Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli isn’t afraid to push buttons with his work, but he’d also be the first to tell you that it’s always with sincere and hilarious purpose. From his disturbing short films to his 2022 feature, “Sick of Myself,” which features its protagonist mutilating her own body for attention, he often uses the…
Sylvester Stallone has always been known for his physicality, but Thom Zimny’s documentary “Sly” confirms that it was his voice that made him a star. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonActually, as the movie makes clear, there are two voices, intertwined. One is the New York-accented baritone croak that Stallone speaks with, slurred by an accident during delivery that…
Oscar-winning filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry will receive the CICFF Inspire Award at FACETS’ 40th Annual Chicago International Children’s Film Festival’s opening night party held at 6pm tonight, November 3rd, at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark Street. The CICFF, which is the world’s first Oscar-qualifying international festival devoted to children’s films, kicks off today and runs through…
“The future of this country is in our hands.” Look at that glorious big boi chomping his way around Japan! Toho has revealed another new official trailer for Godzilla Minus One (or Godzilla -1.0) to celebrate the Japanese release this week. It’s set to open worldwide in one month. Prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki (Lupin…
We live in a world of abundant beauty and unspeakable horror. We can perceive its myriad features to a certain extent partly because we are permitted to. One of the locales of horror on our sphere is the country of North Korea, ruled over by an authoritarian dictatorship that does not allow its citizenry access…
There are hundreds of recommendations and guides this spooky season for things to watch and even things to do, but what about things to read? The folks over at Titan Books, the kings of the coffee table film art book, have recently released a hefty tome about the making of David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” trilogy…
“So I make this wish… to have something more for us than this!” Disney has unveiled another official trailer for the animated movie Wish, inspired by the classic Disney lyric “when you wish upon a star…” The movie introduces us to 17-year-old Asha, and the King Magnifico, Asha’s pet goat Valentino, and Star, a celestial…
Raven Jackson’s lyrical feature debut “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and has played many festivals since, follows the life of Mack (played at different ages by Charleen McClure, Kaylee Nicole Johnson, and Zainab Jah) as she grows up in rural Mississippi. The…
Matthew Perry never seemed to be comfortable being famous. You could see it early in the run of the show that would make him a household name. Some people take to the spotlight and thrive in it. The heat of that spotlight seemed to fuel the demons inside the “Friends” star, amplifying his addictions in…
“Freelance” is barely a movie. Sure, it’s got a budget ($40 million!), a semblance of a plot, and stars that you’ll recognize, but none of it was developed beyond the bare minimum to get released on VOD and in a few theaters. It is a defiantly lazy work, a project that echoes better films when…
“To me, genius is – you have the idea, and then the courage to execute it.” The funniest man in the world? HBO has revealed the official trailer for the biopic documentary called Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, directed by filmmaker Rob Reiner. This is premiering at AFI Fest in Los Angeles this week, hence…
Criterion announced earlier this year that they were expanding their release pattern to include a monthly trio of titles that aren’t in the actual collection but will be released with similar attention to detail and passion for the form of physical media. Called Janus Contemporaries, they will be recent international and arthouse hits, starting with…
“If my purpose in life is to kill, I think I’ll make some rules.” Hulu has unveiled an official trailer for an Irish crime comedy series called Obituary, created by the Irish writer Ray Lawlor from a small West of Ireland town. It’ll be out to watch streaming in the US this November. Obituary is…
The Chicago Media Project (CMP), the non-profit organization with the stated mission of helping social impact documentaries reach the finish line, will host its largest fundraising event to date, “A Decade of Docs”, on Saturday, October 28th, at Resolution Digital Studios in Chicago. It was in 2013 when CMP co-founders Steve Cohen and Paula Froehle hosted the first-ever documentary…
Pablo Berger’s lightly whimsical 2D animation feature “Robot Dreams” will leave you humming Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “September,” though with a feeling in your stomach not usually associated with the dance-ready tune. That’s one of many features of this dialogue-free tale of a lonely dog and the robot friend he purchases, which explores a complicated idea…
The Chicago International Film Festival wrapped up this weekend, closing out their impressive program with Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” a film that has now been pushed possibly as far as next awards season due to the strike. The buzz around the Windy City was that this year’s program for CIFF was the best in a…
The twenty-something drama “Waiting for the Light to Change” is an impressive debut from director-cowriter Linh Tran. Set in a Michigan lake house during winter, it’s a minimalist youth drama with lakefront atmosphere, a controlled, at times minimalist directorial style, and a cast that approaches the material with disarming naturalism. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect…
From the Chicago International Film Festival press release… Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe Chicago International Film Festival today announced this year’s winning films at North America’s longest-running competitive film festival’s 59th edition, running October 11 – 22, 2023. This year, 46 films competed for Gold and Silver Hugo Awards in categories including International…
“We’re at a wedding, a million miles away from home, who knows what could happen…” Sony Pictures has revealed a teaser trailer for a new romantic comedy called Anyone But You, an original creation from co-writer / director Will Gluck and co-writer Ilana Wolpert (story editor on “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”). We’ve…
In many ways, “The Killer” is exactly what you’d expect from a David Fincher movie centered on a hired assassin: a detail-rich procedural about what a hitman is forced to do as his calculated world implodes. And by telling this story of a deadly perfectionist who repeats phrases like “Forbid Empathy” to keep himself centered,…
Just as we did with Christopher Nolan this summer, we thought we’d use the release of a new film by Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) to look back on the many times that Roger Ebert wrote about the work of this undeniable master filmmaker. Of course, Roger and Martin’s relationship is well-documented, and…