In the wake of shows like “Succession,” “Industry,” and “Billions,” it makes sense for the big cable networks to continue mining data for novel ways to explore the absurdity and nihilism of today’s tech-fueled apocalypse. It’s an environment writer Jonathan Glatzer is certainly familiar with, having cut his teeth on “Succession” and “Better Call Saul,”

There comes a moment about halfway through Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz’s “Trapped” where you kind of wish it would end. This is not meant as a criticism, but a natural response when watching the film. Our protagonist, Joaquin (Javier Molina), is forced into a situation that tests his pride and humility, but he just might

With the “Star Wars” galaxy now under the leadership of Lucasfilm president and former animator Dave Filoni, it’s only fitting that his era’s first output is an animated series that he created about a legacy fan-favorite character. That, of course, being Darth Maul, the thorn-riddled, red-and-black former Sith Lord (voiced by Sam Witwer) whose cutting

Jon Hamm’s impressively varied and prolific career outside of “Mad Men” has leaned heavily into roles where he’s enforcing the law, breaking it, or doing both at once. Whether Hamm is playing FBI agents in “The Town,” “Bad Times at the El Royale” and “Richard Jewell,” a police chief in “Maggie Moore(s),” criminals in “Baby

An emotionally autobiographical work in line with the filmmaker’s previous short films, which straddle the world of creative nonfiction, Sophy Romvari’s debut feature film “Blue Heron” mines her family’s own painful history to craft a tender film that expands the potential of what a coming-of-age film can be.  Blurring the lines between the past and

It’s wild to think, going into the fifth season of Apple TV’s lush, sorely underrated science fiction series “For All Mankind,” that Ronald D. Moore‘s alt-history saga began with a simple premise: What if the Russians beat us to the Moon by just a few weeks back in the 1960s? In the seasons since, Moore,

In “Mercy,” Chris Pratt plays a police detective accused of murdering his wife. It takes place in the future, when the judicial system is turned over to an AI “judge” played by Rebecca Ferguson. Until the final third of the film, everything takes place in a cyber-courtroom. He is trapped in a chair and has

I am thrilled to announce that the Inaugural edition of The FECK Awards will be celebrating amazing individuals and/or organizations in Chicago on Saturday, April 4th, who truly embody the principles detailed in my book, It’s Time to Give a FECK: Elevating Humanity Through Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion and Kindness. The FECK Awards are more than a typical

As the effects of late-stage capitalism become not only more pervasive but also irreversible, it’s understandable that the art created will reflect a range of reactions to aspects of our crumbling reality. Whether they’re depicting alternate futures or presenting heightened versions of what we presently experience, it’s encouraging that these films in this dispatch road

A previous dispatch from this year’s SXSW highlighted how so many of the horror films here seem to be almost existential in their questioning who we want to be in the 2020s as technology continues to redefine the human condition. The funny thing is that several of the comedies this year also contain existential foundations