Erik Childress
Tomatometer-approved critic
Erik Childress got his start as a film critic on the Jonathon Brandmeier show back in 1998 and has been writing for the website, eFilmCritic.com, since 2000 and has contributed to RogerEbert.com, Indiewire, Film Threat and more. Erik was a regular guest with Nick Digilio on Chicago's WGN Radio (720 AM) covering the week's releases on the Midnight Movie Reviews and providing live reports from various film festivals for over two decades. He is currently the weekly Movies & Money correspondent on Business First AM every Thursday morning, a co-host of the Bad Mutha Film Show with Sergio Mims on WHPK (88.5 FM in Chicago) and is the host of his own Movie Madness Podcast on the Now Playing Network. He is the regular box office columnist for Rotten Tomatoes and has been contributing to Magill's Cinema Annual since 2010 (a textbook of movie reviews used in colleges & film schools.) He is currently the Events Director on the board of the Chicago Film Critics Association and is the founder and a producer of the annual Chicago Critics Film Festival that began in 2013.
Back to the Future, JFK, the Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones films, E.T., pretty much anything directed by Steven Spielberg, Aliens, Broadcast News, Die Hard, Flash Gordon (1980) (Hey - I was a kid!)
Elk Grove Village, IL (Chicago)
http://www.efilmcritic.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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We Have a Ghost (2023) |
The setup is fun and David Harbour does well as the mostly silent apparation but when the film quickly turns into a chase picture and road trip, the film loses its touch and stretches itself really thin over two hours. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 27, 2023
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Marlowe (2022) |
Appropriate that the film is based on a modern interpretation of the Raymond Chandler character. While the femme fatales are hard at work and Neeson is fine, so much feels like a copy of a copy and it just never clicks. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 27, 2023
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Your Place or Mine (2023) |
There have been some terrible romcoms over the years but here is a good nominee for one of the worst; a film that actively keeps its stars apart for 95% of the film and cannot sell what makes them friends let alone potential lovers. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 27, 2023
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80 for Brady (2023) |
It is a sad state of affairs when you gather four legendary women with impeccable acting and comedic accolades and the big Oscar clip moment is given to the NFL guy. Oh and the rest of the movie, apart from Sally Field, is dead awful too. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 27, 2023
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birth/rebirth (2023) |
Marin Ireland is a hoot in Laura Moss' creepily effective tale of moral horror that the scariest place to be sometimes is within the wide open boundaries of what a parent will do for their children. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 27, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) |
Quantumania does succeed in two areas. First it establishes Jonathan Majors as a great villainous presence going forward. Second, it manages to suck all the fun out of the Marvel palette cleanser that has been the Ant-Man films. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Magazine Dreams (2023) |
It is tough to watch Jonathan Majors give his all to this as he looks as if he's about to physically explode as much as emotionally at any given moment. Its landing is not as strong as its flight but the turbulence is as darkly funny as it is taxing. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023) |
A lovingly edited portrait using Fox's words, his voice and his image to tell the story of a life well lived - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Fantastic Machine (2023) |
A fascinating, humorous and even frightening look through our obsession with the lens and what we allow it to see and what we ask it to say about who we are and the world it captures by our whims. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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There's Something Wrong with the Children (2023) |
At times feels like an uncredited remake of Here Comes The Devil and though the kids are good and creepy, Zach Gilford is just not up to the task of matching the dread of realizing how far behind he is playing on this one. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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When You Finish Saving the World (2022) |
When you finish with that, save us from the paces of having to spend another moment with any of these characters. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Missing (2023) |
Another clever entry in the you-too-can-be-a-detective-on-the-internet mystery that may cheat itself into a corner but knows just when to drop its reveals and keep us engaged especially with a nice turn from Joaquim de Almeida - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Alice, Darling (2022) |
Anna Kendrick gives one of her very best performances in Mary Nighy's cautious thriller about the control we allow ourselves to be put under in the name of misbegotten comfort and routine. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Sorry About the Demon (2022) |
There's something lovely about Emily Hagins' style of humor that includes of wisp of childlike practicality in the arrested development of her adult characters and her latest bridges that comic horror gateway for all ages. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Kids vs. Aliens (2022) |
An ugly eyesore of a film with unlikable kids vs. boring aliens that is more likely to cause seizures in susceptible viewers rather than any kind of throwback fun. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Only in Theaters (2022) |
