From the very first episode of HBO’s newest — and most talked-about — prestige series, Westworld, I was convinced of two things. The first thing that went through my head as the closing credits rolled on Ramin Djawadi’s haunting theme music was “I really, really like this show.” The second thing was …
2016, the little year that absolutely could not, is almost over, and with the exception of people for whom it was a raging success — morticians and neo-Nazis, in the main — most of us are eager to see the end of it. Starting out, as all years do, with …
I’ve been thinking a lot about political violence. The election of Donald Trump has brought with it a significant escalation of the rhetoric that he is a dangerous fascist, and that things are about to get serious for Muslims, women, and LGBTQ people, to name a few. And, indeed, this …
As a reminder to my readers, during the 1980s, I penned a column for the New York Times entitled “Life’s Little Construction Worker”, in which I passed on to impressionable subscribers wisdom gathered from my father and his drinking buddies. The column lasted for just over three years, at which point …
As mentioned a few days back, before America was plunged into the depths of fascism and we cared about frivolous thinks like moving pictures, we recently took in a double feature at the Siskel Center of movies billed as “UK noir”. This isn’t entirely deceptive; the excellent Odd Man Out was on the …
Well, good job of it, America. You threw a fit and at the end of it elected a man who’s been a national punchline for four decades. Conservatives so completely swallowed their own venom that they ended up stuck with a nightmare from the id. Liberals fielded a candidate so disliked that …
This past weekend, we headed over to the Siskel Center for a double feature of what they were advertising as a program of British noir. Although both movies had their merits, calling them noir was more than a stretch; that was particularly true in the case of the first, 1963’s These …
This is the last post that I’ll make before America elects a new leader. It’s been a punishing election cycle, even by the degraded standards of our latter republic; the prospect of it being over is a little like finally getting out of prison, but knowing that the warden is …
In this spot, which all three of you have been breathlessly refreshing all throughout the election cycle, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the sportification of politics — the way that people, especially ones with the least to lose from the actual policies being enacted by winning parties, …
You always want to end a film festival with a bang, and Chan-Wook Park’s new epic, The Handmaiden, allowed me to do that at the Chicago International Film Festival both literally and figuratively. Park is a household name amongst American film buffs, almost single-handedly vaulting South Korea to the upper echelon …
The third film I saw at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival was far and away the best — and very likely one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a decade or more. Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea is by turns beautiful, powerful, moving, quiet, angry, and always deeply humane; …
There are a lot of films that bear the signs of having been kicked around a long time before they ever made it to the big screen. This is particularly true with indie films, which struggle to even get completed, let alone distributed; by the time they finally make their …
One of the pleasures of attending a good film festival — and there are many — is that you never know what you’re going to get. You’ll see first-time directors whose work is entirely new, leaving you with nothing to compare it to; you’ll see films that will likely play …
The inexorable march of the Marvel Cinematic Universe* goes on, and its latest manifestation is the Netflix series Luke Cage. Debuting earlier this month, it stars Mike Colter as the black Harlem-based action hero, based on the bruising ’70s comic book creation and brought to life by Cheo Hodari Coker. Luke …
Christopher Guest is a divisive figure in the comedy world. The comedies he makes with his stock company of gifted improvisers — ranging from This is Spinal Tap to For Your Consideration — tend to be loved by critics and fans, but Guest also has a reputation (well-earned, from my personal experience) as a difficult …
