Michael Phillips – Page 79

Daniel Kaluuya in a scene from "Judas and the Black Messiah.". The film is nominated for Best Picture, Two Best Supporting Actor nods, Cinematography, Original Song, and Original Screenplay.

Column: 2021 is the year for a different Oscars winner — building on last year’s ‘Parasite’ triumph

March 16, 2021 at 2:10 p.m.

A few minutes before the Academy Awards nominations announcement Monday, the most wonderful sonic memory came rushing back. Suddenly, and again, I heard the sweet delirium of the crowd inside...

I've been rewatching this dramedy that ran for two seasons from 2003 to 2004, and it is as sardonic and easy-to-watch as I remembered. The premise: An apathetic 18-year-old (played by a wonderfully deadpan Ellen Muth) is killed by a piece of airplane equipment falling from the sky — a toilet seat, to be exact — and enters the afterlife equivalent of annoying temp work, helping recently deceased souls leave their bodies to move on to the next realm. She and her small group of "colleagues" (including the marvelous Jasmine Guy) have none of the perks you'd expect: They still more or less have to live on earth, scrambling for housing, but minus any meaningful human connections. Mandy Patinkin plays her boss (of sorts), who calls her "pumpkin" but cuts her zero slack. It might be my favorite (and least-known) show from creator Bryan Fuller, who would later go on to create "Pushing Daisies" and "Hannibal." (Tubi, Amazon Prime, VOD) — Nina Metz

What to watch: Netflix’s ‘Ginny & Georgia’, catch up on ‘Good Girls’ before new season and a ‘Real World’ reunion

March 12, 2021 at 7:00 a.m.

Wondering what to watch this week? Check out our weekly film and TV recommendations. We want to know what you're streaming, too. Click here to share your picks with us....

Vivian Teng, managing director of Cinema/Chicago, stands in the parking lot of the ChiTownMovies outdoor drive-in theater in Pilsen. Like last year, the Chicago International Film Festival may head back to the drive-in this fall for some screenings.

What will it take to lure audiences back to movies and plays? We talked to Chicago theater operators.

March 11, 2021 at 10:30 a.m.

A lot of us really can't wait. We can't wait to get back inside a movie theater. Or a Chicago storefront theater. Or the Cadillac Palace. We miss it. We...

Music Box Theatre General Manager Ryan Oestreich reflects on what it's meant to run a movie theater during the pandemic.

Music Box’s Ryan Oestreich: How to run a movie theater in a pandemic

March 12, 2021 at 9:29 a.m.

Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days before this interview, Music Box Theatre general manager Ryan Oestreich was in the middle of one of the greatest regular occurrences in Chicago: the 70 Millimeter Film Festival,...

Watch this. Eat that: ‘Coming 2 America’ divides audiences, but no one could hate this dessert recommendation

March 11, 2021 at 1:48 p.m.

March 5 Movie: "Coming 2 America" "Coming 2 America" is proving to be roughly as divisive as Trump. Funny! Not funny at all! Sort of funny, sometimes! (I'm in the...

Commentary: Was ‘WandaVision’ worth the wait?

March 5, 2021 at 3:27 p.m.

A few quick thoughts, while I eat my breakfast sandwich of humble pie and crow on multigrain. Half of it, anyway. I'll eat half. As "WandaVision" unfolded week by week,...

Even with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan front and center, little in the trailer of "The Dig" seemed particularly promising, but I gave it a go and it's good. Some of it's true, too: Along the east coast of Britain in 1939, with war clouds looming, self-taught Suffolk archeologist Basil Brown was hired by ailing widow Edith Pretty to discover if anything of value lay beneath the earth mounds on her property. There was indeed, and the remains and artifacts of a sixth-century Anglo-Saxon burial ship stunned the world. Fiennes is Basil; Mulligan is Edith; around the halfway point of director Simon Stone's film, the focus (for better or worse) shifts to others in the orbit of the excavation effort, particularly characters played by Lily James and Johnny Flynn. Based on the 2007 novel by John Preston, "The Dig" freely mixes fact and invention, overloading the crises a bit but generally succeeding. A fair amount of screenwriter Moira Buffini's dialogue plays out as Terrence Malick-styled voiceover, while the camera focuses on the stark beauty of the surroundings, and men and women actually doing the work. The results are trim, well-made and quite moving. So much for my prejudgments. (Netflix) — Michael Phillips

‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ review: Awkwafina elevates Disney fable to a higher realm

March 5, 2021 at 7:00 a.m.

Light on its feet, propelled by fast, witty asides and clean-lined storytelling, "Raya and the Last Dragon" comes from Walt Disney Animation Studios. It isn't so much an original as...

What to watch: Issa Rae’s ‘Insecure’, final season of ‘Homeland’ and John Oliver’s talk show

March 7, 2021 at 12:26 p.m.

Wondering what to watch this week? Check out our weekly film and TV recommendations. We want to know what you're streaming, too. Click here to share your picks with us....

‘Coming 2 America’ review: Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, back to Zamunda for some nostalgic movie tourism

March 10, 2021 at 11:48 a.m.

The 33-years-later sequel "Coming 2 America" starts poorly but gets funnier and more likable as it goes, and it's stolen by a newcomer to this particular nostalgia tour: Wesley Snipes,...

Can AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron ensure a future for the world’s largest movie theater chain?

March 4, 2021 at 12:00 p.m.

Here are two scenarios for you to imagine. One: Decades from now, in a multitude of languages, billions around the world will still be saying "How 'bout a movie? Let's...

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