Michael Phillips – Page 94

"Beauty and the Beast" and "Little Shop of Horrors" lyricist Howard Ashman, the subject of the new documentary "Howard." It premieres Friday on Disney Plus. (Disney Plus via AP)

Review: ‘Howard,’ a valentine to the songwriter who helped Disney get its mojo back

August 5, 2020 at 10:12 a.m.

The Howard in "Howard," streaming on Disney Plus starting Friday, is Howard Ashman. And anyone who had the wit and the cheek to write the lyric "I use antlers in...

Steve James documentary ‘City So Real’ coming to National Geographic channel this fall, with added footage

August 3, 2020 at 12:21 p.m.

"City So Real," the Steve James documentary series about the 2019 Chicago mayoral run-off election, will air sometime before early November on the National Geographic TV channel. The five-part series...

Seth Rogen in a scene from "An American Pickle."

‘American Pickle’ review: Seth Rogen, twice, brings out the sweetness in an immigration fable

August 9, 2020 at 11:22 a.m.

Aside from being the briniest film since the Lower East Side romance "Crossing Delancey" 32 years ago, "An American Pickle" (premiering Thursday on HBO Max) reminds us that Seth Rogen...

Long-lost 1923 silent movie turns up at Chicago Film Archives

August 10, 2020 at 3:38 p.m.

It played in Peoria, and everywhere else. Then, the world's only remaining copy of a 1923 silent melodrama produced by Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle, presumed lost by film historians,...

‘Rebuilding Paradise’ review: a 2018 California wildfire and a long recovery, captured by director Ron Howard

July 31, 2020 at 10:59 a.m.

The overwhelming first 10 minutes of director Ron Howard's California wildfire documentary "Rebuilding Paradise" throws the viewer directly into cellphone, dash-cam and news footage of America's deadliest fire in a...

Composer Kathryn Bostic at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. She'll talk about her work Aug. 12 in a virtual master class co-presented by the Chicago International Film Festival and the Chicago Film Office. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)

Chicago Film Festival to host free Zoom master class with ‘Dear White People’ composer Kathryn Bostic

July 30, 2020 at 9:29 a.m.

The Chicago International Film Festival, scheduled this year for October 14-25 in a form to be determined, features a sidebar event known as "Industry Days." It's open to the public,...

Commentary: ‘Tenet,’ the movie America didn’t deserve to see first, ushers in a nervous new multiplex era

July 31, 2020 at 9:14 a.m.

Waiting for "Tenet" is starting to feel like "Waiting for Godot." It's a rumor, a hope, floating from delay to delay in the middle of the inept U.S. response to...

‘I Used to Go Here’ review: An Illinois story, starring Gillian Jacobs and Jemaine Clement, enjoys a Pilsen sneak preview Wednesday

July 28, 2020 at 11:41 a.m.

Chicago filmmaker Kris Rey's plaintive winning streak of easygoing character studies continues with "I Used to Go Here," about a 35-year-old debut novelist, played by Gillian Jacobs,invited to give a...

Actress Olivia DeHavilland reads a script April 16, 1948.

Olivia de Havilland appreciation: the golden-age Hollywood star who remade the industry

July 27, 2020 at 11:25 a.m.

Olivia de Havilland made her own luck from all the right ingredients: talent, ambition, luminosity, extraordinary longevity. She died Sunday at the age of 104, in Paris, where she lived...

For theatergoers, a #SaveYourCinema campaign to secure federal relief money

July 24, 2020 at 3:17 p.m.

The National Association of Theatre Ownerstrade organization, representing America's 35,000 movie screens in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, is sending three little words to the U.S. Congress: "Save Your...

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