The Straight Story (1999)
95%
“Sometimes a director’s best film and maybe even their most characteristic, if you really think about it, is the one you might least expect, as can be the surprising nature of auteurism. ” –
Chicago Reader
Apr 25, 2025
Full Review
Pilgrim, Farewell (1982)
“Each time Kate lashes out at those around her is more frustrating and heart-wrenching than the last, the emotional momentum of such a situation careening only toward the inevitable. ” –
Chicago Reader
Apr 25, 2025
Full Review
Grand Tour (2024)
91%
“Gomes doesn’t undercut the romance... instead, he leans into its petulance, allowing the formal ambiguity of the nonnarrative sections to suggest the possibility of another interpretation entirely.” –
Chicago Reader
Apr 14, 2025
Full Review
Black Bag (2025)
96%
“Soderbergh handles ensemble casts well, forming a constellation rather than centering any single person as a lodestar.” –
Chicago Reader
Mar 20, 2025
Full Review
Eephus (2024)
100%
“The game, which goes into long overtime, composes the duration, and not much of note takes place; rather, the significance is the film and the field’s looming cessation.” –
Chicago Reader
Mar 20, 2025
Full Review
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024)
100%
“There’s a quiet conviction to the proceedings, letting the hypocrisy and resultant upheaval speak for themselves, with a bit of humor to highlight and temper the dark absurdity.” –
Chicago Reader
Mar 17, 2025
Full Review
American Sniper (2014)
72%
“I don’t know that it accomplishes the same covert intricacy as some other Eastwood films, but it was interesting to revisit.” –
Chicago Reader
Mar 4, 2025
Full Review
Flow (2024)
97%
“I found the simplicity of its story, about a group of animals in the wake of a great flood (and with no humans around, eliciting a discomfiting, postapocalyptic vibe), to be profoundly moving. ” –
Chicago Reader
Feb 21, 2025
Full Review
Nickel Boys (2024)
91%
“Based on Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel, Ross’s adaptation is a poetical rendering of its subject matter. ” –
Chicago Reader
Feb 13, 2025
Full Review
Love Torn in Dream (2000)
“Love Torn in a Dream is pure, unadulterated nonsense of the extremely fun variety.” –
Chicago Reader
Feb 13, 2025
Full Review
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
97%
“It’s a wild ride, with Cary Grant as a paleontologist, Hepburn as a zany heiress—and a leopard, the baby of the film’s title. Does it necessarily make sense? No. Is it brilliant in spite of that? Indeed.” –
Chicago Reader
Feb 13, 2025
Full Review
Flight Risk (2025)
30%
“The plot and runtime had me hoping it’d be a throwaway of the Edgar G. Ulmer variety, but alas, it’s kind of a mess, made worse by the Mark Wahlberg character’s indiscriminate sadism.” –
Chicago Reader
Feb 13, 2025
Full Review
One of Them Days (2025)
94%
“Keke Palmer and SZA have incredible presences by themselves and out-of-this-world chemistry together.” –
Chicago Reader
Feb 7, 2025
Full Review
The Great Dictator (1940)
92%
“Chaplin’s iconic speech at the end of the film is only too relevant nowadays.” –
Chicago Reader
Feb 7, 2025
Full Review
The Last Letter (2002)
“At just over an hour long, it builds steadily, going through a range of emotions with limited inflection on the part of Samie.” –
Chicago Reader
Feb 7, 2025
Full Review
The Last Showgirl (2024)
83%
“Is it possible to love a film you don’t really like? That’s how I feel about The Last Showgirl. Great story, amazing cast (hopefully the Pamela Anderson renaissance has only just begun), but lackluster direction.” –
Chicago Reader
Jan 16, 2025
Full Review
Hard Truths (2024)
95%
“I’d qualify this as minor Leigh but with major performances; as the antagonistic protagonist Pansy, Marianne Jean-Baptiste (previously acclaimed for her role in Leigh’s 1996 film Secrets & Lies) is hilarious and heartbreaking.” –
Chicago Reader
Jan 16, 2025
Full Review
The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
94%
“It feels at once specific to a certain time—presumably that of its subject, 18th-century Armenian poet Sayat-Nova—but still timeless, either of all time or none with which we’d be familiar.” –
Chicago Reader
Jan 16, 2025
Full Review
Juror #2 (2024)
93%
“In keeping with his late-era films, Eastwood isn’t playing devil’s advocate, but rather a modern-day philosopher, daring to challenge where many look for affirmation. If this is indeed Clint’s last hurrah, it’d be as good as any to end on.” –
Chicago Reader
Nov 11, 2024
Full Review
Jaws (1975)
97%
“Infinitely watchable...” –
Chicago Reader
Oct 24, 2024
Full Review
Hell's Ground (2007)
100%
“Of the new-to-me films, I enjoyed Omar Ali Khan's 2007 Pakistani horror film Zibahkhana.” –
Chicago Reader
Oct 24, 2024
Full Review
Craig's Wife (1936)
100%
“The personal is certainly political, and collaboration is key. ” –
Chicago Reader
Oct 3, 2024
Full Review
Take Off (1972)
“...her most well-known work, which, like Stripper, confronts the male gaze in appropriately impudent ways...” –
Chicago Reader
Oct 3, 2024
Full Review
Megalopolis (2024)
45%
“I liked it—it has what’s missing from contemporary multiplex fare: originality, ambition, mettle. And that’s what I turn to Coppola for.” –
Chicago Reader
Oct 3, 2024
Full Review
A Question of Silence (1982)
92%
“A discrete, high-concept story...” –
Chicago Reader
Sep 4, 2024
Full Review
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