No matter how dragged-out Oscar season can seem, I’m a fan of this time of year—mostly because the focus is on the quality of films, not how much they make at the box office. But there is one aspect of these months of build-up that can be really wearying: Once the Academy Award nominations are

As he sits on the throne as the King of the Streaming Era, writer/director Taylor Sheridan has sometimes been accused of being pretentious and even misogynistic. Whatever criticisms can be levied at his output, he is arguably the creator who has most earned the right to his pretensions today. He is more of an industry

In a time of great international anxiety, the television ground seems fertile for a bit of soapy escapism. Enter NBC’s highly-promoted “Grosse Pointe Garden Society,” which may not exactly wither and die, but struggles to grow in its four episodes sent to press, lacking in most of the key departments needed to make a network

Before we’re introduced to the characters and concept of Hulu’s new series “A Thousand Blows,” we’re told that “The following is inspired by real characters who lived and fought together in London’s East End.” These characters, despite the slight differences between them, all harbour a darkness within them, ranging from childhood traumas to the murder

After nearly two years, Showtime’s hit series “Yellowjackets” is finally back for its third season. Though Season 1 was critically acclaimed, the second suffered from an unraveling narrative that oftentimes felt too chaotic for the grounded show this once was. (A classic example of a bloated sophomore season that didn’t understand that the languid pace

As disorienting as it is delightful, Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language” takes its avant-garde filmmaker’s irreverent approach to history—previously on display in “The Twentieth Century,” his ersatz reinterpretation of former Canadian prime minister William Mackenzie King’s rise to power—in feverishly fresh, surprising directions.  Imagining a surreal interzone between Tehran and Winnipeg where the official languages are

Excess is sorely needed in today’s cultural landscape. Maximalism in American cinema today is often regulated to a muted kind of spectacle, rendered in ugly computer-generated action sequences and amorphous color palettes that soften the impact of blockbuster films. There is a distinct absence of the kind of work Joel Schumacher mastered and brought to

I was watching a documentary the other night—I’m not going to say which one here, because it was good and intelligent overall, and the filmmakers might be reading this—and got annoyed immediately because it was steeped in the same storytelling cliches as so many other documentaries made nowadays.  It started with a sort of compressed,

There are problems with “A Muerte” / “Love You to Death,” Apple TV+’s new Spanish series. For one, the pilot is frustratingly slow, lacking future episodes’ heart, charm, and action. It’s all set up and done in such a perfunctory (aka boring) way that I imagine many viewers won’t get past it.  Particularly because we

CHAMPAIGN, IL (February 3, 2025) — Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, also known as Ebertfest, announced today the addition of three new films to this year’s festival: 40th Anniversary Screening of Susan Seidelman’s DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN starring Rosanna Arquette, Aidan Quinn, and Madonna Azazel Jacobs’ HIS THREE DAUGHTERS starring Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen