It Ends starts with four friends, Tyler (Mitchell Cole), James (Phinehas Yoon), Fisher (Noah Toth), and Day (Akira Jackson) are on a seemingly late-night cruise. Their GPS has them make a right turn down a dark road. After driving down the road for a bit, they turn around to go back to the main highway, only for them to continue driving on the same road. They soon realize they might be on a never-ending…
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Jay Duplass crafts one of the best Christmas movies in recent years with The Baltimorons, a sweet and uproarious Christmas journey through the heart of Baltimore. Cliff (Michael Strassner), a recently sober former improv comic, is on his way to his girlfriend’s (Olivia Luccardi) parents’ house on Christmas Eve when an accident at the front stoop forces him to take an emergency trip to the dentist. It being Christmas Eve, not many dentists’ offices…
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Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April is one of the toughest filmgoing experiences I have had in a long time. This is a raw, unflinching, and uncompromising look at what women are going through in present-day Georgia. Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili), an OB-GYN and one of the most respected doctors around, faces accusations after a newborn passes away shortly after birth. With her life under a microscope during the investigation, Nina continues to pursue her medical duties, including…
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Billy Wilder’s classic comedy Some Like It Hot recently got a 4K upgrade from the Criterion Collection. One of the most beloved films of all time, this sizzling masterpiece by Billy Wilder set a new standard for Hollywood comedy. After witnessing a mob hit, Chicago musicians Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, in landmark performances) skip town by donning drag and joining an all-female band en route to Miami. The charm of the…
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The Chicago Critics Film Festival returns to the historic Music Box Theater in Chicago for the 12th time to highlight some of the most exciting films making their rounds on the film festival circuit. Once again, the festival showcases an eclectic group of films, from indie sensations to midnight hits to anniversary screenings of beloved favorites. Here are some of the titles I am most excited about at this year’s festival. Film synopsis from IMDb….
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Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a blockbuster that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. It’s a steamy, bloody, gory vampire tale that features lavish sets, stunning costumes and cinematography, strong themes, and is led by one of the best movie stars working today. Set in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1932, Sinners follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both portrayed marvelously by Michael B. Jordan) as they return to their hometown following a stint in…
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A Working Man is a movie whose only purpose is to let moviegoers watch Jason Statham beat the living hell out of dozens of bad people. It doesn’t care about the story, and the characters are forgettable and might as well not have actual names. They would have been better suited with names like Henchmen #1 or Bike Rider #2. The body count is almost uncountable, and the finale is a barrage of bullets,…
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The inciting incident of Alex Scharfman’s Death of a Unicorn is just that, the apparent death of a unicorn. En route to a weekend retreat at his boss’s cabin in the deepest part of the wilderness, Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortego) accidentally hit a unicorn with their car and seemingly put it out of its misery. Instead of leaving it on the road where they hit it, they pack the…
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Arthur Penn’s 1975 neonoir Night Moves was recently added to the Criterion Collection. Arthur Penn’s haunting neonoir reimagines the hard-boiled detective film for the disillusioned, paranoid 1970s. In one of his greatest performances, Gene Hackman oozes world-weary cynicism as a private investigator whose search for an actress’s missing daughter (Melanie Griffith) leads him from the Hollywood Hills to the Florida Keys, where he is pulled into a sordid family drama and a sinister conspiracy he…
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Joan Micklin Silver’s 1988 romantic comedy Crossing Delancey starring Amy Irving was recently added to the Criterion Collection. Joan Micklin Silver’s wonderfully affectionate spin on the romantic comedy infuses the genre with a fresh, personal perspective, following an unmarried Jewish woman’s search for fulfillment in New York City. Happily independent bookstore manager Izzy (a luminous Amy Irving) isn’t looking for love, but she’s forced to reevaluate her desires when she catches the eye of two…
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