In the new drama Hard Miles, Matthew Modine gets his best role in years as a transformative youth counselor guiding a cohort of troubled young men on an audacious 762-mile bicycle trek from Watkins, Colorado to the Grand Canyon—a journey designed to promote healing…
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Alex Garland’s button pushing Civil War offers a vision of the United States as hell, a near-future dystopian hallucination of a country torn by militias and warcraft, marked by third-term presidents, secession-driven military factions, guerrilla citizenry and wearily intrepid journalists documenting its descent. Telling…
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As guided tours of hell go, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s searing New York City paramedics drama Asphalt City is too much yet not enough, an overheated descent into a pitch black abyss lacking connective character tissue to be fully compelling, despite convicted performances by stars Tye…
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In Late Night With the Devil, the found footage genre is resurrected for a clever, economical throwback thriller about cults, possession and a ratings-chasing, would be Johnny Carson in need of a “sweeps week” score to resurrect his failing show. Written and directed by…
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The Amaranthus caudatus, dubbed Love-Lies-Bleeding, is a plant of exotic allure, its cascades of crimson blossoms flourishing rapidly under the summer’s warmth. Yet this fiery spectacle is fleeting upon the arrival of first frost, a reminder of ephemeral beauty that brilliantly blazes before quickly…
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Comedian and writer Julio Torres’ directorial debut Problemista, in which its creator plays an El Salvadoran immigrant in New York City pursuing a labyrinthine American Dream, is a potent social critique cloaked in a fantasia of full flower visual imagination. While there have been…
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Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve’s second installment of Frank Herbert’s landmark sci-fi saga and follow-up to his 2021 introduction Dune, is a bigger, bolder and better movie than its portentous predecessor, featuring gargantuan filmmaking on an “epic” scale and a return to the sort…
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Comedy, as they say, is hard—striking the target just right and knowing when to push a joke or let it speak for itself. If a movie comedy is constantly pushing, chances are the joke isn’t that funny to begin with. Such is Ethan Coen’s…
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The Unseen, a thriller about a young man tormented by supernatural entities and an overachieving father, has as much on its mind about malevolent family dynamics as it does those lurking in the otherworld. In a Chicago-set production from a screenplay by actress-producer Jennifer…
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My first priority after seeing France’s handsome The Taste of Things, a cuisine as art and love saga featuring the double act of a regal Benoit Magimel and Juliette Binoche, was a direct dash brunch at Chicago’s finest French restaurant. In a recipe combining…
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