|
4/4
|
67%
|
The Fox (1967) |
"
A quiet, powerful masterpiece."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted May 8, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
29%
|
Hurry Sundown (1967) |
"
Otto Preminger's Hurry Sundown is a frustrating case, not good but not particularly bad, with a smokescreen of controversy surrounding it and obscuring its real faults."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted May 8, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
25%
|
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970) |
"
It succeeds, among other things, in making human entertainment out of a rather unlikely story."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted May 8, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Blancanieves (2013) |
"
It is a full-bodied silent film of the sort that might have been made by the greatest directors of the 1920s, if such details as the kinky sadomasochism of this film's evil stepmother could have been slipped past the censors."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
Rio Bravo (1998) |
"
To watch Rio Bravo is to see a master craftsman at work. The film is seamless. There is not a shot that is wrong. It is uncommonly absorbing, and the 141-minute running time flows past like running water."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Apr 23, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
87%
|
Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay (2013) |
"
He always holds a card you don't see."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Apr 18, 2013
|
|
3.5/4
|
42%
|
To The Wonder (2013) |
"
[Many will] be dissatisfied by a film that would rather evoke than supply. I understand that, and I think Terrence Malick does, too. But here he has attempted to reach more deeply than that: to reach beneath the surface, and find the soul in need."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Apr 10, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
——
|
Warrendale (1967) |
"
It is not "entertaining," but not everyone goes to the movies to be entertained: Sometimes it is enough to see life as it is."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
81%
|
From Up On Poppy Hill (2013) |
"
The artistry is peaceful and comforting to the eyes but not especially stirring. Given the pictorial extremes that Studio Ghibli has gone to in the past, "Up on Poppy Hill" is weak tea."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
9%
|
The Host (2013) |
"
"The Host" is top-heavy with profound, sonorous conversations, all tending to sound like farewells."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
|
58%
|
At Any Price (2013) |
"
This is a brave, layered film that challenges the wisdom of victory at any price."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Mar 26, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
79%
|
Ginger & Rosa (2013) |
"
The film's tone is wonderfully maintained by Dakota Fanning's younger sister Elle as Ginger, convincingly playing 17 at the age of 13."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Mar 21, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
45%
|
On the Road (2012) |
"
Although Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" has been praised as a milestone in American literature, this film version brings into question how much of a story it really offers."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Mar 21, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Journal d'un curé de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest) (1951) |
"
A film like Diary of a Country Priest gathers its strength as it continues. There's always the sense that Bresson knows exactly where he's going and the simplest way to get there."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Mar 5, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
Napoléon (1929) |
"
Napoleon is the last great silent epic. We will not see its like again."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Feb 26, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
70%
|
Bless Me, Ultima (2013) |
"
Carl Franklin's film is true to the tone and spirit of the book. It is patient and in no hurry. It allows a balanced eye for the people in its hero's family who tug him one way and another."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Feb 21, 2013
|
|
3.5/4
|
92%
|
Future Weather (2013) |
"
When a movie shows a couple of bright kids excited about a mussel, it's hard to say no."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Feb 21, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
16%
|
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2013) |
"
A film is a terrible thing to waste."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
3.5/4
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013) |
"
Soderbergh came, he saw, he conquered, and now he's moving on. "
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Feb 7, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
98%
|
56 Up (2013) |
"
We are all older now, and this series proves it in a most deeply moving way."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 31, 2013
|
|
3.5/4
|
37%
|
Stand Up Guys (2013) |
"
Sometimes it's all about the casting."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 31, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
79%
|
Quartet (2013) |
"
It has a good heart. I'll give it that. Maybe what it needs is more exotic marigolds."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 24, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
30%
|
Broken City (2013) |
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 22, 2013
|
|
B+
|
79%
|
A Late Quartet (2012) |
—
Detroit News
Posted Jan 22, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
——
|
The First Time (1969) |
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 22, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
36%
|
LUV (2013) |
"
Here is a film about African Americans that sidesteps all the usual, hopeful cliches and comments on how one failed generation raises another."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 17, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
West of Memphis (2012) |
"
"West of Memphis" is the fourth film about one of the most heinous cases of wrongful conviction in American judicial history. Do we need a fourth film? Yes, I think we do."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 17, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
Old age isn't for sissies, and neither is this film."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 10, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013) |
"
A slam-bang action picture."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Jan 2, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
81%
|
The Impossible (2012) |
"
Here is a searing film of human tragedy."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 20, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
38%
|
Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) |
"
Murray, who has a wider range than we sometimes realize, finds the human core of this FDR and presents it tenderly."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 13, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
87%
|
The Matchmaker (2012) |
"
This is a sweet, bittersweet comedy, well-executed if perhaps a little heavy on anecdotage."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 13, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
4%
|
Playing for Keeps (2012) |
"
A film that's pretty much from the assembly line."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
53%
|
Citadel (2012) |
"
This is a basic story, simply and directly told by Irish writer-director Ciaran Foy."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 6, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
40%
|
New Jerusalem (2012) |
"
An intense study of these two men and their barren work in a shabby store by the side of a highway."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 6, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
88%
|
Starlet (2012) |
"
The film itself deserves praise for its portraits of these two women and the different worlds they inhabit."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 6, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
94%
|
The Central Park Five (2012) |
"
Involves a detailed reconstruction of how the story broke, was developed and was dramatized by lurid tabloid headlines."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 6, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
73%
|
Generation P (2012) |
"
Sort of a cross between "Mad Men" and an acid trip."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Dec 6, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
82%
|
Fat Kid Rules the World (2012) |
"
It's a lot better than it sounds like it has any right to be."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 29, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
68%
|
Wuthering Heights (2012) |
"
Arnold has been successful in reimagining the story's archetypal emotions in the story, bringing it closer to its passionate elements."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 29, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
76%
|
Killing Them Softly (2012) |
"
It seems as if I've been seeing versions of this story since forever."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 29, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
——
|
Scrooge & Marley (2012) |
"
[Delivers] more or less exactly what you'd expect, given the material."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 28, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
The Thief of Bagdad (1940) |
"
This 1940 movie is one of the great entertainments. It lifts up the heart."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 26, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
78%
|
Tales of the Night (2012) |
"
It is so gentle and whimsical that one wonders if American children, accustomed to the whiz-bang action of most animation, will accept it."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
1.5/4
|
13%
|
Red Dawn (2012) |
"
I think I'm beginning to understand why the Chinese were not reckoned to be a prime market for this film."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
74%
|
Rise of the Guardians (2012) |
"
Peter Ramsey and his art team have created a crisp, colorful fantasy world, sharper-edged than many feature-length children's cartoons."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
63%
|
Hitchcock (2012) |
"
Anthony Hopkins, superb actor although he is, would not seem to be an obvious choice to play Hitchcock, but I accepted him. His makeup job is transformative. "
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
88%
|
Life of Pi (2012) |
"
Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
48%
|
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012) |
"
I must admit if you're going to bring the series to a close, "Part 2" does it about as well as it can be done."
—
Chicago Sun-Times
Posted Nov 15, 2012
|
47%
45%
95%
99%
65%
61%
