedly short run time is its most redeeming feature.
Posted inFilm
Review: Passages
Passages, New York-based filmmaker Ira Sachs’s tempestuous love-triangle drama, feels like a precious anomaly within the landscape of contemporary American cinema.