The doc ends up reducing the Laemmle's supposed love of cinema down to trivia and offers not a shred of insight into what it was like running the day-to-day operation of an indie film chain and instead feels like a GoFundMe commercial for potential buyers - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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A Man Called Otto (2022) |
A film that gets by thanks to Hanks' unwavering watchability though there's not a beat or a revelation we haven't seen before and taking its biggest emotional cue directly from She's Having a Baby is an annoyingly misguided choice. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Virtually Heroes (2013) |
Apart from a late cameo from Mark Hamill, this is a film whose best joke is used up after about 10 minutes. Which is a shame as it is a fun idea for a joke but probably works best as a short rather than a feature. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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M3GAN (2022) |
There's a real brain operating here amidst the slow burn into technological madness that Housebound director Gerard Johnstone wisely focuses on that keeps the narrative on tilt more than your usual killer doll films - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Candy Land (2022) |
John Swab has crafted an effecting horror film about religious extremism and the hypocrisy of society’s recurring puritanical nature towards sex that is far more disturbing than just the usual visual of a literal knife to the chest. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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Sick (2022) |
On one hand John Hyams has delivered a rousing, efficient slasher film while on the other has a very conflicting screenplay that tries to both sides the behavior during the pandemic and allows the worst of it as a new feather in the cap of the worst of us - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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The Pale Blue Eye (2022) |
Up until the film’s nutty climax and elongated confessional, Scott Cooper’s film is a reminder that Christian Bale always shows up to provide something interesting even when the filmmaking is tedious at best. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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The Old Way (2023) |
Nicolas Cage phones in a performance which is too serious for the rousing shoot-‘em-up western this wants to be at times and not nearly serious enough for the underwritten Unforgiven backstory that slows everything to a crawl. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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The Price We Pay (2022) |
Aside from the final dispatching of one of its villains, there is nothing in here that has not been done miles better in countless Don’t-Stop-At-That-Farmhouse movies. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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The Devil Conspiracy (2022) |
2023 already has a candidate for the most off-the-rails goofball plot of the year which would be a plus in some circles if the film was also not visually ugly and morally unpleasant in its treatment of women. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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The Drop (2022) |
With the exception of Jillian Bell and Joshua Leonard, everyone in the cast looks like an improv group desperately waiting for someone in the audience to set each and every scene for them. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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The Whale (2022) |
Aronofsky has broached similar territory before but terrific performances by Brendan Fraser & Hong Chau reveal this to be a more layered look at the way we treat others and the empathy that often escapes us for even the most inner-flawed of people. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 24, 2022
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White Noise (2022) |
Don Delillo’s voice is the star of this film and has a great partner in Adam Driver who adeptly balances the absurdity without ever losing the original story’s prescient view of pandemic-era behavior. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 24, 2022
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Babylon (2022) |
After a really strong first half, Damien Chazelle’s film reveals its hand as less a serious indictment of the Hollywood dream factory and more of a shallow spin on ‘technology kills actors’ that owes more to the structure of Boogie Nights than its content - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 24, 2022
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Is That Black Enough for You?!? (2022) |
Cinephiles will delight at the deep cuts that Elvis Mitchell examines while the entertaining history lesson of black cinema should open the eyes of casual watchers and have them reaching for a notepad to seek out availability of these titles. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 24, 2022
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Something In The Dirt (2022) |
Benson & Moorhead have been creating some of the most creative, interesting indie sci-fi for years and did not need a pandemic to create another goofy two-hander. But when it came they crafted another lean-in-and-pay-attention, if overlong, mindbender. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) |
We need another Pinocchio the way we need another King Arthur or Robin Hood, but Del Toro crafts something often beautiful that merges a fresh take on mortality with many of the elements we are comfortably numb towards. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Call Me Miss Cleo (2022) |
The chronicle too often has a kitschy jokey approach to it which does not pay dividends when it mostly avoids the tales of those scammed by the Psychic Network, those directly responsible or trying to absolve this woman’s role in it all. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) |
