Each year, usually sometime around Mother’s Day weekend, Hollywood churns out a well-meaning if bland offering specifically designed for older audiences. Rising above the comfortable charm of the basic retiree fare, director Zara Hayes’s Poms uses feel-good clichés as a…
The Biggest Little Farm Movie Review: A Celebratory tale of back-to-nature triumph
When John and Molly Chester fled the big city with the impulsive dream of creating a self-sustaining farm, they knew they were taking on an immense task, but nothing could prepare them for the practical ins and outs of chasing…
Movie Review: Long Shot sells its odd-couple romance
More so than most genres, romantic comedies demand that their audience check their preconceived notions of sensibility at the door, instead adopting a wide-eyed innocence in the face of true love. For Jonathan Levine (director of such underappreciated gems as…
Movie Review: The White Crow struggles to be as groundbreaking as its hero
The White Crow, Ralph Fiennes’s ambitious biopic of ballet legend and political dissident Rudolf Nureyev, opens with a title card describing its titular Russian idiom as someone who is “unusual, extraordinary [and] not like others.” The famed dancer, remembered just…
Album Review: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – “Fishing for Fishies”
There’s an idiomatic quotation, often attributed to Mark Twain in various forms, that’s something to the tune of “If you don’t like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.” Well, the same can be said about…
Interview: Penny Lane, director of ‘Hail Satan?’
With her curious mind and sharp wit, Penny Lane has made a name for herself in documentary filmmaking with critically acclaimed films such as Nuts! and Our Nixon. Her latest feature, Hail Satan?, is a humorous and stirring portrait of…
2019 Doc10 Film Festival Roundup
Once again, the DOC10 Film Festival brought ten of the year’s most buzzworthy documentaries to Chicago’s Davis Theater over the weekend. Now in its fourth year, the brainchild of the Chicago Media Project continues to ushe in guests from all…
