Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars doesn’t feel like a complete movie. Yes, it has actors, production value, and visual effects, and there was a script for the film, but there is no connective story or depth. It just felt like a lot of scenes placed together in an order that is digestible for an audience. It deals with a lot of heavy subjects and has characters who could have been interesting, but it’s like…
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Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning documentary Harlan County, USA has gotten a 4K upgrade from the Criterion Collection. Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. With a haunting soundtrack—featuring legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, David Morris, Sarah Ogan Gunning, and Florence Reece—the film is a heartbreaking record…
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Ice Cream Man was self-financed by the film’s director, Eli Roth. Following his last film, Borderlands, a certified flop in every regard, Roth wanted to do away with the studio system and executive oversight and make a film without anyone giving him any notes. He also chose to release Ice Cream Man unrated, giving himself free rein over the blood, gore, and chaos of his newest splatter-horror film. While Roth isn’t the first…
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The FAN EXPO Chicago is the ultimate go-to event for sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming in Chicago. Formerly known as Wizard World Chicago, this three-day event is a haven for fans of pop culture, comics, filmmaking, and art. This year’s Chicago FAN EXPO takes place from Friday, August 14th, through Sunday, August 16th, at the Donald E. Stephenson Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. Here are some of the exciting things taking place at the 2026…
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the 38th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a spectacular movie and one of the best post-Avengers: Endgame MCU movies. It perfectly balances spectacle and character, resulting in a film that is exciting and emotional. It is the best Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movie, and the best live-action Spider-Man movie since the Sam Raimi films of the 2000s. Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks up after the events of Spider-Man:…
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Christopher Nolan has crafted the definitive cinematic version of Homer’s The Odyssey. While the competition isn’t exactly tough – besides the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, other adaptations of The Odyssey have largely been television miniseries – I don’t think there is a filmmaker today, or maybe ever, who could have brought the scale and scope of The Odyssey to the big screen other than Nolan. He understands the grand nature of Homer’s…
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Stanley Donen’s 1963 romantic mystery Charade got a 4K upgrade from the Criterion Collection. In this comedic thriller, a trio of crooks relentlessly pursue a young American, played by Audrey Hepburn in gorgeous Givenchy, through Paris in an attempt to recover the fortune her dead husband stole from them. The only person she can trust is Cary Grant’s suave, mysterious stranger. Director Stanley Donen goes deliciously dark for Charade, a glittering emblem of 1960s style and macabre…
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We are halfway through 2026, which means it is time to look at the best movies of 2025 so far. I have seen 73 new releases so far this year (113 total, including film festival movies and movies that will be released later this year). Last year at this time, I said 2025 was a “mixed year for movies”, and 2025 ended up being a spectacular year for movies. 2026 has been different, and in…
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The Toy Story franchise has always been about one thing: the toys. The franchise, which was started over thirty years ago and is now on its fifth installment, has always found Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, and the whole gang on some adventure to ultimately get back to their owner, Andy, in the first three films, or Bonnie in the last two. Whether it was being held hostage by a psychotic toy-torturer…
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Steven Spielberg’s last film, the magnificent and emotionally devastating The Fablemans, was Spielberg at his most personal, pulling back the curtain on his past and dissecting his own emotions during his childhood and his parents’ divorce. It is the most personal film in his filmography, and a side of Spielberg we had never seen before. With Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day, Spielberg returns to the form that people most know him for with a big-budget…
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