Someone once observed that there is nothing in the world worse than going nowhere in life while no one seems to care. In the inspiring new picture Hard Miles (Blue Fox Entertainment, April 19), the true story of Colorado social worker turned bicycling coach…
Read More“I didn’t say no to anything”: Caleb Landry Jones on Complex DogMan Performance in Luc Besson’s Outrageous Thriller
In Luc Besson’s DogMan (Briarcliff Entertainment, March 29), award-winning actor Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Out of Ebbing Missouri, Get Out, Nitram) takes on an outrageous character in an unpredictable, certain to be cult film. In one of his signature outsider roles, DogMan finds…
Read More“I do see change, and it does make me hopeful”: Shirley Star Christina Jackson on Regina King, Political Idealism and a Love-Fueled Career
In Netflix’s Shirley, Regina King embodies the trailblazing Shirley Chisholm, dramatizing her historic 1972 run for the presidency. King brings to life the legendary congresswoman and advocate for social change, portraying her as an undeterred force in politics with a campaign mantra of being…
Read MoreThe Devil and David Dastmalchian: The Actor on New 70s Supernatural Throwback and Acting as the Art of Propulsion
In Late Night With the Devil, David Dastmalchian delivers a riveting performance as a 70s-era talk show host whose pursuit of television ratings leads to a chilling supernatural confrontation. His live variety hour takes an enjoyably terrifying turn when what appears to be an…
Read MoreOn the Eve of Oscars, 23 of 2023’s Great Performances That No One is Talking About (and should be)
Every year there is too much awards-based emphasis on a mere handful of the “best” movie performances, but here are 23 of the very best 2023 lead and supporting turns you may not have seen, and which were every bit as deserving of awards…
Read MoreWhen Truth Becomes a Matter of Belief: Filmmaker Ilker Çatak on Academic Accusation Suspenser The Teachers’ Lounge
What is the role of objective truth—if any—in a modern moment when reputations and livelihoods can be instantaneously demolished without tangible evidence, and belief in alternative facts has been emboldened? And what are the spoils of idealism against such a rigged court of public…
Read MoreThe Zone of Interest Star Christian Friedel on Nazi Villain and Family Man: “To find and create the normality, or the banality, was an intense challenge”
In Jonathan Glazer’s icily austere The Zone of Interest, German musician and actor Christian Friedel was tasked with a dauntingly antithetical assignment in playing real-life Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss: to convey an architect of doom as a mild-mannered family man. No, these were not…
Read MoreWhile 2023 proved tumultuous for a movie industry grappling with striking actors and writers, the existential threat of A.I. and shrinking box office for once sure-thing blockbusters, it turned out to be a very good year for moviegoers, who were treated to socially observant…
Read MoreAn Ambitious “Costume Plot”: Poor Things Costumer Holly Waddington on Designing for Year’s Most Daring Screen Character
In Yorgos Lanthimos’ brilliant new vision Poor Things, Emma Stone plays a turn-of-the-20th-century Londoner who, through a spectacularly conceived series of events, both dies and is brought back to life by doctor Willem Dafoe, a god complex mad scientist whose unorthodox experiments play like…
Read MoreStony Island at the Gene Siskel Film Center: Filmmaker Andrew Davis to Present Lost 1978 Chicago Musical and First Film, a Making the Band Time Capsule
This Friday, November 17, at the Gene Siskel Film Center (8pm; tickets here), Chicago-born filmmaker and Hollywood director Andrew Davis returns to present his fledgling 1978 film Stony Island—his first as a director, shot on period Chicago’s gritty streets as a guerrilla endeavor of…
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