The battles fought by Nan Goldin as a professional artist, a woman and the corporate family represent the architects of the pain inflicted upon her mental and physical health. This is a heartbreaking journey into activism that packs quite the payoff. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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The Son (2022) |
The swing from Father to Son for Zeller is shocking. One went inside the mind for a horrific and sad examination and the other is practically an after-school special with no interest in exploring premature mental instability other than through cliches. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) |
While most of the passively enjoyable first film eludes memory, this sequel packs a solid story that should hold the interest of all ages, terrific new characters, big laughs and the endless joy of Antonio Banderas voicing our now more mortal hero. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) |
Cameron has crafted nothing more than a 3+ hour revenge tale with none of the motivations of the original that is nothing more than a dulling $400 million screensaver and a rehashing of better moments from his career. A waste of our time and his effort. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari (2022) |
Unlike Rory Kennedy’s Boeing doc, this one succeeds purely on a visceral and emotional level rather than an economical attack on what allowed this tragedy to happen. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Violent Night (2022) |
Bad Santa as John McClane may believe it is being a kind of subversive anti-Christmas movie alternative but its best moments involve not violence but our hero rediscovering the joy that the season once provided as its own relief from the world's evils. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 22, 2022
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Empire of Light (2022) |
Sam Mendes’ biggest contribution to the mythos of cinema with his latest will be the countless parody videos that Olivia Colman’s ‘Show me a film’ moment inspires to rival Nicole Kidman’s AMC ad. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 22, 2022
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The Inspection (2022) |
Jeremy Pope does an exemplary job as the stand-in for Elegance Bratton and putting on the brave face through the course of rejection and repression in an otherwise familiarized boot camp tale. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 22, 2022
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One Fine Morning (2022) |
Despite another solid performance from Lea Seydoux and a naturalistic narrative of everyday struggles there is an emotional undercurrent that is never breached by the end of it all. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 21, 2022
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The Eternal Daughter (2022) |
Joanna Hogg and Tilda Swinton smoothly nudge us through a gothic remembrance piece that eases us towards reveals we anticipate and then astonishes us with a reminder how everything in this life can be gone in the blink of an eye or the power of an edit. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 13, 2022
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Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend (2022) |
There are more scenes about the man behind the legend trying to keep his marriage intact than ones about him trying to piece the actual car together. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 12, 2022
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"Sr." (2022) |
It may begin as yet another actor trying to navigate their way to why they are telling this story, but it becomes quite clear that this a story about a father and son reconciling the bridge of failure and success through their own limitations and excesses - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 12, 2022
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
Steven Spielberg has been delighting and inspiring all of us for years with his storytelling. If there is one story he has earned the right to tell it is his, another that shows us how the movies can bring us healing and understanding of others. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 12, 2022
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) |
Rian Johnson has once again elevated the mystery genre with a funnier and even more clever sequel whose takedown of foolishly revered, disruptive billionaires is even more on target now than when it premiered. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 12, 2022
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Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022) |
Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre smartly avoids the trap of turning sex into shock. Instead it allows Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell to transform their relationship into something genuinely romantic and sexy. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 06, 2022
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Devotion (2022) |
J.D. Dillard’s film does a fine job of avoiding the cliches in trying to tell a story of racial progression but feels so concentrated in doing it that it neglects to do the job of generating a real dynamic between its leads. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 06, 2022
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A Wounded Fawn (2022) |
While I could not pass a test on the second half of the film, Travis Stevens and Josh Ruben have just the right touch in drawing us in even while we’re scratching our heads right up to the funniest closing credits sequence in some time. - Movie Madness Podcast
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| Posted Dec 06, 2022
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