The mystique of Lisbeth Salander—that iconic, proto-feminist hacker turned crusader against the evil that men do—has been mostly sidelined in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, a disappointingly routine action picture that miscalculates by diminishing Salander’s knife-edged persona, her propensity for dispensing grim justice…
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In a society driven by competition with value placed on perfection, what puts someone at the top of the game? Is it genetics? Psychological composition? Nature or nurture? How do these relate to getting the most out of oneself mentally and physically? What quality…
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Ambition gets the best of an off-day Luca Guadagnino in his revisionist Suspiria, a leaden reimagining of Dario Argento’s phantasmagoric 1977 shocker about a witches’ coven at a prestigious German dance academy and the American student who discovers its secret. The story goes that…
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With features formed by a chisel and impeccably droll sophistication, Rupert Everett was, for a sustained run, a quintessential matinee idol whose visage thrust upon a forty-foot screen could remind one what movie stars could accomplish in their pictures, and us. A striking combination of…
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Felix von Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy takes a harrowing look at a family torn apart by meth addiction. Based on a true story—two of them, actually—and acted by a career high Steve Carell and a powerful Timothée Chalamet as father and son David and Nic…
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Last night, the 54th Annual Chicago International Film Festival treated attendees to a studded evening with the production team and cast members from Steve McQueen’s upcoming Widows in attendance for red carpet festivities, a packed house screening and a post-film discussion. Widows, one of…
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The 54th Chicago International Film Festival opening weekend addition of Von Lux, writer-director Brady Corbet’s arresting portrait of an international pop icon in crisis, screened last night as a late festival addition and as great films often go, it divided the crowd into those…
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Ever wonder what it would be like to act in an extreme horror film? Or if the actors are really terrified on set? This year, Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, has done the new slasher pic Hell Fest sweet justice at their…
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