Capping off their second year as a recognized awards-voting body, the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, a group which I helped found and participate as a proud member, has announced their nominees for the second annual CIFCC Awards. The 26 voting members completed ballots with the goal of three final nominees in 21 categories. They will commence a final round of voting ending on December 29, 2017 with winners announced on December 30, 2017.
Read MoreThe Post feels like Spielberg painting by numbers, continuing a bit of a downward trend for the filmmaker. This was accomplished because it was easy, didn’t require a rush, and still cost a sizable $50 million, not because a director was shedding trappings to do a rough and raw film. The Post is a highly polished quality story gift-wrapped to Spielberg and completed with a precision that is pleasing and purposeful. It is effective, but not affecting or truly but not truly demanding for a director, ensemble, and creative team of this caliber.
Read MoreMinutes after stepping out of an advance press screening of the most-anticipated movie of the year, Emmanuel Noisette of E-Man's Movie Reviews summoned his recording equipment and a brake-pumping exhale session for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The SPOILER ALERT neon light is on for the two of us breaking down our impressions, reservations, likes, dislikes, hopes, and dreams for this middle chapter of a new trilogy.
Read MoreFor the second time in a month, the hard-working host of the "Kicking the Seat" podcast, Ian Simmons, invited Every Movie Has a Lesson to join the barstool daius for his 100th show of 2017. Fitting for the milestone century number is the central film of the discussion: Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Ian was joined by his regular partner-in-crime David J. Fowlie of Keeping it Reel and Emmanuel Noisette of E-Man's Movie Reviews. The four us go deeply into SPOILERS, so buyer beware.
Read MoreThe brand new Disney/Fox merger looms large in the business of Hollywood. There's a great deal of big ugly implications, but there are some nice developments that come out of it as well. One of those is more Marvel Comics characters coming under the Marvel Studios umbrella at Disney. Suitably, they belong together and the new possibilities of team-ups and crossovers are mouth-watering and eye-popping.
Read MoreThrow out all of the Star Wars fan theories you’ve read or heard in the last two years. Ignore all of the online noise and irresponsible think piece editorials that have piled up on the web since Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Most importantly, relinquish whatever warped and selfish expectations that have been formulated by the blitz of marketing buzz. Star Wars: The Last Jedi takes its mountain of hype and shoves it away to make something nonconformist and wholly compelling in quite possibly the richest and most expressive entry of the storied franchise.
Read MoreFrom Oliver Stone’s epic Wall Street to the hilarious Trading Places and the Scorcese hit The Wolf of Wall Street, the topic of finance has inspired many a classic film. Courtesy of ABCFinance, find a handy infographic of 10 Best Films about Finance below. We’ve also analyzed the books to discover how well each film did at the box office, compared to their monetary budget. In the film world of finance, alongside tales of highs, lows, and even humor, there’s definitely some money to be made!
Read MoreIn a new annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year. Partly taking my film critic hat off and adjusting the collar on my fanboy shirt, these next lists follow my “10 Best” list from 1997 with more categories of distinction and remembrance.
Read MoreDarkest Hour and Gary Oldman exhibit tremendous fight to match the vigor of the era. The film builds its mounting prospects of calamity and clashes of dissension with polish and gumption, avoiding many of the dull notes normally saddling most other behind-the-war-room yak-fest. The screenplay shrewdly skips laborious biographical notes and tautly fixates primarily on the two weeks of debate leading up to Operation Dynamo
Read MoreSoaringly endearing elements of romance enrapture with a heading spoonful of the perverse for good measure. Fantastical triumphs of mortal spirit over evil forces are applied to inhuman oddities with jarringly violent consequences. This is a film of stark peculiarity that challenges your safe zones and clashes with your sense of normalcy for the themes at play. It asks you to relish in an abnormal spectacle that dazzles with vintage style and extraordinary boldness.
Read MoreMartin McDonagh’s new film puts prickly in the pastoral glazing its country charm with absolute acid every chance it gets. Part stern crime drama and part small-town chicanery, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri displays the next level of McDonagh’s talent and potential. Always the sharp storyteller since his roots on the Irish stage, McDonagh’s writing prowess elevates a premise that would fall flat as pure farce in other hands
Read MoreMichael Glover Smith’s words of mounting depth and weight turn idle chatter into soapboxes that eventually become proverbial fortifications built around questioned principles and shattered wills. The ensemble of performers delivers on the required heavy lifting from the director to make the multitude of human flaws believable yet still approachable. Mercury in Retrograde is a hidden gem.
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