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A well-paced espionage drama with surreal touches, The Secret Agent is intriguing and creatively constructed, even if it never fully settles into place. With the Academy Awards for 2025 films airing a few days ago, I had a chance to watch a lot of the nominated films, but not all of them. This movie has…
A darkly funny thriller about a chance encounter that spirals into something more complicated, It Was Just An Accident balances mystery, tension, and surprising emotional weight. When I was at university, our theatre department put on a production of Death And The Maiden. I was on the stage crew at that point, working towards being…
A dazzling fever dream, Moulin Rouge!, about a poor writer who falls in love with a courtesan in France, is full of amazing music, colors, and style. I watched this movie when it first came out in theaters in 2001, but I only saw it that once. Then, when a version of Moulin Rouge! got…
A wonderful and intimate look at the 15-hour vocal recording, Original Cast Album: Company shows you what the actors, orchestra, and creators of the show faced behind-the-scenes. Having been raised on musicals and later becoming a Chicago theatre critic, I have long been a Broadway nerd. I have favorite musicals that I listen to on…
A stylistic Tarantino film about an actor and his stunt double in the 1960s, Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood will make you look at Tinseltown in a whole new way. The first Quentin Tarantino film I ever saw was Pulp Fiction. I watched it in the movie theater and promptly returned for a second…
Filled with theatricality, Blue Moon, about lyricist Lorenz Hart on the night former partner Richard Rodgers opens Oklahoma! with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, is like watching a play in three acts. I was raised on the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein. If The King And I wasn’t playing, Carousel was on. If it was too silent…
A delightful romantic comedy, About Time, about a man with a close-knit family where the ability to time-travel runs in the male genes, has wonderful hidden depths. Have you ever seen a movie poster so many times that you believed that you’d seen the movie? Like one of those stories that you’ve heard someone else…
A thoughtful indie about a man going through a divorce who crashes his son’s bachelor party in Tulum, Ex-Husbands is quirky and deep while remaining extremely likeable. The male midlife crisis is a fairly standard theme in cinema. In most of these cases, said man will shop for some new outfits, pick up a sports…
A lively cinematic take on Charles Dickens’ book, The Personal History Of David Copperfield has a great cast, tons of energy, and is exceptional to look at. When I was a freshman in high school, we read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I remember liking the book, but never returned to reading…
A slow-burning indie about two strangers who spend the day together while trying to collect money from a friend, Or Something covers a range of topics that steadily reel you in. I have a confession to make – I am not a Before Sunrise fan. I am sorry, I offer my apologies to the millions…
A quiet film about one man’s life working on the railroad and creating a family, Train Dreams is soft and poetic with a phenomenal performance by Joel Edgerton. I have been keeping a close eye on Joel Edgerton since he starred in Kinky Boots in 2005. He is a fascinating actor who is able to…
A slow-building thriller about a father who goes on the run with his 9 year old daughter, She Rides Shotgun is a great journey that highlights a beautiful performance by Ana Sophia Heger. I wasn’t familiar with Ana Sophia Heger before this movie. With only six credits to her name (one being toddler Lark in…
