Michael Phillips – Page 145

Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

‘A Quiet Place’ review: Hush, little family, don’t say a word or the monsters will get you

December 14, 2018 at 11:35 a.m.

Director John Krasinski's third feature, and by far his most accomplished, "A Quiet Place" is a pretty crafty small-scale thriller set a few years in the future, with minimal dialogue...

‘Blockers’ review: John Cena, Leslie Mann play parents out to stop a prom night sex pact

December 14, 2018 at 10:15 a.m.

I went into "Blockers" cringing and came out smiling, which says more about me (double standard! They wouldn't treat graduating high school males that way!) than it says about the...

Examining Martin Luther King Jr., in the momentous years after ‘I Have a Dream’

December 14, 2018 at 9:49 a.m.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was human, not a saint, though many insisted on placing him on that dangerous pedestal, and do still, 50 years after his death. As...

‘Jane the Virgin’ actress, Ricardo Darin scheduled for Latino Film Fest

December 14, 2018 at 6:01 p.m.

Being the new student at school is never easy. For 12-year-old Tamara, the focal point of the delicately arresting Chilean drama “Princesita,” it’s an act of persistent concealment — a...

‘Final Portrait’ review: Geoffrey Rush acts a lot, Armie Hammer acts a little

December 14, 2018 at 12:04 p.m.

The artist paints, a little. He sits back, leans forward, scowls, smokes, mutters, swears and flees the canvas and his studio for his favorite bistro. Or instead, he falls into...

‘Ready Player One’ review: In Spielberg’s dystopia, pop culture saves the day

December 17, 2018 at 4:22 p.m.

Of all the frenzied races in Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” the closest one pits the director’s mastery against the material’s banality. By a whisker, Spielberg wins it. If you’re...

‘Isle of Dogs’: Wes Anderson’s desolate canine tale of loyalty

December 14, 2018 at 5:59 p.m.

I write this sentence with a dog staring at me, wondering when I’ll slip her another slice of apple. There are no cats in the house. There never have been....

Christine Lahti attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California.

Christine Lahti: The ‘Chicago Hope’ actress turns the page with new memoir

December 14, 2018 at 5:04 p.m.

Christine Lahti, a formidable, versatile talent across several decades and performance platforms and one of the true acting ringers of her generation, experienced a particular moment of fame destined to...

‘Foxtrot’ review: An Israeli war dance, uniquely unsettling

December 14, 2018 at 5:59 p.m.

Metaphorically the foxtrot is an irresistible dance step. The dancer makes a square, returning to where he or she started, and begins again. It’s a paradox, creating invisible box after...

‘Unsane’ review: ‘The Crown’s’ Claire Foy takes a stroll down Shock Corridor

December 14, 2018 at 5:02 p.m.

No American filmmaker is more in love with mundane American ugliness than Steven Soderbergh. Office cubicle walls of indistinct schmutz tones; the overhead glare of fluorescent lighting; an eerily drab...

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