Michael Phillips – Page 116

‘Brian Banks’ review: A young football star, convicted of rape, and his long road to exoneration

August 8, 2019 at 3:54 p.m.

Aldis Hodge is a terrific young actor, straight out of "Straight Outta Compton," "Hidden Figures," the WGN America series "Underground" and soon to appear in, among others, the remake of...

D.A. Pennebaker: 5 films to see by the American champion of cinema verite

August 5, 2019 at 5:05 p.m.

An unassuming master of clear-eyed observance died the other day, at the age of 94. Evanston native D.A. Pennebaker helped propel the documentary film genre into its own future. He...

Black Harvest Film Festival sets a course for the next 25 years

August 1, 2019 at 12:01 p.m.

"I'll be honest. We didn't know where it would go. Or how long it would last." Black Harvest film festival consultant and co-programmer Sergio Mims says of the annual mainstay...

Dwayne Johnson, left, and Jason Statham square up and square off against anyone who comes between them and their franchise in "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw."

‘Hobbs & Shaw’ review: The most violent episode of ‘Family Ties’ imaginable

July 31, 2019 at 1:04 p.m.

I love the full title: "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw." It suggests an English music hall comedy team tucked inside an action franchise. This agreeable, casually vicious double...

‘Luz’ review: When your Catholic schoolgirl crush takes a demonic turn

July 31, 2019 at 6:37 a.m.

A simple, straightforward plot synopsis has a way of misrepresenting any genuinely strange movie. Here's this week's example: the interestingly freaky German feature debut "Luz," about to blow some minds...

‘Tel Aviv on Fire’ review: Playing an Israeli/Palestinian soap opera for laughs

August 11, 2019 at 8:02 p.m.

A determinedly easygoing comedy about the Israeli-Palestinian divide, "Tel Aviv on Fire" gets by on the low-keyed assurance of its cast and its medium-grade amusements. The film takes its title...

‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ review: South of a masterwork, but still Tarantino’s best in years

August 21, 2019 at 7:43 a.m.

For filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, no truer love exists than one man's love for the cinema. In his new film, "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood," the writer-director establishes a...

‘The Killing Floor,’ an unsung Chicago labor story, returns Saturday in a 4k digital edition

July 24, 2019 at 8:50 a.m.

Filmed in Chicago in 1983, 12 years after the demise of the Union Stock Yards, an ambitious independent drama called "The Killing Floor" traveled a long, slippery road to completion....

Monday only at the Music Box: ‘The Florida Project’ in 35MM, intro’d by director Sean Baker

July 22, 2019 at 10:25 a.m.

Sometimes it takes only a year or two to recognize a film for what it was all along: a thing of vibrant, sometimes harsh beauty. In the case of Sean...

Writer/director Lulu Wang, photographed at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Jan. 26, 2019.

‘Farewell’ filmmaker Lulu Wang: Making the right kind of movie out of the right kind of lie

July 19, 2019 at 10:20 a.m.

One April day in 2016, after filmmaker and screenwriter Lulu Wangfinished recording "What You Don't Know," a tangy, memorable first-person account of her grandmother's cancer and her extended family's reunion...

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